Whew, a tough assignment, camera dealers here in Phoenix, AZ might land one or two a month and probably wouldn't be aware of a recall "if" the repair or corrective action is performed in one of the two repair facilities in the US (as versus rework performed by factory personnel overseas). Keep in mind any corrective action "today" could be nothing more than an extra step of testing for the problem; this approach would keep the distribution ship above water until the "real" fix is broken into production two or three months from now.
For a very large retailer, I can imagine that they simply have an easy way of dealing with a whole block of the headaches in one go. That would suggest that they are doing a patchwork approach: pulling back on cameras sent out from the factory and oing the fix as well as getting back large orders that missed that process. The small digit orders they probably on't do, just hope for the best. Still this is not fact, just my conjecture if it is true that a block of 60 cameras was pulled back.
This is such an important report. We'd need something from a major retialer to substantiate this report.
Asher, are you sitting on the sidelines waiting for a "real" positive turn of events before you pull out the wallet? The m3's IQ is SO good the temptation to test my luck and "just go for it" is strong but my common sense tells me to wait another five months (initially my wait period was six months but one month has already gone by). This "sitting back and watching grass grow" is not my usual thing and the situation is very aggravating to me.
Joseph,
First-user photographers are really beta-2 testers! These 1DIII Canon cameras have been around for about 18 months before release and used, in various adaptive incarnations, by photographers that are key to and trusted by the MFR. That way, over many months, they seek to iron out the problems. At the same time, new technology in the pipelines is becoming mature enough go use, like going from 12BIT to 14 BIT. They delay the camera, as long as possible, to get the most advanced reliable camera into that market segment.
With Canon in particular, they are so well organized production-wise that they can design and produce a camera version in 3 months from scratch, if they wish. So prior to release, they are able to get a lot of issues corrected. However, the permutations are immense. Each time a new part, technology or algorithm is introduced there are many known and and expected consequence to be dealt with.
It is to me, not surprising that there would be issues with sports if the
latest versions of the 1DII had been tested by portrait and glamor photographers, for example. Even sports or bird photographers have different ways of shooting, so this, in itself, will skew the design and software in the engineers' final work.
So I always try to hold back.
I have done so with the medium format-quality Leica DMR digital back for the R8 and R9 Leica 35mm film cameras and then it was discontinued. Still, the DMR is a superior platform for imaging if one is lucky enough to have one!
When the Leica came out with a the dream of Leica rangefinder affecionados, the Leica M8 rangefinder camera, this was an unbelievably happy time.
I was going to grab one of those cameras for the small size, superb wide and normal lenses and extra 1.5 stops of dynamic range. However, within 2 weeks the flood of issues on the green blobs (now solved), lines (now solved) and purple clothes (where black synthetic fabrics were used, now solved with IR filter and new RAW software profiles). The camera is still a marvel!
I really am impressed with the 1DIII and would have jumped in earlier but for my very competent 1D mark II. Another month and we'll know more.
At least Leica openly announced recognition of the claimed problems and what they were going to do.
Asher