Canon EOS 5D Mark III | First Thoughts

[Mark Elberson]

It was one month ago today that I started this thread. Since then I've used my Mark III for: (1) Newborn Portrait Session (2) Family Portrait Sessions (1) Wedding and countless images of my daughter :-)

Observations:

One-Shot Focus:

The auto focus is phenomenal. Having points where I need them has been clutch to making images at wide apertures. It's also easy to switch between points without having to take your eye away from the viewfinder.

At some points, it was taking 2-3 seconds to achieve focus on the 5DIII! So yeah, I missed some shots of the bride hugging guests. So I took up the 5DII, and was getting exactly the same result, or maybe (gasp) even faster.

I noticed this too on a few occurrences. However, when using the Mark II I ALWAYS used the center focus point whereas on the Mark III I NEVER used the center focus point. Next time I will use one of the (5) dual cross-type points to see if that would make a difference. Also, I was using 430EX IIs on both bodies and it can only support up to 9 focus points. I am not sure which ones they would translate to on the Mark III but it's very likely that they were providing little to no help.

AI Servo Focus:

I ended up using this for most of the wedding reception. With low-light, fast glass and wide-open apertures I was thrilled with the results. On the Mark III I was using the 85mm L @ f/1.4 and the 135mm L @ f/2 with great results. Most of the time I was using AF point expansion.

Spot AF:

I rarely (if ever) use this which does surprise me. I have had such great success with both single-point and expansion that it has not come up. I could see using it though when you are dealing with a lot of textures and contrast that could easily confuse the AF system.

Metering:

I actually use Av more than M which for me is a revelation!

High ISO:

To my eye it handles high ISO (>= 800) better than the Mark II. I think anywhere from 1/2 to 1 stop of improvement is realistic.

Disclaimer:

I am not a reviewer, just an observer. I do shoot almost daily though and in a wide variety of situations. I would be happy to answer any direct questions about my experience using either the Mark II or the Mark III.

[shizam1]

High ISO:

To my eye it handles high ISO (>= 800) better than the Mark II. I think anywhere from 1/2 to 1 stop of improvement is realistic.

I agree with most of your review, and after using the camera more I am coming to appreciate the AF more, the images I'm getting appear sharper, but I think that's because the AF is more accurate

As far as high ISO though, I really don't see much of a difference until ISO 1600, and then I have a REALLY hard time saying why I like the 5DIII images better, but me and my wife both pick the 5DIII images as "better" when side by side with the 5DII images when they are next to each other. Maybe it's the better color at higher ISO, maybe it's more DR, I'm not sure!

I'm still a bit dissapointed that Canon did some verbal trickery with their marketing about "2 stops ISO improvement" and meaning "2 stop ISO improvement with in-camera JPEG conversions because of the better processor".

I'm happy you like the camera, I'm warming up to it! I still don't think I'll upgrade our other 5DII just because of the much higher cost, and will instead get a 35L that both myself and my wife are pining over!

[jrw]

I would concur to the IQ being similar, slight improvement over 5D2, at least at the lower ISO settings. At higher ISO the 5D3 does have less noise making the usefulness of the body that much greater. Colour, contrast, sharpness are an improvement. With 7D I had to raise sharpness in the body, the 5D2 I left it alone, with the 5D3 I have turned it down in the body. There is such a thing as too much detail of minor blemishes in portrait type work.

Have found with f2.8 lenses that there is no issue with focusing in very low light (lights off in the room at night taking shots into the closet to see if it would do it). Suspect that any long focus times may be from using larger aperture lenses. Believe that Neuro shed some light earlier on the difference in how the focus system functions beyond the f2.8 barrier.

I do find that the improvements in JPEG images is making a difference for me, especially for indoor events. When I cover larger events and am taking 1000+ shots a day, I don't shoot in RAW because I don't want the post-processing work. Being able to jack up the ISO with confidence in the results is still very novel to me, and it will likely take some time for that to wear off.

Being a two body shooter at events, there will definitely be another 5D3 in my near future. Have already sold my 7D bodies and am down to one 5D2 which I will be using as my walk-around and with my 17-40 for landscapes.