I bought the mkIII on Saturday and am impressed with it so far. Both lowlight performance and autofocus are much improved:
This is 6400 with no noise reduction:
Canon 5D Mark III EF 24 - 70 @ f/8 and 25mm 1/5 ISO 6400 (handheld resting against a pillar) No Noise reduction on this and sharpened using Nik Pro sharpener
Under-the-motorway-with-no-noise-reduction by singingsnapper, on Flickr
So so far, so good. Apart from the issues regarding converting CR2 files. I have the Pentax 645D and with that camera I can choose DNG as the raw format and have no compatibility issues whatsoever. So when I tried to use LR3 to upload my first images, no joy, so thought about upgrading to LR4 and used Adobe's presales live chat to ask whether LR 4 would be able to read the mkIII files. I was assured it would so bought the upgrade. Lo and behold it didn't (word to the wise, Adobe have been overcharging on VAT for years if you choose to download the software) and so I downloaded the ACR 6.7 Beta which is more laborious than using LR.
Then I had a brainwave. I know, I thought, that software I NEVER use. DPP inside the box, I'll use that and then push the files into LR and then I can decide which files to process further. Put the disc in, and it's missing the .pkg file that enables the installation. So I call Canon UK today and am told that someone will contact me in a few days to tell me if there is anything anyone can do. I thought, hang on a minute, I paid nearly £3k for a camera (if I bought in the US it would be the equivalent of £2250) and yet the camera isn't listed in the support section of the UK website, there are no articles for support for it whatsoever. You'd wonder whether the MkIII is a figment of my imagination.
I am told it could be a week before anyone contacts me regarding the software. I tell them that that isn't good enough, so they give the number for the second level of technical support. Except they actually give me the wrong number. I eventually get to the right department, and they tell me what I knew already. That my DPP disc is faulty and contains so installation files for MAC. I ask him to send me out another disc, and am amazed to be told that they have ordered them, but they have no clue when they will be in, and that it could be some weeks.
Very disappointed as they have obviously been preparing for this release for some time and yet they don't allow for faulty CD ROM discs which is hardly an unusual event. Canon need to learn what I was told as a management trainee:
Perfect Preparation Prevents P*** Poor Performance.
This is 6400 with no noise reduction:
Canon 5D Mark III EF 24 - 70 @ f/8 and 25mm 1/5 ISO 6400 (handheld resting against a pillar) No Noise reduction on this and sharpened using Nik Pro sharpener
Under-the-motorway-with-no-noise-reduction by singingsnapper, on Flickr
So so far, so good. Apart from the issues regarding converting CR2 files. I have the Pentax 645D and with that camera I can choose DNG as the raw format and have no compatibility issues whatsoever. So when I tried to use LR3 to upload my first images, no joy, so thought about upgrading to LR4 and used Adobe's presales live chat to ask whether LR 4 would be able to read the mkIII files. I was assured it would so bought the upgrade. Lo and behold it didn't (word to the wise, Adobe have been overcharging on VAT for years if you choose to download the software) and so I downloaded the ACR 6.7 Beta which is more laborious than using LR.
Then I had a brainwave. I know, I thought, that software I NEVER use. DPP inside the box, I'll use that and then push the files into LR and then I can decide which files to process further. Put the disc in, and it's missing the .pkg file that enables the installation. So I call Canon UK today and am told that someone will contact me in a few days to tell me if there is anything anyone can do. I thought, hang on a minute, I paid nearly £3k for a camera (if I bought in the US it would be the equivalent of £2250) and yet the camera isn't listed in the support section of the UK website, there are no articles for support for it whatsoever. You'd wonder whether the MkIII is a figment of my imagination.
I am told it could be a week before anyone contacts me regarding the software. I tell them that that isn't good enough, so they give the number for the second level of technical support. Except they actually give me the wrong number. I eventually get to the right department, and they tell me what I knew already. That my DPP disc is faulty and contains so installation files for MAC. I ask him to send me out another disc, and am amazed to be told that they have ordered them, but they have no clue when they will be in, and that it could be some weeks.
Very disappointed as they have obviously been preparing for this release for some time and yet they don't allow for faulty CD ROM discs which is hardly an unusual event. Canon need to learn what I was told as a management trainee:
Perfect Preparation Prevents P*** Poor Performance.
