Is The New Canon 5D Mark III Worth The Upgrade?

When the Canon 5D Mark II was first launched, it was groundbreaking. By no means earlier than have we been in a position to document movies in full 1080p high quality with a handheld SLR digicam. Three and a half years later, Canon launched the Mark III. Is it three and a half years of evolution on the digicam? Sure and no. let me clarify.

Let’s begin with the nice. The sound traits of the Mark III have been drastically improved. Within the earlier model, you needed to blindly monitor audio, which is a horrible approach of doing issues. Now, with the extra built-in headphone output, we are able to hear what’s being recorded. Thank God! Including guide audio ranges is wonderful, and having the ability to see the on-screen degree meters whereas recording is even higher! You can even use the contact wheel to vary audio ranges whereas recording. So if the tone is a bit too excessive, you possibly can change it on the fly! Cute!

When it comes to image kinds, I can now not see moiré or aliasing. It is a incredible enchancment. Beforehand with the Mark II, I barely sharpened footage in post-production, however now with a clear picture straight from the digicam, I can sharpen with none nasty artifacts. When it comes to sharpening, I discover the 5D Mark III footage a bit flat. I do not see the crisp picture in my c300 and I might by no means use the in-camera sharpening kinds. So as to add an additional step, I sharpen all of my Mark III footage in post-production. It actually brings the footage to life and would not look muddy just like the straight out of digicam clips do. Then again, rolling shutter continues to be round (and doubtless all the time might be with SLR cameras).

This considerably improves digicam recording time. Now you possibly can constantly document clips as much as 29 minutes 59 seconds. Apparently a digicam that data constantly for over half-hour is assessed as a full video digicam in some international locations, therefore the utmost clip size allowed. Additionally, the addition of 60fps at 720p is a pleasant enchancment, however not groundbreaking as this characteristic has been in Canon cameras for some time.

The low mild capabilities within the Mark III are an enormous enchancment. With the Mark II I discovered that 1250 ISO was dangerous. Canon’s noise is ugly and I discovered the noise within the shadows at 1250 fairly gross. In my low mild checks, I used to be amazed at 6400 ISO on the Mark III. You’ll be able to see noises nevertheless it’s not horrible. 3200 is totally usable, and something under that’s after all very clear!

Now for the “dangerous”. The decision and element of the picture is not actually an enormous enchancment over the sooner model. Facet-by-side, each cameras output very similar-looking footage, and the specs are just about similar. As I discussed, rolling shutter artifacts are nonetheless current (and solely barely improved, if any).

On the Mark II, the output was reasonably pathetic at 480p. Clear output is just not out there on the Mark III at 1080p. It is a huge disappointment as each of Nikon’s new releases (the D800 and D4) have this characteristic. It may be attainable with a firmware replace, however I am not holding my breath. Canon undoubtedly missed the mark right here.

If I get choosy, I might like to have the choice to “poke in” whereas recording and see focus, however sadly that characteristic is not out there. They additionally moved the punch in button within the prime proper to the left facet. It’s an pointless step however might be modified through the menu settings.

So, ultimately what’s my ultimate conclusion? Is it value promoting your Mark II and upgrading to its new, huge brother? For my part, sure! The headphone output alone is well worth the value improve. In case you’re a documentary maker, the low mild capabilities are an enormous plus and extremely really helpful. Positive, there’s nothing actually groundbreaking, however once you evaluate it to the Mark II that was, it is laborious to compete. The Mark II was the primary of its sort, however the Mark III carries on the custom.