Canon EOS 5D Mark III - SLR Digital Camera (Body only)

If you read on you will find that this review is aimed for the amateur who is thinking of buying a 5D3.

As an enthusiastic amateur I spent a lot of time pondering whether I could justify to myself to part with so much money for this camera for what is purely a hobby and eventually came to the conclusion that you only live once and why not go for it. 2 years ago I returned to this hobby after 20 years or so of taking nothing other than family snaps. It was a steep learning curve to learn the basics of digital photography but enjoyable too. I got myself a EOS 60D and made a decision back then that I would stick to buying only EF lenses and leave out the EFs variety in case I decided to go FF and boy am I glad I did so. I love the 60D mainly for it's flip screen and I was hoping it would appear on the MK III but I'm told it would have a weatherseal issue, which is a shame. I will keep the 60D for the awkward shots that require you to be double jointed to capture.

Getting back to the 5D3. It is a superb piece of kit. I found it felt 'made to measure' for my rather large hands and the balance with the lenses I use was just something else. I use the 17-40mm f4,50mm f1.4 and the 70-200mm 2.8 IS and the latter,especially,feels so much better on this as opposed to the 60D. The AF on the 5D is so fast and accurate it justifies the upgrade in itself. One thing I did miss was the loss of distance by moving to FF especially with the 200mm becoming a true 200mm as opposed to a 320mm on the 60D cropped camera but the IQ allows you to crop to compensate for this and at the other end the 17-40mm now is a great wide angle as opposed to being a 27-64mm.The same applies to the 50mm which I found I didn't get to use too much on the 60D but I'm sure it will get it's fair share on the 5D. Another great addition is how well the 5d handles the ISO which I've found that my 17-40mm F4 performs more like a 2.8 in comparison to when it's mounted on the 60D. I found the dual card CF and SD to be another great addition. I've gone for a SanDisk Extreme Pro 32GB SDHC Memory Card for the Sd and a SanDisk 16GB 60MB/sec Extreme Compact Flash Memory Card for the CF which I think will cover my needs, and the great thing is I will be able to use all my other SD cards I've aquired for the 60D. I have a non-oem grip mounted which I find completes the camera for me as I've already stated my hands are very large and the additional weight doesn't bother me and I also find the additional battery life very useful. I would think that most people would manage this camera without the grip but after using one on the 60D I've gotten used to it now. The grip I purchased wasPixel Pro Vertax BG-E11 Battery Grip for Canon EOS 5D Mark III Digital Camera from Amazon. I know I'm taking a gamble using a non-oem product on the camera but Canons prices on this item are crazy. If I was a professional who earned his living from his gear I would bite the bullet and buy Canon and offset the high costs with my tax and vat returns.

I wouldn't attempt to try to get into any technical advice in this review as there are plenty of them out there on the net written by people far more qualified than myself. I just want to give a flavour of what I found when I used this great piece of kit. I bought mine from a Canon approved dealer and although painful to the pocket initially, I'm sure the lack of worrying of getting a used or refurbished item from the far east will make up for this pain. I would normally get my gear from Amazon but at the time only Amazon dealers were offering them not Amazon themselves and at this amount of money I wasn't prepared to take the gamble.

To sum up I think this camera justifies it's expense and if you can afford it - get it! I'm sure like myself you won't regret it.

Owning the excellent 5D MkII, made me more than curious to find out what improvements had been made in the MkIII.

I know a lot of people were initially disappointed that it did not have the headline grabbing specifications of the Nikon D800 but on closer inspection the changes are all that we really required.

In particular the AF system has been improved out of all recognition but then let's face it you could not get worse than 9 points with just one cross type point. The new system locks focus instantly even in the dimmest of light and it tracks objects as they move across the screen flawlessly. You can also set up different focus set ups for portrait and landscape just as you can in the 7D - that is very useful.

Other worthwhile improvements come in the speed that the camera achieves. Although I never found the MkII sluggish, the MkIII just feels snappier. I'm not a machine gun shooter so the increased frame rate is not important but the speed it writes to the card is. The DIGIC 5+ processor really is faster than the old DIGIC 4 it replaced just as Canon claim.

The addition of a second card slot is a great benefit. Although I have never had a card fail, I know plenty who have so the ability to record to two cards is good insurance.

The ability to shoot at even higher ISO speeds than with the MkII and still get clean results is a huge bonus to those like me who prefer natural light to flash.

There are also other subtle improvements like the lock on the mode dial, the quick menu button, a larger viewing screen which matches the normal format, 100% viewfinder and the start stop button for video.

Put these things together and they make the upgrade worthwhile.

UPDATE 5 weeks on and less than 700 pictures taken, the camera has developed Error 30 which means the shutter is stuck and needs replacing. Since it is outside the 30 days, I do not qualify for a replacement so will have to send it off to Canon for repair.

There are enough detailed reviews but I believe my summary would be;

- The 5D Mark III is a massive step up from the 5D Mark II, so if you are in doubt don't be, go and buy the Mark III

- The 5D Mark III with a good lens on it is superb I particularly like the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM.

- There is much specualtion about whether the Nikon D800 is better than the Canon 5D Mark III and the answer is that as an all round camera the 5D Mark III is probably the better camera but for stills and detail the D800 is very, very good.

- You will occasionally hear of the Canon 7D being mentioned in the company of the 5D Mark III and Nikon D800, it does not come close.....