The long-awaited successor to Canon's extremely popular EOS 5D Mark II camera is finally here. As its name implies, the company's 22-megapixel EOS 5D Mark III ($3,499 list, body only) is an evolutionary upgrade rather than a revolutionary one. The full-frame Mark III's improvements are largely under the hood, but its larger, sharper rear LCD is one that's noticeable at a glance. The camera is quite impressive, but 5D Mark II owners will want to weigh upgrading carefully based on their specific needs. The camera impressed me, but it doesn't quite manage to knock out the more versatile—and more expensive—Nikon D4 ($5,995, 4.5 stars) as our Editors' Choice for full-frame D-SLRs.
One quick note before we dig in: If you'll use this camera to earn your living, you should avoid grabbing one of the first units to hit the street, as Canon has identified an exposure issue that can occur under very specific circumstances. This problem didn't rear its head in any of my test shots, and since it's been addressed by Canon, it did not affect the 5D Mark III's rating.
Design and Features
The 5D Mark III is refreshingly compact when you consider that its 35mm full-frame image sensor is much larger than those found in more common APS-C D-SLRs. The camera body measures 4.6 by 6.0 by 3.0 inches (HWD) and weighs 2.09 pounds with battery and memory card. It's not that far off from the D800 ($2,995.95), its closest competition on the Nikon side of the fence. That D-SLR is 4.8 by 5.7 by 3.2 inches and weighs 1.98 pounds—and manages to fit in a built-in flash. If you prefer a more-substantial camera, the Mark III's size and weight can be increased via the BG-E11 Battery Grip ($349), which connects to the bottom of the camera, and adds vertical shooting controls. The grip can accommodate two rechargeable batteries, doubling the operating life of the camera, and gives you the option to power the Mark III using disposable AA cells for use in those photogenic parts of the world where electricity is not readily available.
Anyone with a collection of high-end Canon EF lens will appreciate the camera's 22-megapixel full-frame sensor, which is the same size as a frame of 35mm film—so your 28mm lens will give you the same field of view on the digital camera as it does on a film body. If you're a Canon user who is looking to upgrade from one of the company's popular APS-C D-SLRs, like the EOS 7D ($1,699, 4 stars), you should take an appraisal of your lenses. You can't use EF-S lenses, which are designed for APS-C cameras, on a full-frame Canon body. This is a limitation that Nikon users don't face—it's possible to use APS-C DX lenses on a full-frame Nikon body like the D4 via a special crop mode.
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If you've shot with a Canon SLR before, you'll feel comfortable with the Mark III's user interface. Rather than taking the front and rear Command Dial approach that the other major D-SLR players use, Canon engineers opted to employ the front main dial and rear Quick Control dial to adjust settings. Most physical controls on the camera control two functions using these two dials, and the on-screen menu lets you know which dial modifies which setting. If you haven't spent a lot of time behind the lens of a Canon D-SLR , it may take some getting used to—but seasoned Canon shooters are sure to feel right at home. There are numerous other control buttons on the camera, including a multi-controller to scroll through menus and manually select autofocus points, and buttons to adjust the Drive mode, ISO, and Metering mode.
The rear LCD is simply amazing. The 3.2-inch display is packed with over a million dots—it's one of the most vivid that I've seen on any camera. There's no problem reviewing your images on a bright day, and it offers enough resolution to make manual focus during live view a reality. There's also a monochrome information display on the top of the camera so you can evaluate the current shooting settings at a glance. You'll also be able to see settings in the camera's large, bright viewfinder. It shows you 100 percent of the frame, so what you see through the finder is exactly what you'll get in your photo—this is an improvement over the Mark II's 97 percent coverage finder. The downside to this improved coverage is that you'll no longer be able to change the focus screen out as you can with the Mark II.
When shooting in Live View or recording video, the camera does support autofocus. It does it in a manner like the Nikon D4—you need to press a button and the camera works to reacquire focus. It's a slow process that involves hunting back and forth until the focus is locked—this is much, much slower than the autofocus when shooting stills. You'll likely get better results manually focusing. There aren't any full-frame cameras on the market that currently offer full-time continuous autofocus like our Editors' Choice APS-C digital SLR, the Sony Alpha 77 ($1,999.99, 4.5 stars)—that camera's pellicle mirror design allows it to use its fast phase detect autofocus system for both stills and video in any shooting mode. The Mark III records video in QuickTime format in a variety of resolutions and frame rates. It tops out at 1080p30, but you can opt for 720p60 footage to capture smooth, fast motion or 1080p24 for those times when you want to give your video a cinematic look.
Performance and Conclusions
Performance and Conclusions
The 5D Mark III isn't the absolute fastest D-SLR that we've tested—you'll want a speed demon like the Nikon D4 or Canon's EOS-1D X ($6,799) if you need to rapidly rattle off hundreds of shots from the sidelines of an NFL game. The D4 can start and fire an in-focus shot in about half a second—slightly faster than the 5D's 0.7 second time. The Nikon's lightning fast autofocus makes its shutter lag practically unperceivable—less than 0.1 second. The Mark III notched a consistent 0.1 second shutter lag, including the time required to focus.
In continuous drive mode, the Mark III can rattle off shots at 6 frames per second, but the number of shots it can capture before slowing depends on what files you are shooting and what type of memory card is loaded in the camera. I tested with two SanDisk cards—a 90MBps CompactFlash card and a 95MBps SDXC card. Both cards managed a mere 7 Raw+JPG shots before slowing, although the CF card was able to recover from that burst in 3.5 seconds while the SDXC card required 11.4 seconds. The camera does better shooting only in Raw—it can manage 19 shots there with a 5.2 second recovery time using the CF card, and 14 shots with a 17.6 second recovery time using SDXC. If you want to shoot ad infinitum at 6fps you'll need to use JPG capture—the camera had no trouble keeping up with that format at 6 frames per second, regardless of your choice of memory. The D4 is a much better camera in terms of burst shooting—it can grab dozens of Raw shots at 10 frames per second before slowing down.
The Mark III supports ISO settings a full two stops higher than its predecessor. I used Imatest to see just how good the out-of-camera JPGs are at those ultra-high sensitivity settings. The camera was able to keep noise below 1.5 percent through ISO 12800, although there is understandably some loss of detail there when compared with lower ISOs. To my eye, JPG detail was very good through ISO 6400 and excellent through ISO 3200. You can squeeze a little more out of the camera if you opt to shoot in Raw and process photos in a good converter like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4. This will let you adjust noise to suit the shot, giving you full control over the balance of graininess and detail. I'd feel very comfortable shooting at ISO 6400 in most cases, and at ISO 12800 when I didn't mind a grittier look when working in Raw. The Mark III didn't fare as well as the 16-megapixel Nikon D4—it was able to keep noise under control through ISO 20000—but it manages it better than the Sony Alpha 65 ($999.99, 4 stars), an APS-C sensor camera of a similar resolution. That 24-megapixel shooter can only control noise through ISO 1600.
Canon does offer the 5D Mark III with the 24-105mm f/4L kit lens for $4,299, but our body-only test unit was bundled with the excellent EF 17-40mm f/4L USM ($839.99) zoom lens. I tested its sharpness in Imatest and found it to be an admirable performer in that regard. It exceeded the 1,800 lines per picture height that we use to determine a sharp optic throughout its zoom range, even at its maximum aperture. At 17mm it notched an impressive 1,962 lines at f/4 and 2,207 at f/5.6. Zooming to 28mm netted 1,999 lines at f/4 and 2,201 lines at f/5.6. The lens performed at its best at 40mm—recording 2,288 lines at f/4 and 2,470 lines at f/5.6.
The camera has plenty of input and output ports. It supports a mic input, making it suitable for pro video use, and also includes a headphone jack so you can monitor audio while recording. There's a plug for a Canon wired remote control, as well as an industry-standard PC Sync socket so the Mark III can control studio lights or an off-camera strobe. You can connect to an HDTV via a mini HDMI port, although it does not support uncompressed video output like the Nikon D4 does. A standard mini USB port is there for computer connectivity and tethered shooting. The camera has two memory card slots—one supports CompactFlash and the other is compatible with SD, SDHC, and SDXC cards.
The EOS 5D Mark III is a solid upgrade to its predecessor, and a good choice for any Canon shooter who earns a living by capturing images in the studio or at events—but it's not going to satisfy every photgrapher's needs. Enthusiasts who want a full-frame camera may be better off with the less-expensive 5D Mark II, which is still a very capable camera. The Mark III's 22-megapixel sensor does well in low light, but it might not satisfy those accustomed to working in medium format digital the way that the 36-megapixel Nikon D800 promises to do. If you're a sports or news photographer who requires faster, longer burst shooting, the more expensive EOS-1D X or our Editors' Choice, the Nikon D4 would probably be a better fit.
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The Canon EOS 5D Mark III looks a lot like its predecessor on the outside, but offers plenty of improvements under the hood. It's a solid option for advanced shooters with an investment in Canon glass, but doesn't match the rapid-fire shooting capabilities of the EOS-1D X or Nikon D4.
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