ERROR 99 UPDATE

After July 3rd’s ERR99 incident, I tested the 1Ds Mark III on Saturday and Sunday. Both days, still ER99’s. Monday morning I called Canon and arranged to send the Canon 1Ds Mark III to Irvine for service. During the call with Canon, here are several interesting observations -

1. •The customer service representative (Randy) asked for the Canon 1Ds Mark III’s serial number and then said, “Yes, your 1Ds Mark III is the range of affected cameras.” Evidently there is a known range of serial numbers.
   

2. •Randy asked if this was the first time the 1Ds Mark III had been sent in for ERR99. I said the 1Ds Mark III had been sent in for outer auto-focus point adjustment, but not for ERR99 (to the best of my knowledge). Randy could not see the May 2009 servicing in his system? There is no repair history attached to a camera’s serial number?
   

3. For more information regarding the the Canon 1Ds Mark III outer auto-focus points service advisory, click here for Canon’s explanation.
   

4. •During the weekend I registered the 1Ds Mark III via the Canon website. Randy pulled up my information when he entered the Canon 1Ds Mark III’s serial number. If you need to register your Canon dSLR with Canon, here is the URL to do so.
   

After the telephone call Canon sent a couple emails - one with shipping instructions and a short form to complete regarding the problem. The second email was a link to a prepaid UPS shipping label. The shipping label was for ground service. From what I read on the forums, people talked about 2-day and next-day shipping. I expected something faster than ground, but UPS ground from Dallas to Los Angeles is only 3 days.

MEANWHILE THE LEICA M8 GETS A CALL TO DUTY

Monday night was close to a full moon and the skies were clear. The moonlight was very bright and illuminated the foyer. While watching TV around 1:00 AM the light in the foyer dimmed as is if something large flew over the house and blocked out the moonlight. I thought maybe some thunderstorms were developing. I looked out the window and there were dark clouds overhead with an orange glow. The orange glow was pulsing - and we do NOT get thunderstorms like that!

I realized the clouds were actually billowing smoke; something was on fire and it was very close. I did not hear any sirens, so I grabbed the car keys and drove towards the glow. About one block away the rear half of a large house was engulfed in flames. Wind was fanning the flames and the crackling sound of burning wood filled the air. As I pulled closer, fire trucks and police cars began to fill the streets. An EMT unit was already on scene, but nobody was being treated. The house was being remodeled, and fortunately nobody was home when the fire started.

There was nothing for me to do, so I went back home to get the camera.  It took about 3 minutes to get back home, park the car, get the camera and walk back out the front door. By the time I walked out the door to go back, police had blocked the streets. It was about a 2-3 minute walk about the fire, so I was back “on scene” within 5 or 6 minutes. Within that 5 or 6 minute time frame ~5 police cars were on site along with ~10 fire and emergency vehicles.

THE 50MM SUMMILUX-M ASPH

The 50mm Summilux-M was mounted on the Leica M8, so a moderate working distance was needed in order to frame the house, fireman, etc. Keeping a distance was probably best because the authorities would have stopped me from getting too close; however, some wide-angle images at varying angles would have been more interesting.

Every picture was taken at F1.4, ISO 640 and with shutter speeds ranging from 1/10 to 1/125. Focusing the Leica M8 was very easy because there were plenty of contrasty objects. Out of 25 images there was not a single OOF. At ISO 640 the noise is a bit high for my taste and as ISO goes up, dynamic range goes down. On the other hand the Leica M8 got the job done - and quite nicely. I was able to move about crowd without any one paying any particular attention to me or the camera. There were numerous flare type spots due to the emergency lights, I am pretty sure the IR filters contribute to all the flare. I need to sell the M8 to pay for the Canon 1Ds Mark III, but the M8 keeps doing a good job and proving its worth.