The analysis that has been done so far at dpreview confirms improvement compared to 5D2 but states that it so far is NOT enough available information. Most possitive seems to be very low pattern noise.
PRELIMINARY a small improvement in QE over 1D4. Not as good as D800 but close.
This may change, hopefully in possitive direction, when more information gets available.

Yet I will not hope for more than 0.5 stop improvement + fixed pattern noise issue.

gstevens said:

Wow, thanks for all the replies guys. Appreciate it.

So, from what I've seen Zeiss seems to be the fan favorite here. As far as lens type/focal lengths; If you had three to choose from to carry in your kit - which would you carry and why? Which do you find best for wide shots, closeups, etc... I'm very curious as to which lenses I MUST have and those I can add later.

Vuilang, and everyone else, beyond body/lenses these are the other items I intend to order: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=wishListDetail.jsp&A=wishlistDetail&Q=&li=46A71EA9F5 (Anyone use any of these products before, suggestions?)

Thanks again guys.

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It depends on how much money you want to spend, but I'd say to start with either:
•18mm f/3.5 or 21mm f/2.8 for the wide end
•35mm f/2 or 50mm (f/1.4 or f/2, in this case the f/2 is more expensive)
•85mm f/1.4

If you don't want to shoot ultra wide at all you could get away with the 35, 50, and 85, but that 21 2.8 is an awesome lens and so is the 18mm. For the 50mm the 1.4 is only $725, the f/2 Makro is $1200 I think, but it's incredibly sharp and has macro capability (min. focus distance is 10"). The 85mm is an excellent portrait range and produces a stunning bokeh. The 100mm Makro is the only ZE lens they have any longer than that, and while it is amazing it's almost $2k.

You could create some truly sick images with those and keep yourself busy for quite a while. I wouldn't buy any more new lenses than that at 1 time, 3 is already pushing it. You want to spend time learning each lens and figuring out it's quirks, sweet spots, etc.

agree. the 5DIII is great but nothing close to as revolutionary as the 5D or 5DII.

I'm really excited about RF finally coming to flashes. I HATE pocket wizards. It is just such a cludgy solution for something that shouldn't even be a problem in this day and age where everything is RF and wireless. Not to mention they are so overpriced that it is about time somebody cut off the middle man.

I think we're going to see more OEMs doing away with 1980's inspired infrared technology so canon did a favor to the entire industry with this new flash.

CaiLeDao said:

You should also consider the history of Camera ownership in mainland China it is still largely an immature market and ownership of SLR's is low because of affordability and lifestyle. Loads of point and shoots, as well as a large wedding photo business market. Walking around in China with a 5D II still draws lots of attention, tripods and filters are very rare, but if you go to a scenic place to take a photo, be prepared to be engaged in a crowd of snappers, firing flash at the sunrise, enjoying the experience.

So while there are some very good photographers in China, I would take this survey as coming from a very unique perspective.

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ur description about the situation of Chinese DSLR is quite on the point,yet for Chinese market 5 years ago.Nowadays,China has more numerous DSLR users than any country.There always are hundreds of photography groups even in some unprosperous cities,and almost of them hold photography events sponsored by enthusiasts.They hire models or drive to scenic to shoot.

it is a catch 21, most customers come from referrals and to get referrals you need customers....

those first few years are tough....

Indeed if you just read all of the links of the reviews of the 5DmkIII you find one that displays tests at every ISO level !! And you find this picture @ISO12800 in full resolution (5,6Mb heavy) that clearly proves that those ISOs are really really good on this camera :

http://masters.galleries.dpreview.com.s3.amazonaws.com/1779795.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=14Y3MT0G2J4Y72K3ZXR2&Expires=1331032376&Signature=7TZD0GaCD2Tv3NrY12UccliGdSk%3d

Viggo said:

RuneL said:

Viggo said:

Hi guys!

This is for you that have been trying the 1d X.

How come after 45 minutes with it and a Canon person we couldn't get the camera to light up the chosen AF point, and be able to track a subject with that point? Did any of you people get that to work?

No matter what zone or signle point AF I chose, the focusing points jumped around wildly and were impossible to control, it also seemed like the expansion points are no VISIBLE, please tell me this can be turned off....

I want to be able to see the single point I track something with all the time, and ONLY that point... We struggled also very hard to achieve this on the 5d3 also. Which, btw, looks fairly awesome....

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I don't know the 1D X but if the 1D, 1D II, 1D III and IV is anything to go by, you need to customize the camera to light up the chosen AF-point.

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Yeah, I owned the 1d4 for 2,5 years, and it was working straight from the box. I could choose expansion points on and off and left/right or surrounding. But only the main point lit up and stayed lit up always. But couldn't find anything about this on the 1d X. It seems it has, in general, become more difficult to use and to find what you're looking for.

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Back to the II days then. Oh joy...

here is an extract of the best review of this lens in my op.
hope it helps
Although it is soft wide open, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Lens is sharp at f/2 and very sharp when stopped down to f/2.8 or narrower. Corners are soft until f/2 for 1.6x FOVCF bodies and f/2.8 on full frame bodies. Strong halation is present at f/1.4 (a soft, dreamy look) with some CA (Chromatic Aberration). Colors and contrast (after the halation diminishes at f/2 or so) are very nice. The 50 f/1.4's 8-blade aperture creates a good foreground/background blur quality. Light fall-off is noticeable through f/2 on a Full Frame body, When mounted on a 1.6x FOVCF body, light fall-off is noticeable only through f/1.6 or so. My exposures with this lens run about 1/3 stop brighter than with most of my other lenses.

from
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-50mm-f-1.4-USM-Lens-Review.aspx

Hey guys, so Adobe just announced Lightroom 4 (not the beta, the real deal) and has also announced Camera Raw 6.7 is now available as a Release Candidate on Adobe Labs and they list it has 5D Mark III RAW support. Let's see some of those RAW files!!

http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2012/03/adobe-camera-raw-6-7-and-dng-converter-6-7-available-on-adobe-labs.html

I wonder if the 3rd party grips will be Magnesium alloy or all plastic. That could make a huge difference in price.

I've had a great experience with an Opteka grip on my Xsi. Not a single problem including two 3rd party batteries.

However, I'm not sure if I would spend $3500 on a solidly constructed mag alloy body only to put a cheap plastic grip on it to save $250. The b&h list price is now $350. A fair price for an alloy grip with control dial. Compair that to the $200 canon xsi grip and it's a bargain.

For an inexpensive, small, light rebel, I wouldn't hesitate to buy another Opteka grip. However, for a well built pro body, I think I'd fork out the few extra bucks for the real deal.

The grip at $350 is still way to expensive for me. I'm willing to pay top dollar for MK lll bodies during the first release, but not for the new grip. That's where I'm determined to save money.
After I purchased the MK ll on sale last December for under $2000 I bought a Zeikos grip for under $60 and it works fine and looks just like the Canon model. $60 !!

Does anyone remember how long it took for quality, non-Canon grips, to hit the market last time around ?

I think you made a good choice. I have the 100-400L, 70-300L and the 70-200L non IS. The 70-300 would be my 1st choice for track and soccer, on a crop body. The 100-400 is bigger and heavier and can be very limiting, when the action get's up close. Having the extra field of view at 70mm makes a big difference.

For baseball, on the other hand, I prefer the 100-400, but the 70-300 is still a very good choice. Just position yourself accordingly and any of these lenses should work well.

Mt Spokane Photography said:

I've been thinking of hibernating untill all the excitement over the 5D MK III dies down.

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I went on holiday for 3 days so missed most of the fallout from the event

I can see no one is getting over the price anytime soon

foundationboy said:

I look at my photos and my main usage is wide-angle and at festivals/nights out. The inbuilt flash of my old 30D was so handy and didn't scare people away. I've been waiting for so long for the 5dmkiii and was going to buy a 24mm f1.4 for low light but now I'm thinking a built in flash is just too useful for those time you can't be bothered taking out a 580ex.

Hmmm. Any ideas when the next Canon SLR will come out with inbuilt flash??

Ps, Thank you so much Canon Rumors - I have been checking twice a day for 6 months now for updates. How geeky am i!

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Well with the ISO-capacity of the 5dmkIII coupled with 24/1.4 you could go without flash for quite a deal of photos depending of what you shoot...

the Rebels target a completely different market than the pro bodies. the pros aren't going to shell out the dough except for real, substantial gains which take longer to realize. take the progression of the 5D, 5D2 and now 5D3. each one was a great substantial leap forward which only leaves you wondering just how great the 5D4 will be 3-4 years from now.

for a lot of consumers it's been decently successful putting out a Rebel every year where each summer and Christmas you've got a new model with its own bells and whistles to distinguish it from its predecessor to justify it being overpriced. moreover you've got the more conscious ones going after the previous model which is still in production instead of balking altogether and Canon makes a profit on it too. that's a pretty different environment than those professional cameras with constantly high prices and longer refresh rates. as far as guts go, little has changed in the Rebels since the Rebel t2i and other than Digic 5 I'm not sure how much will change with the Rebel t4i but Canon needs those new models because they surely couldn't keep charging $800 for a Rebel t2i for three straight years while waiting for the 7D2 to debut and hand down its guts.

LetTheRightLensIn said:

MikeHunt said:

Found these:

http://www.canon.co.nz/~/media/Product%20Brochures/Camera/Digital%20SLR%20Cameras/EOS/EOS-5D-Mark-III-Specification-Brochure.ashx

Also spec sheet:

http://www.canon.co.uk/Images/EOS_5D_Mark_III_Specification_Sheet-v2_0_tcm14-910228.pdf

As well as 5D Mark III technology explained:

http://www.canon.co.uk/Images/EOS_5D_Mark_III_Technologies_Explained-v1_0_tcm14-907890.pdf

AS far as the manual pdf download....just says awaiting

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hmm why would max fps need to be limited based upon light levels? That means the 1DX might go under 6fps in very low lighting then?

Also curious is that every single mention of improved DR strictly mention it only at mid-high to high ISO and not a single peep about any improvements of DR at ISO100 (where Sony Exmor sensor have been putting Canon sensors to complete shame by at least 2 stops).

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Perhaps the speed varies with light levels because of nr or other processing done on the image after taking the shot. Even in raw mode a jpg is still created for viewing.

Or perhaps it's more light that slows it down. Dark images tend to be smaller in file size. Less data to move so it's quicker? I doubt it but just thought I'd mention it

Re: Nikon Uses 5d2, Phantom HD Footage To Promote D800

cezargalang said:

Just found this and I'm just going to leave it here...

http://fstoppers.com/omg-nikon-uses-5d2-phantom-hd-footage-to-promote-d800

They even got footage from TSO Photography (An timelapse photographer using 5Dmk2's)

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Nikon should be ashamed of themselves and sued for a considerable amount of money (if images were not used under liscense, which I've read many haven't). Us at canon rumors ought to go over to our nikon rumors equivalent and flame them for supporting such a blatently deceptive company. Unless someone can show Canon uses the same underhanded tricks at which point I retract my comments :-\.

But seriously, that is weaksauce.

I have already preordered and paid my 1D X here in Switzerland. It' s said I'll be available in late april.

Leadfingers said:

I've been thinking...there's a lot of hate from "elite" and "proper" photographers regarding video in SLR bodies. Canon might be in agreement with this haters, considering the marginal video improvements in the 5D3.

I'm wondering if there might be more video improvements to the T4i. That would make the snobs professionals happy and give some of us what we really need.

Thoughts?

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I shoot a bit of video with my 7D and my T2i before that, but I don't 100% agree with you on marginal improvements on video for the 5D3, although I fully understand your sentiment (question)...
.... I mean + 2 Stops means that you can now shoot HD vids at night @ 1SO = 3200 on the new 5D e.g. look at 1:45 (one minute + 45 secs in on this youtube video that I watched recently)....looks pretty awesome with the new EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II lens

Canon 5D Mk III 1080p Sample with EF Lenses

I have the old 24-70mm, well I say old but I just got it, but I couldn't imagine getting this quality @ 3200 ISO??

Ozdigital online (ebay seller)
ship from hong kong grey market and offer a full warranty, the difference i found with these guys and the other hong kong sellers is if you need to return it the return address is in NSW not in hong kong and this saves a bundle of cash if you need to send something back

I have purchsed several lenses from them and returned one not because it was faulty but just because it was a tamrom and such utter rubbish I couldnt stand it. they happily accepted it back and gave me a credit with which i purchased a couple of canon lenses to replace it. great service worth a look, a little more expensive than the other ebay sellers but the Aus return address in the event of a problem is a nice draw card IMO.

I have also purchased a fair bit from digital rev but if you need to return stuff to them its got to go back to hong kong (expensive)

The 5D Mk. IIII will be announced on Wednesday June 3, 2015, plus or minus one day. It will render the 5D3 almost worthless

Surely the sensor output are clocked in banks into an array of a few (or a lot?) of op-amps. You could set alternate op-amps to have low gain or high-gain before reading the sensor out into the banks of amps.

So I don't think you'd need individual amps for all the pixels. That would be insane.

It could be done.

But I doubt it'd really be worth the loss of resolution which you would suffer by effectively going from 22MPix at the same sensitivity to, say, 22/4MPix of composite pixels, each consisting of 4 sub-pixels of varying sensitivity.

Those sure are some traaashy pictures. :-X

Sharpness, wb, where have you gone?

All this charting is interesting, but I wonder if there are factors that aren't being taken into consideration.

Since Canon USA has already dropped their price for the refurbished 5D II to $1,759, I have a hard time seeing how the ceiling for a used (no warranty) sale between two private parties can go above that. I would think that realistically, people ought to figure on at least a $100 discount from the refurbished price.

But, then again, I am always amazed at the prices people pay on eBay for used equipment. There are apparently a lot of people out there who are poorly informed consumers who don't bother to, or don't know how to, compare prices. Or maybe, it's just a different perspective, but I always feel that the value of a warranty (whether new or refurbished) should be factored in when comparing a sale from a known vendor to a private-party sale.

Given the current market prices, if I were in the market for a 5D II is would not go above $1,600 for a used model. But that's just me.

good question
I asked my local store here in Orlando and got no info. They don't know.

Must be some issues I'd guess...but based on the initial results of the 5d3 and the delay in the 1dx, not a sound idea to preorder...