5D Mk III Owners - are you happy?

[Tim Larsen]

The AF is amazing. As a professional wedding photog, this is exactly the camera I was looking for.

If I could change anything would be to take the megapixels down to 16-18 or so, but I'm thrilled with my new Mark III

 

[awinphoto]

To the OP... good job, you single handedly did Canon's marketing research exit poll for them =) Now they have to sit back and soak in the overwhelming numbers hahaha. On a serious note, still waiting on my body only but from the results i'm seeing, i cant wait.

 

[BobSanderson]

First day really shooting with it yesterday. I have to say I'm very happy but I am coming from an original 5D so it's a pretty good leap for me.

Really impressed with the auto focus as it worked really well on my constantly moving kids. Only battle I had was with them running around and it being overcast going from bright full sun to completely obscured sun. Was able to push in post some of the underexposed shots and still like the results.

Example shot (not my favorite photo from yesterday but was surprised by the detail in the hairs on the back of his shirt):
http://www.willrphotography.com/kids/5D3_0438.jpg

very nice shot (great color, focus and composition) and your son looks really cute

 

[h4ldol]

Reading threads like this while awaiting delivery of my 5dIII make me nervous. :-\

 

[TrumpetPower!]

I'm positively thrilled.

My only gripe is that I've got a long slog ahead of me to get to the point where I'm using the camera to its full potential, but part of that is perfectionism on my part (like AF adjustments on all my lenses and calibrating the Sekonic and building color profiles and what-not) and the rest will be fun (like learning how to make the most of the new AF system).

I wouldn't have turned up my nose at a few more megapickles, but I'll take all the non-sensor improvements over a marginal (and, in the real world, negligible) bump in IQ. Besides, anything I'd personally really want those extra megapickles for...I can just as easily do a panorama and blow past the measly 100 megapickle range of top-end medium format. Same thing for the bitched-about "lack" of dynamic range; any situation where the native DR of the 5DIII isn't enough it'll be also be (at least) questionable enough with the D800 that you'll be doing HDR with either camera. And the 5DIII makes RAW capture for HDR trivial and even gives you a not-sucky preview JPEG to boot!

Cheers,

b&

 

[dericcainphoto]

I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT! That about sums it up...

 

[Waterdonkey]

Currently HAPPY on the way to DELIGHTED ;D

 

[Jamesy]

Another thing that quite annoys me is that the focus point is black in the viewfinder. If you're shooting in a dark place it's impossible to see what AF-point you're using. Hopefully they can fix this as well with a firmware update, because now at times you're wondering why the damn thing isn't getting focus, finding out that the focus point is at another place as you're thinking. I prefer the red AF-point in the viewfinder of my 1Dmk3.

I'm not sure if this helps you, but you can make a menu change so that it shows the AF point that is selected in bright red once it locks onto something, instead of just that circle turning red. I also changed it so the circle ALWAYS flashes red, not just in low light areas. I currently use center AF ( not spot ), with the 4 surrounding points, but I don't have them show up in the VF, only highlight red when AF is achieved.

I changed my modes to illuminate the VF in all lighting rather than merely low light and I changed the VF to pre and post focus verification (i can't remember the actual setting name) to have the camera closer emulate my old 40D of "Focus, red dot stays on". The only issue I have with it is it all disapperas once focus is achieved and you are left with the spot meter circle.

I count myself as happy and will be delighted once the 200 F2 business is sorted out.

 

[Stephen Melvin]

Happily shooting in absurdly low levels of light. I've been waiting for this camera for over 20 years.

 

[risc32]

While i've yet to shoot more than a few dozen jpgs, that are still in the camera, I 'm happy with the mk3. I'm a bit saddened to see how complex the AF system(and all the menu options really) has become, and that it doesn't have that AF "snap" that my 1dmk2 has. I really wanted it to operate faster with that lightning response that the 1dmk2 has, but i guess i would have to get the 1dx for that.

 

[BL]

If I could change anything would be to take the megapixels down to 16-18 or so, but I'm thrilled with my new Mark III

isn't that what MRAW and SRAW are for?

 

[etg9]

very very happy.

 

[kenraw]

Another thing that quite annoys me is that the focus point is black in the viewfinder.

I'm not sure if this helps you, but you can make a menu change so that it shows the AF point that is selected in bright red once it locks onto something, instead of just that circle turning red. I also changed it so the circle ALWAYS flashes red, not just in low light areas. I currently use center AF ( not spot ), with the 4 surrounding points, but I don't have them show up in the VF, only highlight red when AF is achieved.

Just tap the top right buton on the back with your thumb and all focus points light up so you can pick one, I use this all the time in a dark situation. easy peasy.

Ken

Thanks for the reply I think I've tried all possible settings for the coloring/highlighting of the selected AF point, but not one of the settings will show the selected AF point bright red at all times (which I'm used to). When you're shooting in a dark place and the camera has difficulty getting focus you actually have to point at a bright area to check which AF point you have selected (or press the AF button of course).

 

[kenraw]

Reading threads like this while awaiting delivery of my 5dIII make me nervous. :-\

What are you nervous for?
This camera is awesome, sharp as a dog and the AF is stunning, not too mention the high iso capability,
It's as near perfect camera as you can currently get in my eyes.
Take the moaning and BS with a pinch of salt and don't let it spoil your excitement, you won't be dissapointed.
Trust me!

 

[shizam1]

Not sure yet... I definitely like the files better after ISO 1600, but I'm wondering if the shots below that are softer than I was getting on my 5DII. Just made a post about that actually, to see if anyone else has any experience with it.

So I did some studio shots, and looks like the 5DIII is as sharp if not sharper than my 5DII. Also, focus was pretty much nailed on nose of teddy bear test subject, while 5DII was kind of all over the place. So looking good.

One thing to note, I had to bring down the exposure on the 5DIII shots by .25 in Lightroom, so that camera is over-exposing ( or more sensitive to light ) than the 5DII. I used the same lighting of course, and all 3 shots with the 5DIII were over-exposed as compared to the 5DII, so it's not light variance. The strobe is an Einstien BTW.

 

[Lloyd50]

Love it!

 

[SwanSong]

It's still way to early for me to tell. I've only shot Macro with it so far and the differences with it and my t2i in overall IQ is subtle just after 3 0 minutes of shooting. I've lost reach, the DOF is much narrower which is good and bad for my macro shots. I shot some iso 3200 shots and they looked amazing in the viewfinder but ended up looking really flat in DPP and LR. I have everything turned off except for Chromatic aberration and illumination and currently shooting in Standard mode and have strictly shot center point AF. The below image was shot with the 100mm 2.8L Macro: Wide open at 2.8, 1/200, and iso100--sharpening and NO-NR

I am looking forward this weekend test driving with the 50mm. You can see one of my floral keepers here:

 

[Janus]

SwanSong

but ended up looking really flat in DPP and LR

still finding post about soft image and flat image and for my taste it flat too! What does it means? Bad: technology, matrix, firmware, bad RAW converter even in DPP and LR4 or not real production model and just 'beta' product to win sales start date compare D800?

 

[Bosman]

I purchased two of them. Love them. The 24-105 and 70-200 IS II lenses are excellent and very sharp. I shot a wedding over the weekend and the results were great. The auto ISO is a neat feature unless you turn on the flash, then it stops working. As long as you don't try and use flash and auto ISO together, the camera is a dream. The focus system is great, I like it better than the Nikons I was using.

The auto iso defaults to 400iso when flash is used which i think is pretty darn smart!

 

[Stephen Melvin]

I purchased two of them. Love them. The 24-105 and 70-200 IS II lenses are excellent and very sharp. I shot a wedding over the weekend and the results were great. The auto ISO is a neat feature unless you turn on the flash, then it stops working. As long as you don't try and use flash and auto ISO together, the camera is a dream. The focus system is great, I like it better than the Nikons I was using.

The auto iso defaults to 400iso when flash is used which i think is pretty darn smart!

I absolutely hate that it does that. You'd think these guys had no real world experience shooting these cameras. I'd like complete control over the ISO range, including when using flash. Apparently it goes up to 1600 if you set the flash head to bounce, which isn't nearly enough. I typically use my flash at events with the ISO set to 3200 or 6400.