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[wpramazon asin=”B007FGYZFI” keyword=”Canon”]
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J. Howell
A home run for the 5D series, finally!,
I didn’t rush to make a review of this camera, as I wanted to really put it through it’s paces first. I won’t try to list every feature or go over every bullet point (the above description does a fine job), but instead try to go over a few things which make a big difference to me as a 5D Mark II owner. For some background, I bought an original 5D in 2007, a 5DII in 2008 and have been working with these bodies ever since then. I also have experience with all of the Canon 1-series up through the 1DIII and 1DsIII. I currently log about 60,000 photos per year with the 5D Mark IIs as a professional wedding and portrait photographer. I shoot almost exclusively with fast L prime lenses in my work.
So after a week of solid shooting with the camera, here are the areas which are of note relative to previous 5D bodies:
**AUTOFOCUS**
AF is the elephant in the room here so I’ll address it first. Good news, we now have a focusing system worth of it’s price point. The AF system here is identical to that in the 1Dx and is THE most sophisticated AF system EVER put in any Canon body. It is superior to that in the 1DV and all bodies before it.
I have tested the AF point in servo and one shot mode with my fastest lenses. Speed, accuracy, and consistency have been exceptional and better than anything I have used before. AF gets the job done with zero drama. NO focus jitter, NO frontfocus, NO backfocus, nothing but near-instant, dead accurate focusing with all of my lenses. Even with my Sigma 85/1.4 (which gives my 5DII bodies absolute fits) is 100% accurate with no jitter on the 5DIII. Center AF point and all peripheral AF points are all usable with fast primes. With the 5DII you just use the center AF point and hope for the best (with often mixed results). You could forget using the outer AF points with fast lenses on previous 5D bodies. That has all changed now.
Just to see how far I could push it, I took my most difficult to focus lens (24/1.4 II), put it on the 5DIII, and tried to focus on my black lab in my dimly lit apartment. At a distance of about 2 feet I would able to lock focus on the dog’s eye with the far left AF point at F1.4, 1/40, ISO4000. Think about that. I was able to focus on a black eye on a black dog in a dimly lit apartment at F1.4. The 5DII would have hunted all day long trying to do this, even with it’s center AF point.
I could sit here and write a book on how happy this performance makes me. For what I do, if this were the only upgrade from the 5D Mark II, it alone would be worth of the $3500 price tag. That said, there is more…
**BUILD QUALITY**
It’s hard to put my finger on exactly what changed, but the 5DIII just feels more substantial. It feels like a chopped down 1-series instead of a buffed up 10 series. The contour of the body has changed to fit your hand better. The rubber is also a new compound which is much grippier than before. The 5DIII feels much better to hold and use than the previous 5D bodies.
**SCREEN**
I wasn’t expecting a big improvement here, but the screen is drop dead gorgeous. The height is about the same, but it’s wider than that in the 5DII and fits the aspect of horizontal images perfectly now. The screen itself has better coatings which allow you to see it easier outside. The contrast, viewing angle, color, and saturation have all improved noticeably. It has a very similar look to a high end smartphone screen. This is a substantial upgrade from the 5DII’s screen.
**IMAGE QUALITY**
Image quality is better than the 5DII, but not substantially so. Let me explain.
The 5DIII now natively amplifies the sensor data to ISO 25,600 whereas the 5DII only natively went to ISO 6400. This means that for anything higher than ISO 6400, the 5DIII is better. In RAW you are looking at an improvement of about 1/2 to 3/4 of a stop at high ISO. At lower ISOs, the noise level is about the same.
JPEG quality has improved much more though. The JPEG engine in this camera is staggeringly good and a solid 2 stops better at controlling noise at high ISO than the 5DII. It strikes the best balance of detail and noise control of any camera on the market right now. Note though that default NR in JPEG mode is fairly strong and that you will generally attain a better “look” from your files with the “low” NR setting.
As an aside, the nasty cross-hatch banding present in the deep shadows of 5DII files is now gone with the Mark III. There is still mild vertical banding, but it’s similar to the original 5D and only visible when pushed heavily (3 or more stops).
**METERING**
I don’t have any hard data on this, but I’m fully convinced the metering of the 5DIII is better than that of the 5DII. I find myself correcting with exposure compensation MUCH less now with the new body than with the mark II. Shooting with the…
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|David Siegfried
Should you upgrade? Photo and video shooters, read and decide!,
I was able to pre-order and the Canon 5D Mark III arrived on March 29th. I had mixed feelings when the press release first came out with the specs on the new Mark III. Several features that were high on my wish list didn’t make it into the camera, but when I started seeing some of the image samples, particularly in low light, I knew I wanted it anyway.
I’m currently an owner of the 5D Mk II and the 60D and my expectations were that the Mk III would inherit many of the superior handling features of the newer 60D. I am an enthusiast and not a professional photographer but I do make my living shooting product photography for online sales. For pleasure I shoot nature, architecture, and the occasional portraits. I’m also an avid fan of DSLR video and the fact that these cameras can literally capture Hollywood quality footage with few modifications is a big deal to me and a lot of people in the independent cinematography community.
The much anticipated release of the 5D Mark III was a bit of a letdown to me initially. One of the things I LOVE about the 60D is the articulating screen. The articulating screen is so handy to have and a joy to use in situations where the camera needs to be at an odd angle, such as low to the ground, high above your head or in tight quarters. The other indispensable use for the articulating screen is shooting self-portraits and videos of yourself. As a one-man act, you can’t shoot a video and also be in it at the same time if you can’t see the screen! So I really couldn’t believe it when Canon came out with the specs on the Mark III — and NO articulating screen!? It’s a feature that has been in the lower-grade 60D and T3i for over a year and a half already, and here we’re paying three times the price of the 60D we don’t get it? COME ON, Canon!
Canon’s reason for not including an articulating screen to preserve weatherproofing. To remedy this I’m getting the Swivi 5.6″ HDMI LCD Screen which is a giant 5″ articulating LCD screen that even has FOCUS PEAKING (really cool). I guess I’m making lemonade out of the lemons in this situation. Another feature that didn’t make it into this camera that has all the cinematographers grumbling is there is no clean HDMI output which would allow the uncompressed video footage to be captured on an external recorder. This feature would have made this a true high-end movie making machine to rival the $30,000 RED ONE and knock the socks off the Panasonic GH2 and even the AF100. For myself, not a deal breaker… but the Nikon D800 has this. [UPDATE: The latest Canon Firmware Update 1.2.3 has enabled clean HDMI output, but it’s a disappointment. The uncompressed footage is still hampered by an internal processing system that delivers soft footage.]
Probably the most vexing thing that did not make it onto my wish list is the elimination of the rolling shutter problem. It has been reduced a little, but it has by no means been eliminated, so the jello effect remains an issue and impossible to completely remove in post. And so far, there has been NO program that has been able to eliminate it entirely without creating additional artifacts (believe me, I’ve wasted untold hours trying them all). Rolling shutter has only been reduced by 20% or so and I won’t be fully satisfied shooting video until we get the global shutter and eliminate this unprofessional looking artifact altogether.
Continuous autofocus during video? It’s not even an option. The Panasonic GH1/GH2 have it, and do it well. And now the Nikon D800 can auto focus continuously during video recording too, and includes face detection to keep subjects in focus. The only option for autofocus with this camera whole shooting video is still the old way: press the AF-ON button, and you’ll set a clunky, noisy, re-focus point. So don’t think about replacing your camcorder yet. Shooting video with this camera remains a manual focus affair best handled with a rig and follow-focus setup… classically handled as a two-man operation.
Those are my three primary disappointments. Now the fun part: all the great things (and more) that DID make it into my wish list:
1. Live View focusing with half depress of shutter button. The Mk II had a really awkward way of focusing while in Live View mode. You had to depress the separate AF button on the BACK of the camera, then hold absolutely still while you moved your finger back to the shutter button, and then take the shot. The Mk III acts just like the 60D in that you half press the shutter to focus, just as it SHOULD, which is to say exactly like shooting with a viewfinder. And you no longer have to go into the menu and set Live View to Stills-Only in order to get Exposure Simulation: The Mark III has a handy dedicated movie/stills mode switch…
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|Coronet Blue
4.8 stars,
Received camera body from Amazon on 3/23. Lots of new features (5D2 manual is 259 pages; 5D3 manual is 403 pages). For the work I do, I was looking for two improvements over the 5D2: Ability to bracket more than 3 shots and much lower noise. The first wish was granted. As you probably know, the 5D3 does 7 exposures. Nikons do 9, but 7 is almost always enough. Those who need more will probably have a Promote remote anyway. Noise? Well, the 5D3 images are cleaner but I wouldn’t say dramatically so. With the default noise settings and long exp NR set on, I’d say it’s 1 to 1.5 stops better than the 5D2. Now, with a little Noiseware or other NR, you can get very clean images at 12800 with very little loss of detail so I don’t consider this a problem. I guess it was unrealistic to expect the 5D3 to match the very low noise of my D700 but it would have been nice.
It’s true that nearly every feature on the 5D3 is an upgrade over the 5D2. Not all of these will result in better images but it’s fair to say that the entire “feel” of the 5D3, the layout, viewfinder, displays are all nicer than the 5D2. The two things that may be game changers, IMO, are the shutter and the AF. If you haven’t heard and felt the shutter on the 5D3, you’re in for a treat. It isn’t just quieter; there is much less kick from the mirror. Add the “silent” mode and, wow. I would not be surprised to see signs in the future that say “Please set your camera to silent mode”. As for AF, I never had a problem with the AF on the 5D2 so I’m less impressed here. But if you shoot moving subjects, the 5D3 has it all–predictive, wrap around, sequential, selective. The manual devotes 45 pages to setting autofocus.
A small thing that I’ve been waiting for, a dual axis electronic level is wonderful. For some time, digital SLRs have had an “artificial horizon” that tells you if you are tilting the camera to the left or right. That’s nice but in almost all imaging software, rotating an image takes just a second. What these left/right levelers don’t tell you is if you are tipping the camera up or down which can be a real pain with a super wide lens. Well, problem solved with the 5D3.
The in-camera HDR is a mixed bag. Output is jpeg only and even at that, it takes awhile for the 5D3 to register the images. (This could be my cards which are Lexar UDMA 400x & Sandisk Extreme IV). Anyhow, it’s a fun feature. This brings me to yet another interesting feature. Since the 5D3 has two cards (CF + SD) you can record different file types to each card. In other words, you could have a RAW-only card and a JPEG-only card. I haven’t tried this but I presume this would mean that you could shoot everything RAW except in-camera HDRs which, being jpegs, would end up on the other card. I get requests for jpegs so now I can put them on one card while keeping an all-RAW card for myself. You can also have redundant cards for backup, sequential for extra capacity, etc. As with the autofocus options, the possibilities are endless!
So, to summarize. Pros: Better AF, 100% viewfinder with electronic grid (no more screens), better LCD, faster drive and processor, fabulous shutter/mirror, 7-stop bracketing, 2-axis level, somewhat lower noise and thus somewhat cleaner images vs. 5D2, two card slots, uses same batteries as 5D2. Cons: Still no built-in flash (yes, it’s very handy), in-camera HDR so-so, mode knob still feels flimsy (and it locks now, so be careful). All in all, this is a very nice, refined camera and anybody trading up from a 5D2 will be happy. And if you do get a 5D3, the person getting your 5D2 will be happy as well.
Just a footnote. One thing that comes through loud and clear from these reviews is how very different people’s needs are and how differently they use a camera. I can only explain how a product meets or fails to meet my needs. I would not dream of saying you do/don’t need this feature or “read and decide” as if I was some sort of oracle. You know what is or is not important to you and how much you’re willing to pay for it. The web has made everybody a professional and an expert but when it’s your money, the only expert is you.
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