5D3 review: If you don't own Canon, buy the Nikon D800

[JPL_1020]

From a local newspaper:

Verdict: This is a wonderful camera. If you hvae Canon lenses and want to move into the blissful realm of full-frame capture, then the 5D Mk III is for you. But the MkII is just as good for stills and costs $1600 less. If you already have a 5D Mk II (as we do), there is no pressing reason to upgrade. If you are starting from scratch with nothing invested in lenses and accessories, then look at the Nikon D800. It has superior ergonomics, a more luxurious feel and higher resolution sensor, and produces uncompressed video. And it is several hundred dollars cheaper.[/u]

Newspapers, magazines, camera & photography websites are mostly subjective. This happens to be one of them. Media is the number one tool in marketing and this is the best way people can promote their bias over other brands.
But one thing that cracks me is the use of words "ergonomically" & "luxurious".
For one, a lot of nikon users praised the ergonomics of the 5D3 and one very good example of that is Jared Polin @ Froknowsphoto.com.
2nd, does luxury even come to play if performance & IQ is the top priority on these cameras?!? Maybe yes if you're shooting leica.

[Dylan777]

Is there really any newbs who will go straight to a D800 or 5D3?

I would have thought that folk who were serious enough, demanding enough or even just the aspirational enough would already be shooting on something.  And if they are serious, demanding or aspirational then surely they will also have the nice f2.8 zooms or top primes to go with it?

However, I think there is some logic to the point about the 5D2 still being a great camera.  The 5D3 didn't fix faults on the 5D2, it created a whole new camera... folk who needed the speed would have moved on from a 5D2 long ago.

Maybe thats where the aspirational bit comes in.   Titlest clubs don't make you a pro golfer, and all that...

Taylormade will 

[Dylan777]

So the battle 5d3 vs d800 begins again :-)
I think it requires separate forum at 5D3vsD800.com - the domain is still free!!!

EDIT: I'm going out for 5 hours to shoot a little and hope to find here at least 5 pages more of this hot discussion after I'm back :-)

Make my work days go so fast 

[atrocious]

OK, an issue demands clarification for me, as I am not well-versed in Nikon gear. The article recommends going with Nikon if you are a newbie with no lenses, and lists the $500 price difference as one of the justifications. As far as Canon gear goes, I would recommend a newbie to go with the 5DM3 + 24-105L kit which has a list price of $4299 and is found in the market for somewhere between that and $4000 but let's go with $4299. Now I don't believe the D800 comes with a kit lens, so what is the total price of a equivalent system if one was to go with Nikon? Does a $500 premium still remain once you get a lens equivalent to the 24-105? If you have no gear the first thing you'll need to buy will be a lens and with a beast like D800, you better get something that can catch up with that sensor.

[bdunbar79]

Not to mention large hard-drive space on your computer.

[justsomedude]

I would recommend a newbie to go with the 5DM3 + 24-105L kit

I think recommending a $4,300 investment to a newbie photographer is poor advice.  A used 40D with a 28-135mm lens for $600 is more than enough for some one who is new to photography.

[Razor2012]

OK, an issue demands clarification for me, as I am not well-versed in Nikon gear. The article recommends going with Nikon if you are a newbie with no lenses, and lists the $500 price difference as one of the justifications. As far as Canon gear goes, I would recommend a newbie to go with the 5DM3 + 24-105L kit which has a list price of $4299 and is found in the market for somewhere between that and $4000 but let's go with $4299. Now I don't believe the D800 comes with a kit lens, so what is the total price of a equivalent system if one was to go with Nikon? Does a $500 premium still remain once you get a lens equivalent to the 24-105? If you have no gear the first thing you'll need to buy will be a lens and with a beast like D800, you better get something that can catch up with that sensor.

For a newbie I'd be going with the 5DIII.  With superior AF, high ISO, 6 fps and a better all-round camera, there is no choice.  IMO I would say the D800 is a more specialized camera for more landscape and studio work.  A camera isn't just about high MP, or is it all about high ISO.  You have to look at all the components and the camera as a whole.

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I fell for the hype and bought a D800 from a small local dealer.  I also bought a top of the line 24-70mmG, and a very good 80-200mm f/2.8D and I already had a 50mm f/1.8D as well as several lesser Nikon and Sigma lenses.  I also bought a used  manual focus 200-400mm AIS, and a 500mm reflex, so I had reasonably good glass to try it with.
At ISO 100-400, the DR was amazing, clearly better than anything I've seen before, and i've owned all the high end Canon bodies.  However, as ISO's rose further, the noise increased faster than I thought it should, so NR was required in increasingly heavier doses. 
Then, the huge file sizes took 5-10 seconds to render, and just applying a bit of NR would take my PC 30 seconds to a minute using LR 4, while it took 1-2 sec for the 5D MK III files.  Since I had several hundered images taken in very low light to edit, it was painful.
Finally, after editing the first 1000 images, I'd had it.  CA's from the 24-70mm were horrible and even when lens corrections and CA removal applied, they were awful.  It was difficult to get sharp images without extreme care.
All the troubles for a camera that was really a studio camera optomized for low ISO's was not what I wanted.  I was also put off by no affordable lens that had comparable quality to my 24-105mmL, my 135mmL, or my 100-400mm L  The 200-400mm lens turned out to have focus issues, so I returned it.  I could have bought all three of the Canon L's I mentioned for the price of that lens.
I sold it all, except for the mirror lens which adapts to Canon nicely, and bought a refurb 5D MK II which I like much better as a all around camera.
So my conclusion is that its a fine body, but I struggled with the lenses and lack of high quality ones to match my canon lenses, and with high ISO's where the DR is actually poorer than the canon 5D MK III.
For landscapes and studio images, it is be a great camera.  If a PJ just uses jpeg and does not have to edit the images, he would like it, but the first time he sits down to edit 1000 raw images, he is going to learn something new.
 

[Bruce Photography]

Imagine a D800 with an EF lens mount released by Canon and called 8D. What would you think about it?

I'm a landscape guy and I have a 5D3 and a D800/E and I often have the dream of my Canon tilt shift lenes with their great sharpness and double axis rotation.....  But then I wake up and realize Canon lenes on a Nikon will NEVER happen.  Sometimes when I'm using the Nikon 14-24 on the Canon 5D3 I can just pretend it is the other way around.  I hear rumors of a Canon 14-24 but then their is waiting for the annoucement, then waiting for pre-order wait list of undetermined length, then shipping, then waiting for the firmware fix of the lenes after they realized there was a bug in the expensive L lenes (how can that happen with the super tels that are over $10,000?)

Oh well, maybe it was all a dream.

[RLPhoto]

I went from my 5Dc to the 5D3. The 5D3 is the best camera i've ever shot with, I'd be hard pressed to believe the d800 can equal the shoot experience of the 5D3. Word on the street has the d800 joystick cannot even be programmed to move the AF point while looking thru the viewfinder! If thats true, I wouldn't want one for any serious shooting outside of a studio.

[Anthony]

I attended a photo lesson : 6 canon (7D) / 1 Nikon.
Teacher, a famous landscape photographer, had a 7D and wants keep going with Canon because Canon produces the best lenses. 24-70 is to his point of view the best lens ever made with a performance even better than 50 1.4 at 50 mm.
So don't be abused by Nikon marketing. Nimber one is Canon for a long time and the 35 Mpix is a mirage.

[dtaylor]

Imagine a D800 with an EF lens mount released by Canon and called 8D. What would you think about it?

I would buy it.

[Bruce Photography]

I went from my 5Dc to the 5D3. The 5D3 is the best camera i've ever shot with, I'd be hard pressed to believe the d800 can equal the shoot experience of the 5D3. Word on the street has the d800 joystick cannot even be programmed to move the AF point while looking thru the viewfinder! If thats true, I wouldn't want one for any serious shooting outside of a studio.

If that is the "word on the street" then the street would be wrong.  The Nikon multipoint device works the same in using the viewfinder as it does in Live View.  A behavior I wish Canon would adopt.  This behavior is that once you establish a direction, it will auto-repeat as you hold it down.  I can move the auto focus point so much faster and smoother with the Nikon compared with Canon 5D3 that this is one of advantages of the D800.  To be fair, I never really noticed it on my Canon 5D2 because there were so few points to move to and none were in a straight line.  However with the 5D3 having 61 AF points, this one at a time method is way too many button presses that can easily get confused with the center home function.  By the way, the 7D doesn't have as many focus points but I never make the mistake of pressing home when I don't mean it.  The 7D (with new 2.0) firmware seems nice but the Nikon moving focus points is faster and smoother.  Use a D800 for a week or two and you will see what I mean.

[atrocious]

I would recommend a newbie to go with the 5DM3 + 24-105L kit

I think recommending a $4,300 investment to a newbie photographer is poor advice.  A used 40D with a 28-135mm lens for $600 is more than enough for some one who is new to photography.

Oh sorry, I meant, if the said newbie was set on getting a 5D3, I would tell him/her to get it with the kit lens.

Thanks for the insight Mt Spokane!

[RLPhoto]

I went from my 5Dc to the 5D3. The 5D3 is the best camera i've ever shot with, I'd be hard pressed to believe the d800 can equal the shoot experience of the 5D3. Word on the street has the d800 joystick cannot even be programmed to move the AF point while looking thru the viewfinder! If thats true, I wouldn't want one for any serious shooting outside of a studio.

If that is the "word on the street" then the street would be wrong.  The Nikon multipoint device works the same in using the viewfinder as it does in Live View.  A behavior I wish Canon would adopt.  This behavior is that once you establish a direction, it will auto-repeat as you hold it down.  I can move the auto focus point so much faster and smoother with the Nikon compared with Canon 5D3 that this is one of advantages of the D800.  To be fair, I never really noticed it on my Canon 5D2 because there were so few points to move to and none were in a straight line.  However with the 5D3 having 61 AF points, this one at a time method is way too many button presses that can easily get confused with the center home function.  By the way, the 7D doesn't have as many focus points but I never make the mistake of pressing home when I don't mean it.  The 7D (with new 2.0) firmware seems nice but the Nikon moving focus points is faster and smoother.  Use a D800 for a week or two and you will see what I mean.

Noted, and corrected. I haven't used a d800 outside of a camera store. I'm sure its a good camera but I've been spoiled with the 5D3 41 Cross-type AF points spread over the frame, which I believe the 15 crosstype points in the d800 are clustered in the center.