Canon EOS 5D Mark III | First Thoughts

[Trowski]

No padding, no bubble wrap..... Nothing.... I could hear the stuff in the 5D box sliding around when I picked up. That was immediately followed by an intense bout of nausea and anxiety.

That's odd, mine came with a bunch of those air pouches on 3 sides of the box from B&H. No matter really, there's enough bubble wrap around the camera itself that I'm sure UPS could do just about anything to the box and the camera would be fine. The cameras are pretty sturdy anyway. Lenses on the other hand I'm a lot more paranoid about... even then, there's a reason there's so much styrofoam in those lens boxes.

I'm loving my 5DIII. It's just about everything I ever wanted from a camera. I'm so glad I won't have to deal with the crippled AF system of the 5DII anymore. I always wanted to shoot with my 7D just for the AF. My 7D is going to get a lot less use now... probably will only use it when I want the crop factor, which isn't terribly often.

Menu: I found the old one a little quicker to navigate because I found it easier to skip over menus rather than scrolling through them sequentially but that may just be something I need to learn how to do.

If you press the Q button in the menu, it moves between tabs so you can navigate quickly. I'm using this a lot at first, but once I have everything set most things I access frequently will end up in My Menu anyway.

[Mark Elberson]

If you press the Q button in the menu, it moves between tabs so you can navigate quickly. I'm using this a lot at first, but once I have everything set most things I access frequently will end up in My Menu anyway.

Great tip! Maybe we should compile a list once we get going?

[Alan]

Okay, everyone who has the 5DIII is loving their new camera. Great.

Those who own both the 5DII and III, how about posting a pair of comparison shots (cropped) to show the high ISO performance (with everything else being the same)? That will be more revealing than anecdotes.

[Rocco]

With any luck, Bryan will have his review done soon. I'm sure he's getting tons of emails from people chomping at the bit for it. Once he does that, we can compare the high ISO performance with everything else in canons line up.

I played with one in store, and was struck by how much faster the af is than on my 7D. The thing immediately autofocused. Stupid fast.

[shizam1]

I don't expect a review until Canon fixes their DPP software!

As well, I'm interested to see what is said of the AF, I've seen some weird results in dark wedding reception type environments and am curious to see if anyone else doing a more thorough review can replicate!

[Mark Elberson]

As well, I'm interested to see what is said of the AF, I've seen some weird results in dark wedding reception type environments and am curious to see if anyone else doing a more thorough review can replicate!

What were you seeing?

[shizam1]

What were you seeing?

Well, my wife and I were shooting a wedding, and I had two 5DII's and 1 5DIII, so I thought I would stick to the old reliable technology until we got to the reception and then bring out the 5DIII since it's supposed to be better at low light and AF.

So at this reception, which was inside a restaurant and pretty dimly lit, we had a 5DII and 5DIII, and we were swapping lenses back and forth for some testing. We had an 85 f/1.2L II, 50 f/1.4 and 35 f/1.4L at the reception area.

After reviewing the wedding photos, and since I had accidentally shot one on aperture priority, I know the lighting was around ISO 1600, f/2.2 and 1/30 shutter speed (from memory, not in front of photo right now ).

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 didn't have any duplicate lenses, so couldn't do a simultaneous shot, but I was swapping lenses back and forth and trying different lenses and getting the same result.

I was just a bit dissapointed that I wasn't getting faster than 5DII results in that low light scenario!

Others have mentioned, and I noticed this in some subsequent basement low light tests, that focus seems to be achieved, but then it pauses for .5-1 seconds before giving confirmation.

At the wedding, I was using one-shot mode, with center point selected, and the AF-Expansion with 4 points. In my basement tests I switched back and forth between that and just center point, but didn't notice much of a change.

Anyway, I'm curious if he sees anything similar, and if there's some mysterious AF setting I'm not doing correctly or what not.

[Mark Elberson]

Well, my wife and I were shooting a wedding, and I had two 5DII's and 1 5DIII, so I thought I would stick to the old reliable technology until we got to the reception and then bring out the 5DIII since it's supposed to be better at low light and AF.

So at this reception, which was inside a restaurant and pretty dimly lit, we had a 5DII and 5DIII, and we were swapping lenses back and forth for some testing. We had an 85 f/1.2L II, 50 f/1.4 and 35 f/1.4L at the reception area.

After reviewing the wedding photos, and since I had accidentally shot one on aperture priority, I know the lighting was around ISO 1600, f/2.2 and 1/30 shutter speed (from memory, not in front of photo right now ).

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 didn't have any duplicate lenses, so couldn't do a simultaneous shot, but I was swapping lenses back and forth and trying different lenses and getting the same result.

I was just a bit dissapointed that I wasn't getting faster than 5DII results in that low light scenario!

Others have mentioned, and I noticed this in some subsequent basement low light tests, that focus seems to be achieved, but then it pauses for .5-1 seconds before giving confirmation.

At the wedding, I was using one-shot mode, with center point selected, and the AF-Expansion with 4 points. In my basement tests I switched back and forth between that and just center point, but didn't notice much of a change.

Anyway, I'm curious if he sees anything similar, and if there's some mysterious AF setting I'm not doing correctly or what not.

Thanks for the heads up. I am shooting a wedding in a week and will report back with my observations. I was also hoping that for the reception I could lean on the Mark III with its increased AF sensitivity. We shall see what happens. I'll probably shoot one Mark II with flash and the Mark III with some fast glass.

Side note:

Just playing around in a very dimly lit room I noticed that the AF would lock faster when using Single-point vs. Single-point Spot.

[shizam1]

Thanks for the heads up. I am shooting a wedding in a week and will report back with my observations. I was also hoping that for the reception I could lean on the Mark III with its increased AF sensitivity. We shall see what happens. I'll probably shoot one Mark II with flash and the Mark III with some fast glass.

Side note:

Just playing around in a very dimly lit room I noticed that the AF would lock faster when using Single-point vs. Single-point Spot.

Great, looking forward to it! Also be warned, you may have trouble with the AF, just because of the viewfinder in the 5DIII There doesn't seem to be an option to show the AF point you're using, it only will turn red when focus is achieved. So in a dark area, if you're using center point AF, you are kind of just aiming the camera and hoping you have the center spot aligned with what you want to focus on, it's difficult to see! For some reason I never had this problem with the 5DII, so I need to go look at that camera again to see what it is doing differently.

[Rocco]

You guys should go into the settings and turn off all the af points that aren't cross type, which will still give you more than 40, see if that helps in low light?