Messages

1

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5d3 2 day experience coming from a 7D - Canon responses included...

« on: May 10, 2012, 12:41:18 PM »

If the battery is about 40% or below, I'd drops to around 4fps. If the fps is inconsistent during servo, than there is a good chance it is due to the speed/focus priority as mentioned by awinphoto. This can be found on AF2 menu.

2

EOS Bodies / Re: crop sensor eos bodies slightly range in size?

« on: May 10, 2012, 10:20:53 AM »

The digital picture have a good list of different sensor sizes.

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EOS-Rebel-T2i-550D-Digital-SLR-Camera-Review.aspx

3

EOS Bodies / Re: After DPREVIEW of D800 would you still get the Canon 5d mark iii?

« on: May 10, 2012, 08:04:03 AM »

Scores are relative to their respective category, and time. It is very difficult to describe something so vast with just a magic number. I don't care about personal opinion weighted numbers. The real review and comparisons are far more revealing. The same goes for DXO, their weighted indexes are not of much help, but they do it to generate traffic since it attracts more people.

4

EOS Bodies / Re: After DPREVIEW of D800 would you still get the Canon 5d mark iii?

« on: May 10, 2012, 06:11:58 AM »

If I would buy it again ? YES !!  First of all, I have bought a 5D III due to it's strong points and has nothing to do with the D800. It was from day one that I knew that the D800 is a fantastic camera, but comparing strong and weak points overall they are really on the same level, but the 5DIII strong points are much more important to me. Dpreview shows that the 5DIII is even better than I thought compared to the D800.

After reading the comparisons with the 5DIII and comparing the graphs which already include the 5DIII measurements, confirms that the D800 is a great camera, but the review also shows how impressive the 5DIII is. It will be interesting to read the 5DIII review when ready. 

Two days ago I was processing with ACR 7.1 a 5DIII ISO 25600 image of an Aztec statue in a low lit museum handheld, and was really impressed at how easy it was to clean up the image without much detail loss. Yes, the detail starting point of the image was lower compared to an ISO 100, but the noise reduction managed to remove the noise easily without any extra detail sacrifice.

This made me think, the DXO measurements of RAW data shows that the 5DIII, D800 and D4 have similar noise capability, with a near negligible edge for the D4 at some ISO's. When we look camera JPG images, the 5DIII shows that it manage to perform even better compared to the competition and we always used to think that Canon JPG engine is just better. I was going to open a new thread about this, but after seeing Radiating post, I think it is good to mention it here because it is exactly what I was thinking about. Is it really the characteristics of the noise of the 5DIII which makes it easier to clean it up that well with software, rather than just the Canon JPG engine being good ?

In short, I am really impressed with this camera and I am still at early stages with it. It is true that there are some stupid omissions, of which I hope some will be fixed with a firmware update. Also, I think that the 5DIII should be priced similar as the D800.   

5

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5D Mark III vs. 1D Mark IV

« on: May 06, 2012, 12:45:35 PM »

Here is another difference not yet mentioned:

Lens drive speed: Because of its higher voltage battery, the 1D Mark IV can supply an initial burst of power to select L-series USM telephoto lenses (limited to EF super telephotos) that drives them twice as fast as normal for the first second of operation. The 5D Mark III can't do that because its battery is lower voltage, and also because the camera body is not designed to accept higher voltage even if it was available.

http://www.ronmartblog.com/2012/03/canon-5d-mark-iii-unboxing-first-report.html

This is only from specification. I do not know if the difference is noticeable in the real world. I own neither camera but I am currently doing a lot of reading about the potential upgrades for my 7D which from my perspective is limited when used for distant nature photography in low light.

The reviewer of the digital picture, used the 5DIII for sports with 300 2.8 and 400 2.8 lenses and says that the focus hit rate was impressive. This guy has good experience with the 1 series cameras so I am sure he knows what he is talking about.

6

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5D Mark III vs. 1D Mark IV

« on: May 06, 2012, 09:59:01 AM »

Using a 90mb extreme pro Sandisk CF card, and shooting raw, with a minimum of 1/500 shutter, wide open, fully charged battery, and good exposure to reach the maximum continuous shooting speed of 6fps, I manage to get between 18 - 23 shots. This is about 3 to 3.8 seconds of shooting and it was achieved even with ISO 800 (which increases the file size). It takes about 4-5 seconds to clear the buffer when full (didn't time it with a watch, just mental estimate )

When I was reading about the 1DIV tests with the same card, looks it manage to get about 25 - 30 shots which translates to 2.5 to 3 seconds. From the specs, it seems that even the 1DX won' t manage to do better than that due to it's fast 12fps.

It was interesting to read the digital picture reviewer saying that he used to prefer shooting sports with the 1DsIII with it's slow 5fps instead the 1DIV,  so that he get more background blur due to the sensor size difference. This was one of the main reasons I wanted to switch to FF for sports. Now, the 5DIII can give a 6fps with the best AF and and great FF sensor. It is also interesting to hear that the new 5DIII AF has better odds to get the photos in focus compared to the 1DIV.

I want to add that I am noticing that when the 5DIII battery is below 40-50%, the continuous shooting speed sounds to be about 4fps. It made me think about the battery grip rumor saying that the camera could achieve 6.9 fps with it. Anyone noticed the same fps decline ?     

   

7

EOS Bodies / Re: Cost of 5DMk3 internationally

« on: May 03, 2012, 04:48:26 PM »

I got the body for 3250 eur in Malta (inc 18% vat) from official canon seller. Kit is not available.

8

EOS Bodies - For Video / Re: 5D Mark III Magic Lantern wish list poll

« on: April 29, 2012, 05:26:21 AM »

focus peaking

9

EOS Bodies / Re: 5d mark iii availability?

« on: April 11, 2012, 11:42:09 AM »

I should get my 5D locally (Malta) tomorrow. Like aznstuart, I forgot the feel of buying locally from a shop, especially here in my country were prices are higher and you won't find anything in stock. Usually I buy online from UK or Germany, but the new local Canon reseller was selling the camera for 3250 EUR which is much better than UK.He also told me that they will arrive in a couple of days too (tomorrow),  just before my trip to UK

10

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5D Mark III at F/8 and smaller Tests

« on: April 02, 2012, 10:15:33 AM »

You're talking about unrelated issues.  The EV sensitivity of the sensor is independent of the f-number threshold.  The f-number specification is related to the 'baseline' of the sensor - f/2.8 lines are further apart (physical spacing on the AF sensor), and require a wider aperture lens to cover that larger area. 

Also, the -2 EV spec applies, "Using a single central AF point with an f/2.8 lens..."  So, you'd need four times as much light (EV 0) to focus with an f/5.6 lens in extremely dim conditions.

Thanks for the clarification, I was always pondering about it and this thread was a good place to ask.

11

EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5D Mark III at F/8 and smaller Tests

« on: April 02, 2012, 09:28:53 AM »

The previous cameras used to focus @ -1 EV, and the new ones @ -2 EV. I would like to ask if it is correct to say that the 1DX and 5DIII can focus with f/5.6 @ -2 EV or F/8 @ -1 EV if Canon decide to do a firmware update with a new algorithm ?

A different algorithm done for the purpose of f/8 focusing should make a significant difference than just trying to trick the current firmware code with the tape. I think, there might be a chance that this get fixed. Maybe ready before the 1DX release.

Did you got any different results when changing the focus limiter switch ?

12

5D MK III Sample Images / Re: 5D MK III Sharpness Test

« on: March 30, 2012, 03:51:41 PM »

My new 5D MK III came last night, I played with it a bit, but to get the best sharpness, I need to AFMA my lenses.

Looks good. Have fun with your new camera !

13

EOS Bodies / Re: Comparometer! 5D mkiii vs your current camera

« on: March 20, 2012, 04:00:06 PM »

Sorry for the rant.  I'm preordered from B&H since March 2 and am waiting on pins an needles.  I already bought a 70-200 2.8 IS, a siggy 12-24mm rectilinear, and a 50mm 1.2L, as my starting kit and drool looking at the lenses each day  waiting.

If you want to see examples of my work see below.  Also, looking forward to being a canon man...

www.flickr.com/benison

It was fun reading your rant. It is evident that you are going to have a good time with your new toys! So you have those nice ef lenses and no canon camera yet ? Time is going to be very slow until the 5D iii arrives !

Btw nice photos

14

EOS Bodies / Re: grip gives fps boost on 5D3 to 6.7-6.9fps????????

« on: March 20, 2012, 03:15:52 PM »

The .9 fps increase represent 15% improvement. 15% more photos to choice from that 1 - 2 second action. 15 % better odds. We have seen lot of applauses from users for a lower percentage improvement in resolution in a 10 year old replacement lens. At least an unexpected positive news, and I will be happy with that if it is true. Is it possible that canon did not mention anything about it due to inconsistency?

15

EOS Bodies / Re: 5DIII Fastest SD Card

« on: March 19, 2012, 04:21:58 AM »

I wonder if the 5DIII needs the fastest cards? I have 30mb/s cards in the 1D4 and they keep up fine.

So what is the real world need for 95mb/s? will you notice the difference?

If you are machine gunning the 5DIII then perhaps but that is not what the 5DIII is about as it will fill its buffer rather than wait on the card write.

Faster card will help take more photos before the buffer gets filled when your are machine gunning the camera, since the buffer is transferring data faster to the card. If I remember well, canon claims that the 5D iii buffer fills up after 13 shots with a normal card, and 18 shots with a fast cf card.

Yes I know what it does - but when was the last time anyone took more than 13 shots at high speed continuous on a non sports camera?

If you are shooting sport requiring continuous shooting, what difference is going to make if the camera is a non sports one ? The only difference is that the poor guy (me) will have more limitations. I shoot sports with a 500D which fills it's buffer after 9 shots. I hit this limitation often, even although I try to economise on the shooting if I believe I will need more shots on the next second. Once the buffer is full, it will take longer to clear it completely with a slower card.

The 5D iii with it's sport af, 6 fps, and better buffer, will be a fantastic improvement for me, but I will need to get the 18 shot buffer limit, to match with the 500D continuous shooting time (3.4 fps with 9 frames buffer limit)