CanonEOS 5D Mark III 22.3 MP Full Frame CMOS with 1080p Full-HD Video Mode Digital SLR Camera (Body)

This is my review as a landscape photographer. Upfront you should know that I don't shoot video. I realize there are many video upgrades but I wouldn't have a use for them in my current work. That's not covered in this review.When the MkIII first was announced, it was about $500 more than it is now. And on paper, I decided that for the quality differences in my actual images, it would not be worth the upgrade. I felt content in my analysis and went on happily using my MkII for several more months in which I logged thousands of frames and make several new additions to my portfolio, which you can see at LensTraveler18 and at this moment all images in the last 3 years are from the MkII. This winter, I traveled to Jordan with a group of photographers and met a guy who went through the same thought process I did. He gave me a complete tour of the new features and I was blown away with the improvements made by Canon.After the recent price drop, which brought the MkIII within about $500 more than what I paid for the MkII, I decided to make the purchase. I am thrilled that I did.I just returned from Iceland and used both cameras and started to notice differences that make my experience more enjoyable and my images "better" from my perspective. I will try and explain what I found and why those changes were important to me.This is a complete overhaul, upgrade and enhancement of the MkII.There are no similarities except the size of the sensor physically and the number of megapixels which is roughly the same as the MkII. So to consider this an upgrade is misleading.The body is shaped differently yet almost completely familiar to the MkII user, and the menu structure is an enhanced version of the MkII. It's VERY enhanced.The Canon "Experience:"If I were to summarize what I realized and what's been said over and over here in the forums is that Canon actually listened to users carefully and implemented nearly every suggestion for improvement, and there are many. I cannot say enough about Canon and Canon Professional Services (CPS,) who are the repair and service arm of Canon. Nikon readers should tune out here, I suspect you will be disappointed. Before I left for Iceland, I had my 5dMkII cleaned and adjusted by CPS, it took 3 days, the camera came back better than it was before and I had a long conversation with the service rep who explained what was found and what was done to my camera. Side note: I slipped and smashed a 17-40L zoom to smithereens. I spent 5 minutes picking up the pieces so I wouldn't litter. I put all the pieces into a box and shipped it to Canon. They charged me under two hundred and returned a perfect, tested lens. That's what you get with Canon.Features:With the MkIII, autofocus has been enhanced so much that it's practically telepathic. The problem is that so much new functionality is built in, the learning curve on the autofocus system itself is substantial. You can just use it like you did on the MkII and it's 1000% better but there's so much it can do. I cared about that, I was thrilled to see how heavily it was enhanced.The AEB (autoexposure bracketing) system now matches Nikon in allowing for 3, 5 and 7 frames, with 1/3 to 2 stops between each frame and with full offset. For HDR types, this is a huge improvement and very welcome. The memory card management system now accepts two cards, one SD and on CF, and you can separate which image types goes to which card or use them as backup. I realize Nikon's high end cameras had this before so it's catchup here too. But very welcome.There are two new "functions" which are useful and one of them is AWESOME. The camera can now shoot HDR and process 3 frames into a single Jpg image. I have no use for this since I do everything in software but many people will really enhance their results with this new feature. The other new function is "multiple exposure" shooting which I haven't had since my film days. Yes, I am that old. I had some fun with it this past weekend and I am thrilled it's there.Virtually ALL buttons are definable and a new "Q" button has been added. I think it was on other Canon models but not on the MkII. I have already become so used to it, I almost can't imagine working without it.The processor upgrade shows up as faster processing time for noise reduction, higher frame rates and generally snappier performance. Since I spend time out in the dark, I was concerned with low light performance. This gets into a discussion of how the new sensor performs. The new sensor has about double the dynamic range as the MkII. At night, I expose at ISO100 for 10 minutes typically and sharpness was always excellent on the MkII, I never complained. Yet the MkIII is better in several ways; the pixels are "sharper" the fringing/noise is far lower and the color appears more accurate. There are also non-specific differences in that images seem to "look better" which is totally subjective, when shot with the MkIII.I know the new 6D will be readily available soon and it will be a great camera from what I have read. And with the 6d came two improvements I wish were included in the 5dMkIII; the built-in GPS and WiFi. I did buy the external GPS receiver and I am generally happy with it. I wish it were smaller and more "informative" on its own. But now I can tag my image files with GPS data. And it works in Lightroom 4.Besides these two obvious exclusions, I have found wanting for almost nothing else with the MKIII. Yet, I do have my wish list. And this goes for all SLR's and even all digital cameras.My Wish List:- Include a built in intervalometer with bulb ramping (google it) and lightning triggers, along with full time-lapse as well as internal stacking. This would make a lot of sense.Better yet, the entire line of Canon cameras should have APPS. This way, the entire photographic community can create time-lapse, tracking, remote control and a host of other amazing functions all run from a menu. Wouldn't that be incredible? You could buy or create any software function you could imagine.- Like I said, include the GPS and WiFi remote control AND bluetooth functionality.- Add USB 3.0 transfer directly so I can stop using a card reader.- Lower the price by $500 and Canon, you will own the DSLR market.Thats what I have so far, I know I have left out a lot of the new functionality because it's not as meaningful to me. I will update this review after several more months of shooting.

The switch from Nikon:After being with nikon for 16+ years, I recently threw in the towel. As a wedding shooter, I count on my equipment and need things to work correctly.I had purchased two nikon d600's 1 year apart and both had the horrible dust/debris issue. After repeat cleanings and 20,000+ shots, both cameras still had the issue. I got tired of wet cleaning the sensors and got tired of nikons poor customer service. Nikon decided that the D600 owners just had to either deal with repeat sensor cleanings or send in the camera to "possibly" have the issue resolved. Nikon had no proven fix besides switching out the shutter and praying that the issue went away. Nikon released the d610 and left the rest of the people hanging.Leaving nikon was extremely difficult for me because I had a big investment in the bodies, accessories and glass. I made the move at a huge loss but am extremely happy that I did.The differences:I purchased both a 6D and the 5D mark III from amazon. The immediate thing that I have noticed is that all my canon glass has been good with focus right out of the box. With almost every nikon lens/camera combo, I had to pull out a focus chart and focus tune software and apply fine tuning. I also noticed that the focus system on my canons do not have the tendency to act up under tungsten lighting like my nikons did. My d600's and d7000 had a tendency to back-focus under heavy tungsten lighting.The canon DPP software is a pleasure to use. I hated Nikon capture NX2. It was slow and the user interface was horrible. Canon DPP loads quickly and applying batch changes is amazing. I do miss the Nik software selection point feature of CNX2.The one thing I don't like is the fact that canon makes you purchase your lens hoods separately and at a premium.I do like the fact that the canon equipment is made in japan and has a quality feel to it compared to cameras like the d600 that are made in Thailand.The 5D mark iii vs D800:Prior to leaving nikon, I also spent a week with the nikon D800. I found that the d800 produced a lot of noise in the raw files when pushed to higher iso's. This alone was enough to turn me off. I did test my sample of the d800 for left focus issues. I did not have the left AF issue of older d800's but the camera I got had some focus issues that required fine tuning all my glass to the body. In some cases the fine tune was at +20.The D800 files did have a lot of detail and dynamic range but the file size was huge. If you shoot a lot of landscape and want lots of dynamic range, the d800 is a good option. But the dynamic range comes at the cost of nikons lack of quality control.If dynamic range is not your main goal but want a great reliable camera with a killer AF system (better in my testing) and smaller files, the canon 5D mark III is amazing. I suggest not to get caught up in the megapixel game unless you do some very heavy cropping like birds in flight for which the d800 may be a better choice. The 5D mark III files are great and have plenty of latitude for most users.5D mark III:Focus:Focus Focus Focus. The 5D mark III has a killer focus system. The best that I have used. The focus system is lighting fast, accurate and very very customizable. It is a pleasure to be able to customize my focus system like this. I recently shot an event and out of 700+ images, I scrapped maybe 10 shots because of focus. The ones I did delete because of focus was do to me not placing the focus point on the right area of the image.No back/front focus like my nikons had. No focus shift under tungsten lighting like some nikons.The hit rate on focus is amazing. You want to know why canon can charge a premium for this camera? Because of its pure amazing focus system! If you absolutely need the best focus system on any camera, this is it.Customization:You can assign buttons to do certain functions and to your own shooting style. This is a god send compared to nikons lack of customization.Body:The camera is solid with a good feel in the hand. The buttons are easy to operate and cleverly located. Coming from nikon is an adjustment because the camera buttons are in a different layout. It will become easy to use after some time and practice.I did not like the fact that canon has no built in removable screen protector like the nikon. This is a minor gripe but one that I resolved by buying the vello stick on glass protectors. I know the nikon plastic screen protectors are not fancy but they did a good job of protecting the screen from bumps.Images:The 5D makr III images are fantastic. The auto white balance works much better compared to my nikons I had owned. The 5D mark III is not able to pull details from the shadows like the D800 or D600 so it is a sacrifice in dynamic range if that is the most important thing to you. Nikon still has canon beat in dynamic range.I will personally will take a in focus, sharp, good out of camera white balance and dust free image out of a canon any day vs a hit and miss focus and dusty d600 image with dynamic range. An out of focus image with dirt is useless to me.Conclusion:If you shoot anything that requires this focus system, this reliability and this customization, BUY THIS CAMERA. I found the 5d and 6d is a perfect combo. I use the 6D with the wifi feature when working in a studio paired to an ipad and use the 5D when shooting a wedding or anything that moves at a fast pace.The 5d mark III continues to sell even at the higher price because it is a proven camera and you cant go wrong with it. I love it and will update this review as I use it more. I am glad I left nikon and I hope they learn one day that customer loyalty is earned.

The 5d Mark III has great specs as we all know, but is the build quality sufficient for professional use? Short answer - no. It's the little bits and pieces that simply cannot stand up to extended use. The two big issues that everybody is talking about are the joystick and the mode dial. The cover to my mode dial fell off after light use (no drop, no water damage, just regular use). The cover is a thin piece of metal that has the modes on it (Av, Tv, M, etc.). It is not essential for the camera to function but without it it is difficult to tell which mode you are in. When I sent my camera into Canon I was expecting the cost of repair to reflect the nature of the piece that fell off. When I got word from Canon that it would cost $250 to have the cover replaced, I was shocked. When I expressed my disappointment to them, they began negotiating the price and eventually told me they could do it for around $200 so I told them to send the camera back unrepaired.Several of my friends and colleagues have also had their mode dial covers fall off so this is evidently a common issue. None of them have been willing to pay the cost of repair and have decided to simply tape a piece of paper to the mode dial so they can know which mode is which. It is a shame that customers who spent over $3,000 on their cameras must take this route, lest they spend hundreds of dollars on a little metal cap.I have found that the build quality has drastically decreased from the Mark II to the Mark III. I did not previously see myself switching brands but have some serious thinking to do.