Lloyd Chambers Review of 5d3

[PhilDrinkwater]

Lets face it, Canon COULD have done better with the 5D3.  Ive been playing with mine for more than a week now, and I am seeing maybe .5 to 1 stop improvement in the sensor over the 5D2.

I think this is part of the problem - people think Canon could have done better, but 1/2 to 1 stop better than the 5d2 puts it on a par with the d3s, which is the raining champ of high ISO.

Do I think the 5d3 will beat it? Hmm... no. But the 1dx might be a half stop better (according to a canon rep I spoke to). People keep expecting 1-2 stops high ISO per generation but physics just isn't allowing it. Not saying you are specifically, but I don't think there's much more to be had.

Now dynamic range is another matter - shadow noise is definitely not fantastic on Canons.

All that said, as a wedding photographer myself I was sorely tempted by the 5d3 but decided on a 1dx for a number of reasons.

The 5d3 is IMO the best overall wedding camera on the market though. The d3s is the second best IMO - and only second best because of the lower resolution and it's annoying inability to produce attractive white balance. Well, presuming the 5d3 focussing turns out to be as good as everyone seems to be saying it is

[rlarsen]

When I visit Nikon forums a find a similar mix of high praise, complaining and disappointment.
During  pre Internet days we were never exposed to such a flood of wide-ranging reaction, and I do believe most forums of any kind, by nature, attract more complaining.

I don't remember, did Canon promise two, three, four more stops of speed from the new body ? That wasn't  the most significant improvement I was expecting.

During my long career none of my pro cameras have ever been perfect. Many great features, a few that puzzled me and some things I was always left wishing for. The steady improvement though has had a real impact on my work.  For example, look at the improvement in sports photography, wedding pictures, digital photography in National Geographic, and If you can, visit the White House to see their historic collection of images. The recent ones are extraordinary by comparison.  Large, sharp, beautiful, noise-free images in very low light of our dark-skinned President. 

Canon USA and CPS welcome comments and concerns, and they share them with the people in Japan who make the products.

[gecko]

Chambers' review suggsests the MkIII has a slight green colour cast.

Any one notice this on their new MkIII?

[jaduffy007]

First...reading the replies to this thread, I see it was predominantly not worthwhile to post Lloyd's comments.  Fanboism causes blindness.  A blindness Llloyd doesn't suffer from.  The #1 reason I read his site.   I would feel fairly safe in betting Lloyd has more photography experience than 80% of the posters here *combined*.  But of course, that won't dissuade anyone here from calling him a hack and / or compare him to Ken Rockwell...since unsubstantive opinions are the norm here as well as at dpreview.

My agreement with Lloyd is simple....5d3 is a fine camera.  Noise is a good news / bad news situation.  The much improved AF is extremely welcomed.  IQ though....pretty minor improvement from 5d2.  I felt Lloyd's perspective reinforced my own experience so far....5d3=5d2n.  After 3.5 years of R&D...disappointiing

Nikon has decidedly taken a different approach.  Shot with a D800 today...stunning images.

Anyway...I apologize if I wasted anyone's time.  Buh Bye.

[dilbert]

5d3=5d2n.  After 3.5 years of R&D...disappointiing

+1

[stve]

Possibly another old school guy who doesn't know how to use new tech. If he wanted images to be more accurate for static subjects including his zeiss lens he would have used spot focus. Who knows if he did but its interesting.

He's definitely in the Landscape camp more resolution is better and image quality is King.
 He uses a lot of manual focus lenses I very much doubt he uses anything else but spot focus he is an expert not a newbie.
He might have been converting his Images with DPP which appears to have many problems delivering sharp images, the guy in charge at Canon must be unbelievably stupid releasing a camera without first making sure that DPP had no bugs with it.
Lightroom 4.1 RC recently released  now has 5DMKIII  support & is significantly better than the ACR 6.7 beta that most have been using to convert their images so its possible he might be updating his early findings at some point.