The joy of being an early adopter

thereyougo! · Mar 17, 2012

Today I managed to get hold of a Canon 5D mkIII and the people I bought it from will take my mkII off my hands too. The camera seems to handle well. Shutter much quieter than mkII and focusing much quicker. Only had a quick play handheld on Cardiff station and on tripod from my roof. The big pain is that LR4 doesn't have the profile for it yet so have had to download the beta version of ACR 6.7 and pull them individually into CS5.

Here are a few shots:

1. Canon 5D Mark III EF 24 - 70 at 70mm f/7.1 ISO 500 1/40

Platform-3b by singingsnapper, on Flickr

2. Canon 5D Mk III 24 - 70L AT 27MM 1/60 ISO 500

Station-pic-with-5D3 by singingsnapper, on Flickr

3. 5D mk III tamron 200 - 500 at 209mm f/13 ISO 100 1/6

Looking-at-evening-sky-from-the-roof by singingsnapper, on Flickr

4. a wider view

24 - 70 L at 42mm f/13 1/13 ISO 100

wide-view-from-the-roof by singingsnapper, on Flickr

DorkSterr · Mar 17, 2012

Why no 3200 ISO and up?

thereyougo! · Mar 17, 2012

DorkSterr said:
Why no 3200 ISO and up?

these are shot at 70mm on 24 - 70 L at f/5.6, no noise reduction used and sharpened using unsharp mask at 100% and 1.1 radius in CS5:

@ 3200:

5D3-at-3200 by singingsnapper, on Flickr

@6400

5D3-at-6400 by singingsnapper, on Flickr

@8000

5D3-at-8000 by singingsnapper, on Flickr

@10,000

5D3-at-10k by singingsnapper, on Flickr

@12800

5D3-at-12800 by singingsnapper, on Flickr

Derrel · Mar 17, 2012

thereyougo! said:
Today I managed to get hold of a Canon 5D mkIII and the people I bought it from will take my mkII off my hands too. The camera seems to handle well. Shutter much quieter than mkII and focusing much quicker. Only had a quick play handheld on Cardiff station and on tripod from my roof. The big pain is that LR4 doesn't have the profile for it yet so have had to download the beta version of ACR 6.7 and pull them individually into CS5.

Here are a few shots:

1. Canon 5D Mark III EF 24 - 70 at 70mm f/7.1 ISO 500 1/40

Platform-3b by singingsnapper, on Flickr

Wow! I am totally sold on this camera! Impressive. The detail is so life-like on this sign. And the dirt on the roofing material--oh, to die for! Canon 's got a sure winner on its hands with the 5D-III. I take it the new autofocus system was up to the task of your brief shooting session. Right?

Any comments about the way the camera handled or felt? I'm sure a good number of people would like to hear anything about the camera from an actual user of it!

thereyougo! · Mar 18, 2012

The autofocus is very much improved from the mk II. Faster and more precise. The menu is going to take more learning as that is much different from the MKII. So far so good. Low light performance far superior to anything Canon has done before. In UK canon has allowed stores to sell mkIII kits early.

It feels more robust. I decided to get the mkIII as it would get me wider with the canon and 3rd party lenses I have and was almost £1000 cheaper than the 25mm Pentax lens for my 645D. I have 12-500 mm covered on Canon and 33-400 mm covered on the Pentax. My Pentax is in need of a service which will mean it will be away for some time. It will be interesting to see how the mkIII compares

My dealer was a bit naughty and 'split a box' by selling only the body. I already have the 24-105 and 24-70 L lenses so this suited me.

Opher · Mar 18, 2012

Nice to know the af preforms well... i have a 5D and to shoot a wedding with it is Hell hahaha. How is the af in low light?

thereyougo! · Mar 18, 2012

The biggest pain is not being able to upload the RAW files on to my computer except to do it individually or in small groups. My normal workflow is to upload them on to my mac through LR and then decide which ones I will keep, and which to delete immediately. Then I have a closer look at the ones I've kept and decide which ones to process in CS5. I don't fancy loading 100's of shots into CS5! I have the beta version of ACR 6.7 but there is no way to catalogue them there.

Overread · Mar 18, 2012

Normally takes adobe a bit of time to catch up with new camera releases, though you could use the canon software to import and sort things more quickly I would assume.

Derrel said:
Wow! I am totally sold on this camera!

Who are you and what have you done with the real Derrel?!

Alex_B · Mar 18, 2012

Derrel said:
Wow! I am totally sold on this camera! Impressive. The detail is so life-like on this sign. And the dirt on the roofing material--oh, to die for! Canon 's got a sure winner on its hands with the 5D-III. I take it the new autofocus system was up to the task of your brief shooting session. Right?

How evil is that?

Alex_B · Mar 18, 2012

Opher said:
Nice to know the af preforms well... i have a 5D and to shoot a wedding with it is Hell hahaha. How is the af in low light?

Been on several full-package weddings from early morning until late at night ... usually with two 5 D and later. with two 5 D mk2 ... and none of the two photographers would call it hell because of the af

... although it is not perfect.

thereyougo! · Mar 18, 2012

Overread said:
Normally takes adobe a bit of time to catch up with new camera releases, though you could use the canon software to import and sort things more quickly I would assume.

Derrel said:

Wow! I am totally sold on this camera!

Click to expand...

Who are you and what have you done with the real Derrel?!

The canon software was my next attempt. It doesn't load on to my mac as it doesn't have an installation file on the disc

Derrel · Mar 18, 2012

As you have found, one of the biggest pains in the butt with the early adoption process is the SOFTWARE disruptions it can cause!!!

Big Mike · Mar 19, 2012

Derrel said:
thereyougo! said:

Today I managed to get hold of a Canon 5D mkIII and the people I bought it from will take my mkII off my hands too. The camera seems to handle well. Shutter much quieter than mkII and focusing much quicker. Only had a quick play handheld on Cardiff station and on tripod from my roof. The big pain is that LR4 doesn't have the profile for it yet so have had to download the beta version of ACR 6.7 and pull them individually into CS5.

Here are a few shots:

1. Canon 5D Mark III EF 24 - 70 at 70mm f/7.1 ISO 500 1/40

Platform-3b by singingsnapper, on Flickr

Click to expand...

Wow! I am totally sold on this camera! Impressive. The detail is so life-like on this sign. And the dirt on the roofing material--oh, to die for! Canon 's got a sure winner on its hands with the 5D-III. I take it the new autofocus system was up to the task of your brief shooting session. Right?

Any comments about the way the camera handled or felt? I'm sure a good number of people would like to hear anything about the camera from an actual user of it!