The Canon 5d Mark III that everyone has been waiting for has been announced. The camera brings a handful of improvements including speed, greater resolution, more processing power, and more options for shooting HD video. The full-frame sensor has been upped to 22.3 Megapixels and shoots up to 6 frames per second with a 61-point AF system. What’s great about the new sensor in this camera is that the pixel pitch is smaller, which allows for better low light performance.
For a handful of years I’ve shot on my trusty Canon 1d Mark II but it’s dated. Jumping up to the 1DX would be ideal, but it’s $7000 price tag is unfortunate. So what do I think about the 5d Mark III? The Canon 5d Mark II was an amazing camera, but the 5d Mark III is even better. Coming in at $3500 for the body I don’t see it as being unreasonably priced.
Is the 5D Mark III what you hoped for—would you buy it?
Spec list:
Price: $3500 (body)
Sensor: 22.3-megapixel, full-frame (36.0mm x 24.0mm) CMOS
Processor: Digic 5+
Max ISO: 25,600 (standard), 102,400 (expanded)
Max Image Size: 5,784 x 3,856
Video: 1080p (24/25/30 fps), 720p (24/25/30/50/60 fps)
Display: 1.04-million dot, 3.2-inch LCD
Images via Gizmodo
I wonder if the cmos is fast enough to remove the jello effect due to camera shake when shooting video.
I’m never sure if camera prices reasonable or not, although they offer better quality. I had a Nikon D50 but I found it to be too big. So right now my personal fav camera is a Panasonic DMC-LX5. Might not be the worlds greatest camera, but it’s small, handy and I can take it anywhere I like without feeling like my shoulders are hanging where hips are at the end of the day.
Right now it’s almost like the perfect camera for me.
Don’t know about you guys, but this really got me excited because as a student I can now afford the Mark II since it’s sure to go down in price because of this.. maybe I’ll find a sweet deal on Craigslist from those looking to upgrade =)
@Jeff, it sounds like they sped up the shutter lag time. It’s now 59ms. Now I’m not sure if this would actually affect the video, but I also know that the new sensor is supposedly 17 times faster than the old one. I guess we’ll see…
I have the MK II and LOVE it and it looks like they hit all of the items that were the little annoyances. In reality there were only two features I was looking for here, fixing the Autofocus and low-light performance. The extra frames per second are an nice plus but since Cannon is still planning to produce the MK II for a while I don’t think those features are worth the $1000.
Then again I could have the MK III in my hands and start drooling and these are all just words.
Very incremental upgrade. But then again it’s cannon. They always follow nikkon and are conservative. Video features just bring them up to speed. That’s just on paper. For someone who wants full frame and shoots a lot of moving things this is your camera. Shutter lag time would not affect video ultimately since they have to do some sort of down sampling off that huge sensor. Once we see uncompressed video samples we’ll know if it’s the real Mccoy. So far not too excited.
I am more excited about the Olympus EM5.
It is ideal for the price/performance/size equation. Plus it looks amazing.
I think if you’re already tied into Canon and can afford it this is your tool, if I were just doing stills I’d prefer the Nikon D800 but the video aint so hot. To be honest the 5D MK2 is still a top contender and would be worth picking up if video was something you did on the side or non-professionally. And if you ever find yourself working so hard and pushing the boundaries so far you really are handicapped with the MK2 then can reward yourself with a MK3 for being so damn creative!
d800
One of the biggest let downs in Canons history. Tiny performance difference in the real world, massive price leap. I’ll be waiting for the Mark IV.
I have mine pre-ordered. The improved censor, AF, FPS, ISO, and weather sealing are more than worth it. I’m tired of people complaining about the price. The MKII was $2999 when it first came out. The price quickly dropped when supply caught up with the demand.
I don’t see the big deal with the D800 beside the megapixels. The samples I have been seeing are soft and quite noisy. Nikon really shot themselves in the foot again trying cram all the bells and whistles they could into a camera.
This camera doesn’t seem like a real major upgrade from the Mark II… Better ISO sensitivity is great but how is this going to compete with the D800. Everyone is hating on 36MP but that’s where the market is going… Canon, keep up! I think Nikon just took the cake…
To be clear as a photog the upgrade is a big deal due to the AF on a full frame. The digi cine crowd may be let down. GH2 is still tops until we see uncompressed footage.
I don’t think mega pixels are the issue anymore, anyone really dependant on using all 22 is probably a pro so can afford the more expensive gear. Add to that the video nature of this camera means more pixels would require even faster hardware that what’s on bard to bin the unnecessary pixels when creating the 1080p image. Effectively more pixels would create a poorer video. Probably that’s where the D800 will fall down. I think Nikon are still in the mega pixel race where as Canon know that 22 is more than enough for this end of the market so have gone down the convergence route. Nikon probably need a year to catch up so took the only route they could.
Everyone needs to take a harder look at the Nikon D800E since Canon has always been over priced when compared. The D800E incorporates a modified low-pass filter system that results in little to no antialiasing which should help videographers, something Canon doesn’t have. Canon does have a larger pixel size sensor resulting in higher ISO settings, but at ISO 25600 Nikon pushes limits rarely used without some grain. And grain is where Nikon has had cleaner ISO results: another plus for D800E. Also, uncompressed HDMI output (another major option over the 5D), fast sensor reading for reduced shutter rolling artifacts, usb 3.0 output and dual memory card slots.
What would make the 5d3 a worthy purchase would be the significantly better AF-point system and better handling of low-light and quality of images in the higher ISO range. I’m just going to hold out for another month before I make my decision on another 5d2 or the new 5d3
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