Canon 5D MK III Mini Review - By Scott Bourne

[Mark Elberson]

Canon 5D MK III Mini Review - By Scott Bourne

Excerpt:

"I cannot stress enough how much I like this new AF. If I had to decide on upgrading to this camera and money wasn't a factor, I'd do it on the basis of the new autofocus alone."

[jrw]

Thanks for sharing that with us. It is good to hear from someone who has one to play with about something other than the DPP problems. AF not crippled? Do I really want to wait till May for 1Dx maybe being shipped for comparisons?? Especially as my sporting event coverage for the year has started already?

[Steve U]

I am loving mine. The AF is something special.

For me it is the perfect camera. Image wise it doesn't blow the 5DMK2 away, but all the refinements are just what everyone was clamouring for.
The best points for me are the,
AF
The build and feel
The new menu.
The radio trigger
The Mode dial lock
The high ISO performance. Now this is something that I suppose ideally you hope that you never have to use, but it feels so good to have it there and know that it works. When all else fails you have something that will get the job done, in a very respectable fashion.
The AF
The twin card slots
The new senser while only a bit bigger is FF goodness.
The frame rate
Oh and the AF

Image wise, it doesn't thrash the MK2, but no one would epect it to, the MK2 is superb and will continue to be superb.

But the MK3 just does everything better. If I could have only one camera, this would be it. I have never shot the 1D X, but I think it is aimed at a different market (Olympics), for me and what I like to shoot (portraits and landscape) and considering my lens collection, this is my dream camera.

[jrw]

What do you think of the AF? Wasn't sure if you liked it.

Was wondering if you find the AF in servo mode to be excellent, or have you just played in single shot mode so far?

Reason I ask, most of my personal shooting is landscape and critter oriented for which the 5Dii is admirable. Professionally, event coverage is a mix of sports where 5Dii is not the best so I use a 7D as well and corporate events with portraits as well where 5Dii really shines again. I am kind of hoping for a FF solution with low noise, fully functional AF, and 5Dii or better image quality. I'd rather have just two bodies that do everything well instead of the current number.

[Steve U]

I have only shot in single shot for now, I have been super busy and not had the time to play with it too much yet.
This shot was taken just before, in P mode, bad light, flash on the camera auto focused on the kittens head, I am really happy with this performance.
[img]
Bo Jangles by Steve's Life, on Flickr[/img]
100mm 400ISO f/4.0 1/60sec.

[LeftyB]

Here is one I took this past Saturday. I had the auto focus on expanded 8 and was in AI Servo, 6 FPS.
Lens was my 70-200L 2.8 IS. Settings were ISO 800 (I was in spot), f/8.0 1/2000 sec.
I was shooting towards the sun but I had my 580exII on the camera in ETTL with HSS on.



Steve U has already covered all the neat updates and I couldn't agree more. I really, really like the camera compared to my MK II, especially the much faster AF. The very clean higher ISOs are also big winner for my use in churches where no flash is allowed.

[jks_photo]

hi Steve,

have you experienced the apparent "softness" issue with the 5d mkiii that bryan has been mentioning??? have you found a solution or workaround for it?

[Steve U]

The softness is only related to DPP software the camera is sharp as.