Looking at either Canon EOS 5D MarkIII or Nikon D800 - not much to choose I think but Nikon lenses more expensive. Any thoughts/advice?
Looking at either Canon EOS 5D MarkIII or Nikon D800 - not much to choose I think but Nikon lenses more expensive. Any thoughts/advice?
Welcome!
What do you like to / plan to shoot? The bottom line is that both are excellent cameras. I'd say that the D800 is more studio/landscape oriented (high res, slower), whereas the 5DIII is more wedding/event/general purpose oriented.
Your comment about lenses is a valid one. Assuming this is your first dSLR purchase, you're not buying a camera, you're buying into a system - bodies, lenses, flashes, etc., and the body is the one most likely to be replaced down the line. Three years ago, I made the Canon vs. Nikon choice at the entry level, and actually part of the reason was the excellent reviews of Canon gear here on TDP (nothing similar for Nikon, really, at least until Bryan does full text reviews for their lenses), and another part of the reason was the posts here (TDP forum was then, and remains to a large extent, Canon-oriented). At this point, changing would be very difficult for me, not to mention expensive.
The ergonomics of the two are pretty different - try to find a shop with both so you can hold each of them.
As for lenses, both Canon and Nikon have a lot of overlap, but some distinctions - and that's where what you like to shoot really matters. Nikon has nothing to match Canon's TS-E 17mm, MP-E 65mm, or 8-15mm Fisheye, 28-300L, and the Canon 24-105 is better than the Nikon 24-120 counterpart. Canon has nothing to match the 14-24mm f/2.8 or the 200-400mm VR (at least as a real, purchasable lens, not a 'we announced development of one but we haven't announced it for real and even if we do it'll likely be well over a year before you can buy one' lens).
Buy a camera for the lenses you choose. Not lenses for the body you choose.
Bodies depriciate and need to be replaced more often. Nikon bodies may be ahead now in many areas, in three years Canon may move ahead. They seem to go back and forth.
IMO canon has the better glass for what I do.
I am not sure what you mean by Nikon lenses more expensive, I don't think that is the case overall.
Welcome to the forum.
Also worth considering is the repairs and customer-service side of things.
It will always depend on where you live, but for USA/Canadia experiences, there's a nice blog post by Roger at Lensrentals, and out of anyone he's probably going to be sending in more stuff for repair than most people..
For a tl;dr quote, how's this for a line: "Nikon, I love the cameras. I love the prices on the cameras. But Nikon USA’s repair and service sucks and is getting worse". Ouch.
An awful lot of electrons were terribly inconvenienced in the making of this post.
Gear Photos
Great to have such quick and useful repsonses from everyone so far - it is making things much clearer already.Originally Posted by oggray
look forward to learning lots more through these forums
I totally agree. Anyway, neither of them is a wrong choice.
1st Welcome
The camera body is very much the little part of the investment. Every single person on this board has more invested in Glass (lenses) than the body.
So it is a glass decision. Neuro said it well - I agree that Canon has the best glass at the moment of the two.
With both recently bringing out updated "entry level" full frame cameras the capabilities of the camera bodies in the 1000-2000 ish area is really amazing.
Price out the "system" that Neuro refers to. Prime lens, zooms, etc to what you think your complete complement would represent.
I would also check the prices of used lenses as fleabay as well - I have had decent results, just be careful to choose those with "returns accepted"
Again, welcome and have fun
If you see me with a wrench, call 911
There is at least one member of the forum with the D800 and another one or two nikon shooters. I was hoping that they'd chime in.
Trying to be as fair as I can, I've watched and read just about everything I can regarding these two cameras. This exercise was almost a waste, however, as I ended up concluding that they are both very good cameras and it gets down to details.
First...agree with the above sentiments, look at the entire system, not just the camera.
But in looking at just the cameras:
1. The Nikon D800 has an amazing sensor. It will resolve incredible detail if you have a sufficiently sharp lens attached. Also, it has very impressive control of noise, especially in the shadows (important for low light photography) and amazing dynamic range. It is shines at low ISO (100-~800).
2. The Canon 5DIII does most everything else not a ton better, but a little better. In particular, there seem to be reoccuring themes that the AF is slightly faster and more accurate, better control of noise at higher ISO (1600-25,400) and that the auto white balance is a bit better. There are the obvious things such as a slightly faster frame rate.
3. The blessing that is the 36 MP sensor for detail in the D800 is also a curse in terms of file management. While I suspect there is a bit of exageration or error in some of the reports (75 MB files??? I suspect someone was doing something wrong), the files are larger than those from the 5DIII. Anyone that has processed a lot of photos knows that this can slow everything down. So, it gets down to if you need and even want that additional detail.
4. I have seen some reviews that prefer the Nikon video, others that prefer Canon's. Again, these are two excellent cameras.
5. There is a lot of personal preference to cameras. I love the feel of my 7D and don't particularly like the feel of the 5D series in my hands when I've had the chance (but, honestly, I wouldn't necessarily mind needing to get used to it). But, as an example, I watched one video where the reviewer couldn't get past the LCD screen on the D800. It was slightly lower resolution and he felt the colors weren't representing the image. So, take the time to handle each camera.
Overall, my impression is that if you are very detail oriented, are always pixel peeping, and primarily shoot landscapes, go with the Nikon D800 (assuming you can get the system you want).
But, for most other photographers, especially those that just shoot a little of everything, the 5DIII is more than sufficient and probably the better option because of the smaller file size, better AF and overall lens selection.
But, I really think this could be argued either way. Look at the overall system and if you find some reasons to choose one over the other go for it. From everything I can tell, both are excellent.
If interested, www.thecamerastore.com had three videos comparing the two cameras (look in their blog and go back to May-June). Also www.digitalrev.com had more lighthearted videos, but still give you a good impression. There are many others if you search online. Those are the ones that I remember.
Welcome to the forums.....
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