Thoughts on the Canon 5D mark III

Canon has announced a new DSLR camera today, the Canon 5D mark III.  The camera that I used as my workhorse is this camera’s immediate predecessor, the Canon 5D mark II.  I am excited to hear of the news of this new camera and I’ve put in a pre-order for it.  This new camera seems to be less of a Canon 5D replacement as it is a baby made from a 7D mated with a 1D-X (which is another new camera that has yet to see the light of day).

As with anything in life, this camera isn’t perfect, but it does seem like it will have just amazing quality and will undoubtedly let me create stunning photographs!

Some things that make me very excited about this camera:

  • 2 increased stops of ISO sensitivity.  I often use flash photography to negate the need of high ISO’s, but having the option when flash isn’t one is definitely a great thing!  The sample pictures floating around the internet from this camera look amazing!
  • Much better autofocus.
  • Dual card slots.  I really missed this when I got the 5D II, coming from my 1D mark II N which had this.  Once again, I will be less worried about a CF card failing and destroying my images.

Items that I might have wished were different include:

  • The price seems very high.  That extra $1000 hurts compared to the 5D II’s price.
  • No interchangeable focus screens!  I am very used to having my Eg-S precision matte screen to help focus my large aperture lenses.  I am curious how easy or not it will be to micro adjust by hand with the stock focus screen.
  • 1/200s X-Sync speed for manual flash photographers.  Come on, Canon, the EOS-1D in the year 2001 had a 1/500s sync speed…. please do better!
  • $500 price tag for the battery grip.  This is like pouring in salt on the wound.  There are rumors that the grip for the 5D II will work on the 5D III, so perhaps that’s the case.

Despite these con’s, I’m extremely excited about this new camera and I can’t wait to make amazing photos with it!

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