Report: Canon 5D Mark III/X "Confirmed" at 22MP and $3500, Announcement February 28th (1 Viewer)

[Scott Merryfield]

Congrats! What are your plans for the 7D body?

Thanks. For now, I am going to keep the 7D to use as a 2nd body for wildlife. Whenever we travel to a wildlife destination, such as Yellowstone, I end up switching lenses way too much, since I keep the telephoto lens on when we are driving around and have to switch to a normal lens whenever I would to take a landscape shot -- mountains and waterfalls will wait for you to change lenses, but wildlife will not. Also, the crop sensor works like a very advanced 1.6x teleconverter, so I get more reach out of my telephoto lenses.
If I end up not using the 7D enough to justify keeping it, I can always sell it later. However, I am going to sell my two EF-S lenses now -- the 17-55mm f/2.8 IS and 10-22mm.

 

[dmiller68]

Congrats on the purchase. I have almost a 1000 shots on my new camera already.

 

[Sam Posten]

That's badass, congrats!
What is you guy's take on the terrible DXO rating that the Mark3 is getting? It's the best DXOmark a Canon has ever gotten but not nearly in the same class of the Nikons. I personally like the 'look' that my D300 gave me compared to either my NEX cams or my old D20, but I haven't really gone deep on image files from more modern Canons....

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I'm not too worried about the DXO rating, Sam. I have read enough reviews from 5D3 owners and seen enough photos from them to feel comfortable that this camera will be a significant improvement over my 7D, which is a camera that I have been very happy with in image quality, functionality and ergonomics. Switching to Nikon was not an option for me, as I am well-invested in Canon glass, and Nikon does not have equivalent lenses to some I use at a comparable price (the 70-200mm f/4 L IS, for example). Besides, just the process of selling everything and starting over is not something I want to do.
At this point, with these cameras any issues with poor shots should be due to my lack of skills, and not the equipment. I decided to pass on the 5D2 and go right to the 5D3 mostly because I figured I would just want to upgrade to the 5D3 eventually anyway, and the 5D3 had very similar ergonomics and features to my 7D, such as an advanced auto focus system and higher frames per second. These two camera bodies (5D3 and 7D) should last me for several years now.

 

[Sam Posten]

Gotcha. All the 5D3 shots I have seen look great to me and I am happy to see it with a kickass autofocus finally. I'm not a big believer in spec based IQ judgement myself, but it did kinda throw me how big a delta there was on the numbers....

 

[Patrick Sun]

Scott, if you want to dip into the used lens pond, let me know, I may be prepared to give up either my Canon 50mm F/1.4 or Sigma 50mm F/1.4 (as I may be going towards the Canon 50mm F/1.2L or going with the Sigma 85 F/1.4, and offer you a nice HTF discounted price on either of those 2 50mm lenses with a generous return policy).

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Thanks, Patrick. I very well may take you up on that offer. How is the auto focus accuracy of your Sigma 50mm f/1.4? That is my only concern on going with the Sigma over Canon -- it seems like playing the lottery to try and get one that focuses accurately. Otherwise, it looks like a better lens than the Canon.

 

[dmiller68]

Patrick let me know what you want for them I might be interested as well.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Scott, I'm PM you.
Doug, depending on Scott's reply, I'll PM you later.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Patrick, thanks for the PM. I sent you a reply. I am not quite ready to buy this lens yet, so I'll give David first crack at them.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Thanks, Scott!
Okay, David, there's a PM waiting for you!

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I posted a few shots with the new 5D3, which showed up Friday, from a trip we took today to the Detroit Zoo in the zoo thread here.
A few things I noticed:
1. The shutter button is more sensitive than my 7D, taking a lighter touch.
2. The viewfinder is big and bright after shooting crops for so many years.
3. The high ISO is amazing. One of the shots in the above post is at 12,800 with just moderate noise reduction performed in post processing.
4. I need to be careful of the thin depth of field. It's been about a decade since I shot 35mm film, and this is my first full frame dSLR. The shot below was 135mm at f/2 -- talk about thin DoF!

 

[Scott Merryfield]

We tried to go to the zoo today, but the parking lot was completely full at 10am! They were redirecting people to an offsite parking area that required a shuttle service, so we just left. Usually at that time on a Sunday, we can park right up front. There must have been some special event going on.
Instead, we stopped by a lake in a local park called Hines Park. It's a 20 mile long, limited access two lane parkway with numerous lakes connected by the Rouge River. Here are a few shots with the new 5D3:

 

[dmiller68]

I really like the takeoff shots those are very cool. Great job!

 

[Cees Alons]

I like the quiet peace immediately before the take-off as well. Fine photograph.
Very nice shots, Scott!


Cees

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I am not much of a "people" photographer, but we went to a family wedding this weekend, so I took along the 5D3. It's silent shooting mode and high ISO performance -- along with a 135mm f/2 L lens -- allowed me to take some stealth shots (no flash allowed) during the ceremony. Here is an example:

 

[Cees Alons]

"With this ring..."

Very nice shot, Scott.


Cees

 

[Sam Posten]

Great stuff!

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I played around with the HDR function of the 5D3 this past weekend while we running around Traverse City (in northern Michigan). The 5D3 will take three successive exposures and then combine them in camera to produce a jpeg image. You can specify exposure bracketing of +/- 1, 2 or 3 EV (there is an auto mode, too). The three exposures are also saved separately as RAW files (assuming you are normally saving in this format). Canon's DPP software for RAW processing also has an HDR utility for combining these image files, allowing for finer tweaking of the image before creating the jpeg.
Here is an image with the in-camera processing using the "natural" setting:

Here is the same image using DPP's HDR utility with some fine tuning:

And here is a single exposure photo of the scene with my typical adjustments for processing the RAW file. The framing is slightly different, as these were handheld:

The above was probably the best HDR results I got. In most of the other shots, the foliage ended up looking off due to movement caused by the wind.
Here is an example. The first is using the DPP HDR utility, and the second is a single exposure. The in-camera image didn't look any better than the DPP created image.

 

[Sam Posten]

Yeah I see stuff like that and Nikon's Time lapse video stuff and scream GIMMICK!
And yet I -Looooooove- the auto pano stitching of my NEXes. It's a gimmick that paid off.
You never know, you gotta try em out and see what sticks!