Canon EOS 5D Mark III | First Thoughts

[jrw]

Picked up 5D3 a couple of days ago. Really liking it. AF fast, accurate, and reliable in single shot mode. Did catch birds in flight in single shot mode, they flew in after testing AFMA with 70-200 and 2x extender. Just happened to have camera in hand. Nailed every shot. Sweet. Started playing around with servo mode. Initial impression with that is it is the improvement I was looking for. Will need to spend more time with it to really get to know what settings to use. HDR is an interesting feature. Can see a few places in my mind already to return to... 100% viewscreen, better display on back, nice feel in hand, shorter shutter lag time. Liveview at ISO 6400 and it didn't look like it was snowing.

Only quibbles are that the AF points don't turn red which is nice to have in low light and that I have yet to find a way to scroll across the top level menus instead of the next level down.

Can't say that any one improvement is jaw-dropping compared to best of 7D and 5D2 which I currently use, but no one has ever accused me of being overly excitable either. It is more a case of starting to believe that I finally have one body that will be able to deliver consistently in landscape, macro, portrait and sports action with enough resolution for me. When I use the 7D on occassion for landscape shots, I do notice the difference. Once the raw processing issues get sorted out, and I test the servo AF more, I expect to be selling 7D and 5D2 bodies to fund a second 5D3 assuming servo passes muster of course.

[jrw]

AF function is sneaking up on me as a jaw dropper. Might be that it is easier to notice when it doesn't work well. Single shot mode of birds in flight blew away 5d2 and bested 7D. Not everyone's idea of regular usage, but it really does separate bodies on ability to focus accurately and get the shot before the subject can move very far. Suspect that shutter lag is the Achille's heel of 5D2. With still subjects it works so well.

Servo mode is really nice too. Tried it out on birds, runners, cyclists and cars using different presets. Can see that I have to spend more time with it to get the most out of it, but looking rather optimistic to put it mildly.

Top level menu scrolling, use the 'Q' button. Resorted to the manual to look it up as it was becoming too annoying.

[Keith B]

After a week and about 1100 shots with the 5DmkIII, I am so happy to say I have not had to recompose a shot after focusing. Therefore I have rarely missed focus. There are AF points everywhere. I am spending a lot less time in post adjusting exposures, cropping and trying to sharpen missed focus shots. The shortened shutter lag is a huge joy also. This camera takes away almost all the excuses. If the 5DmkII was worth $2700 at release the mkIII is worth every penny of $3500. I was painfully annoyed when I first saw mkIII's pricing but now, I'm really ok with it.

[Dave Johnston]

Don't know if the rest of you 5D III early adopters noticed that your camera wasn't automatically detecting and correcting all of your lenses chromatic aberration and peripheral lighting. I actually had to connect my camera and load up the EOS utility to tell it to load up the lenses in my collection. It had a number of them already selected, but I had to register the 85 1.8, 28 1.8, and 50 1.8.

Strangely, didn't have a problem with any of the L lenses I have.... hmmm, Canon.... Hmmmm

[shizam1]

Don't know if the rest of you 5D III early adopters noticed that your camera wasn't automatically detecting and correcting all of your lenses chromatic aberration and peripheral lighting. I actually had to connect my camera and load up the EOS utility to tell it to load up the lenses in my collection. It had a number of them already selected, but I had to register the 85 1.8, 28 1.8, and 50 1.8.

Strangely, didn't have a problem with any of the L lenses I have.... hmmm, Canon.... Hmmmm

That only applies to in-camera JPEG conversions right?

[neuroanatomist]

Don't know if the rest of you 5D III early adopters noticed that your camera wasn't automatically detecting and correcting all of your lenses chromatic aberration and peripheral lighting. I actually had to connect my camera and load up the EOS utility to tell it to load up the lenses in my collection. It had a number of them already selected, but I had to register the 85 1.8, 28 1.8, and 50 1.8.

That's been the case with the peripheral illumination correction in previous bodies as well. Also, note that lens + teleconverter combinations need to be added separately from the bare lens.

That only applies to in-camera JPEG conversions right?

Right, although DPP can apply the same corrections to the RAW files when converting them in post.

[jrw]

That was the first thing I did after the initial play session. Every body I have used has needed to be uploaded with the lenses I use for correcting the vignetting so I just went ahead and did it after installing the updated software from disk.

Edit: I see others type faster.

[andnowimbroke]

Question, is the spot meter locked on the selected AF point like the 1-series or is it just the center point regardless of what point is selected?

[jrw]

All of the metering modes are centre based. Must be reserved for 1 series bodies to allow shifting that around.

[andnowimbroke]

Thanks. Had my hopes up for a second. Can't say I use spot metering alot. Nice to have that feature when you need it though. Not a deal-breaker by any means.