Advantages of the Canon 5D Mark III over the Canon 60D?

[elizpage]

Hi all,

So I recently shot my very first legitimate wedding in January this year. Since I'd been busy graduating college, I didn't have much of a chance to shoot many weddings in between (and most take place in the summer anyway where I live).

Well, I got a gig for the end of June. Problem is, I have a 60D with no back-up body right now. Would it be a wise idea to use the 60D as a backup and rent the 5D Mark III? I've been dying to use one on a wedding and this might be the perfect opportunity. It's about $110 to rent for 3 days. Is it worth it? What are the key differences?

Thanks in advance!

 

[bratkinson]

I upgraded from a 60D to a 5D3 as I primarily shoot church events other than weddings, oftentimes without using a flash. My primary motivations were the incredibly low-noise results at higher ISO speeds, and its drop-dead-accurate focusing abilities. Those two alone made it well worth the price in my estimation. Add to that the very quiet shutter and the increase in image quality gained from a full frame sensor, it was a winner all around.

On the downside is the surprising increase in size and weight compared to a 60D (both gripped), and the fact that EF-S lenses won't work/can't be mounted to any of Canons' full-frame bodies. Knowing this, and wanting faster lenses anyway, I replaced my EF-S lenses with suitable EF lenses (L's, mostly) well in advance of upgrading to the 5D3.

Another slight 'surprise' I encountered was that my 16-35 f2.8L ii was 'just right' for small room confines using the 60D, but was 'too wide angle' on the 5D3, as the 24 end of the 24-105 is quite sufficient. As the field (angle) of view at the wide end of the 16-35 on the 60D was equivalent to that of a theoretical 25.6mm lens on a full frame, the 24-105 fits my needs. I still use the 16-35 when the spaces are tight or I want to get 'wider', but it now spends more time in the bag than it used to.

Also, while a 5D3 would likely help you produce improved results, learning it 'on the fly', under the pressure of a wedding, is definitely NOT the time to learn. I recommend you rent it for at least a week, and get very comfortable with it before the wedding.

And one more thing...you'll likely need more memory cards. I shoot RAW+LJPG and each frame consumes about double the memory from what was needed on the 60D. Why RAW+LJPG? As I put the RAWs on the CF card and JPGs to the SD, I have 'instant backup' in case of a CF card failure. I also use the JPGs to decide which RAWs to post-process and which ones get trashed.

 

[Big Mike]

Great reply from bratkinson.

The one thing that I'd like to emphasize is that the 5DIII is a much different beast from the 60D. I own a 5DmkII and when I picked up a 5DkmIII that one of my students was shooting with...I was a bit baffled by the controls and functions etc. I'm sure you could get used to it, but probably not in one or two days....at least not to the level of comfort that you should have when shooting a wedding.

So my advice would to either purchase an upgraded camera (and likely lenses) well before the event. Have a look at the 6D as a more affordable full frame option.
Or maybe purchase something on par or lesser than your 60D. If you had two 60Ds, there would be no problem switching between the two. Then, rather than just a back up, you can easily have two cameras on the go, and not have to switch lenses as often.

Or at the very least, pick up an older model, just so you have something as a back up. I'd suggest a 20D, 30D, 40D or 50D....with emphasis on a 40D.

 

[runnah]

Great reply from bratkinson.

The one thing that I'd like to emphasize is that the 5DIII is a much different beast from the 60D. I own a 5DmkII and when I picked up a 5DkmIII that one of my students was shooting with...I was a bit baffled by the controls and functions etc. I'm sure you could get used to it, but probably not in one or two days....at least not to the level of comfort that you should have when shooting a wedding.

This is a key point. Unless you are a fast learner you are going to struggle with just knowing where stuff is.

 

[TCampbell]

^^ What Bike Mike says.

Anytime you're using equipment that you aren't already familiar with you're asking for trouble. The 5D III is a great camera, but let's just pick on the focus system... it's advanced... to the point that it takes some learning to understand what it all means and why it has so many options. I recently had someone else shooting some images at an event for me using my 5D III and noticed a large number of out of focus (more accurately, the wrong thing was in focus) because this person didn't understand the focus system.

The focus system is probably the thing that is most likely to derail you... understanding how to set shooting modes, exposure settings, etc. probably won't be too difficult, but the focusing modes take some learning. The 5D III has a lot of focus options and once each mode is explained it makes sense -- but you might not intuitively know when to use spot AF vs. surround area AF (just picking two examples out of many) if you haven't had time to read, learn, test, and digest how it all works so that picking the right mode is 2nd nature. The 5D III has spot focus, single point focus, expand area focus, surround area focus, zone focus, and full 61 point auto-focus. It also has a tunable focus tracking system which also takes some learning. This on top of the stuff you may already be aware of such as the difference between single "one shot" focus and continuous "AI Servo" focus. This is a fantastic system ONCE you are able to learn how it all works. But if you've never used anything like it before... it can be a bit confusing and result in a lot of shots where the camera focused on what it was configured to focus on (based on mode selection) instead of what you WANTED it to focus on.

A 6D is probably a good alternative in that it also has the ability to shoot high ISO with low noise and can focus in low light... but the focus system is much less complex and probably a bit closer to the 60D (it has an 11 point AF ... looks a lot like your 9 point AF pattern except with two extra focus points tucked left and right of the center point in that same diamond shaped arrangement of focus points. Keep in mind that on the 6D only the center point is cross-type.

If you were to rent a 6D, go out of your way to make sure you've disabled the GPS. The GPS drains battery power AT ALL TIMES (even when the camera is powered off) if the GPS was enabled in the menu system. This is because it takes the GPS several minutes to acquire a position and Canon didn't want people switching the camera off for a minute or two... switching it back on to get a shot... and then complaining to them that the location data is missing (because the GPS didn't have time to get a position fix). SO.... they leave the GPS running even when the camera is switched off. Consequently, there are a lot of 6D owners who are wondering why their batteries are always dead.

 

[Steve5D]

Would it be a wise idea to use the 60D as a backup and rent the 5D Mark III?

My gut says, no, it wouldn't be a wise idea.

I'll assume you know the 60D. You don't know the 5D MkIII. Probably the single worst place to work on figuring it out would be when you're trying to shoot a wedding with it. I just don't see that being a recipe for success.

If anything, I would use the 60D as the primary and the 5D MkIII as the back-up. Ideally, though, I would rent another 60D, simply because there's no learning curve...

 

[W.Fovall]

the real world difference is around 8% lower noise at iso 3200. thats about it...

 

[Derrel]

The real world difference is that every single lens length that you "know" and "are familiar with" is suddenly, utterly,and totally "thrown out". The difference in where you must stand, and what your lens will capture, is changed dramatically when you switch to a full frame camera. The two formats are VERY different in the way they relate to real-world scenes and events.

With a 60D and an 85mm lens, you would need to be 35 feet away to shoot a "tall" portrait of the bride and groom with a field of view of 8.5 feet in height.

With the full-frame 6D and the same 85mm lens, you would need to be 20 feet away to shoot the SAME "tall" shot of the bride and groom, with the same 8.5 foot tall field of view.

The real world difference is that APS-C and 24x36 are two entirely DIFFERENT camera formats. It's a good reason NOT to rent a 6D. GO ahead and buy one, well ahead of time if you wish, but be aware, it takes a bit of time to go from the APS-C mentality to the FF mentality.

 

[W.Fovall]

All that means is that you just have to stand 1.6 times closer to your subject.. or you could just crop it 1.6 times in post and get the same effect as the 60 D