UPDATE 5: thedigitalpicture is reporting that Canon USA will not stop shipment of the EOS 5D Mark III. No sources are named.

UPDATE 4: This was posted in the clubsnap forum and then reported by canonrumors, apparently the answer of Canon Singapore to a concerned customer: With reference to your question on whether Canon Singapore will recall the EOS 5D MK III due to the light leak issue, we wish to inform you that we will not. However we will contact you later this month to rectify this issue. Please leave us your contact number for our Service team to contact you.

UPDATE 3: Things are getting worse. Canon France, asked by focus-numerique (Google translated), says that: Canon states that all cases seem to be unaffected and that ultimately the problem is marginal. For now, the 5D Mark III deliveries are slowed in France in order to check current inventory. The distribution is expected to resume a normal pace in the month of May.

UPDATE 2: Adorama, [shoplink 2431]Amazon[/shoplink] and B&H all have the [shoplink 2431 ebay]EOS 5D Mark III[/shoplink] out of stock and available only for pre-order. Don’t know if this is related to the supposed hardware problems of the Mark III, but at least it is a strange coincidence. Quoting Adorama: This item is currently out of stock and on backorder. Please note: You can order this now and have us ship it as soon as it arrives. We will not charge your card for any backordered items, until it is ready to actually ship.

UPDATE: Changed the title since techradar is reporting: Canon UK has said that shipping of the 5D Mark III has temporarily stopped while it investigates problems with the top LCD causing exposure issues. Following techradar, the Canon UK spokesperson could not say when shipping will resume.

The latest I heard about the 5D Mark III says that new batches that are shipped have a thicker top LCD panel cover that looks a little different than the one mounted on previous batches. Don’t know if it has to do with the light-leaking issue that has been observed on some 5D Mark III bodies, or if it has something to do with the rumored recall/stock delaying of the Mark III.

This is the main question that’s raising among new 5D Mark III owners – together with the question if you should cancel your pre-orders. The answer is: no!

First, the light-leaking issue we reported about is nothing that you should be really worried about. It’s not influencing your pics in a way that could make them useless – not in a real-world setting (i.e. >90% of what you will do with a camera). It only, if ever, shows up in extreme settings, like night shots. It’s annoying, that’s true, but if it should be a real issue Canon will react accordingly. But then: you are not shooting with a mounted lens-cap, right? :-)

Second, don’t get scared by the rumors saying that Canon is recalling the 5D Mark III. It is just a rumor, and we need some official announcement by Canon before taking for granted that there is some real and limiting problem with the 5D Mark III. Canon recalled the 1D Mark III (I am not sure about the exact model) body in the past, and it wasn’t too much annoying for customers. If Canon decides that the 5D Mark III has a serious hardware problem, it will not left its customers out in the rain.

The 5D Mark III is an amazing camera and I have lots of reports of users who are more than satisfied by its performance (the AF is simply outstanding, and ISO performance is great too – not to mention the video-capabilities). More in one of the next posts.

EOS 5D Mark III price check (click on shop name): [shopcountry 2431]

For a list of shops that have the 5D Mark III in stock click here.

See the latest 5D Mark III pics uploaded to Flickr (click here).

Have a nice day, or night – wherever you are.

:-)

This is breaking news in this very moment.

Rumors that Canon will stop delivery of the 5D Mark III to retailers are going around, and getting louder by the minute. canonrumors broke the news and I also heard something about it from customers but did not yet have any confirmation by retailers. There is no official announcement so far. I don’t think that a firmware update could be the cause, since it could easily be applied as an update at any moment. The only plausible motivation for a recall would be a serious hardware problem.

But then this is just a rumor, nothing more. Hence, let’s wait for an official announcement.