EOS 5D Mark III light-leak issue UPDATE

The issue that EOS 5D Mark III bodies seem to have with light leaking from the top LCD-panel is getting in a new round. Ron Risman at cameratown did some extensive testing to trace down the problem and provides test shots to illustrate the issue. The bad news: the light leak on the 5D Mark III goes beyond the LCD panel (says Risman):

What I discovered today is that the Canon EOS 5D Mark III will give you a totally different exposure reading just by pulling your eye away from the viewfinder under normal indoor lighting conditions. We’re not talking sunlight […]. With normal room light, turning on the LCD’s backlight does not effect the metering like it did when I had most of the lights turned off – yet regular ambient light getting in through the viewfinder was enough to fool the camera’s metering system, which changed the exposure setting.

So, to all those hate-mail writers that are aggressively telling me that this is not a problem: it is, indeed, a problem. At least it is in certain settings (like night shots) where you have to use the LCD-backlight to see what you are doing. But then, you should also be aware that this issue seems to affect only a small number of 5D Mark III bodies, and most of the times it only shows up if the light getting through the LCD panel is brighter than the ambient light. Risman published a batch of comparative sample pics that show clearly a 2/3rd stop difference (usually). Read the article clicking here.

EOS 5D Mark III price check (click on shop name): B&H Photo, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA

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).