The Canon 5D Mark III has been announced. Let's discuss some of the key features:
22.3 megapixel CMOS sensor: Canon have decided not compete in the megapixel race, focusing their efforts into making a camera that performs as well in low light as possible. This is great news for those of us who prefer performance in low light to megapixels. To be quite frank I think 22.3 megapixels are enough!
ISO from 100-25,600. This kind of performance in a stills camera is absolutely unique right now. The 5D Mark III can officially see in the dark like pretty much no other consumer camera in the world! The range is expandable up to a staggering ISO 102,400.
Canon have claimed a Two Stop Advantage to the 5D mark II in higher ISOs, meaning that images shot at ISO 4000 on the new 5D Mark III will now be as clean as images on the Mark II at ISO 1000. This should open up some new doors for us as photographers, enabling us to truly capture the light as the eye sees it. I can't wait.
New Digic 5 processor. This will give us the ability to shoot up to 6fps continuous stills on the 5D Mark III vs 3.9fps that we had on the 5D Mark II. This is handy if you are a fan of capturing fast moving action. It's probably not quite enough for pro action shooting, but that's where Canon's much more expensive 1DX comes in. Personally, I think I'll find 6fps ample for my needs.
Video on the Canon 5D Mark III is greatly improved too. They have introduced two new codecs for us to choose from. 'ALL-I' is the better of the two in terms of compression and image quality, but takes up more space. 'IPB' creates smaller file sizes but the quality suffers slightly due to a heavier compression format. Either way, having both codecs at our disposal is a much more pleasant situation to be in over the 5D Mark II.
The New Screen on the 5D Mark III has been updated to 3.2 inches, but sadly doesn't articulate. This was always a slight annoyance on the 5D Mark II when shooting video for those shoots where you want to keep things low key and not have to use a monitor. The reasoning behind the lack of articulating screen according to Canon is that it would have affected the weather sealing on the body. Given that this is a stills camera first and foremost, it makes sense for them to prioritise weather sealing.
The Price of the Canon 5D Mark III is (at the time of writing) $3,499 on the Amazon store. It's being released at a much higher price point than the 5D Mark II but there are plenty of new features that I think justify the increase.
Mike Francis runs a website with free information and videos about the Canon 5D Mark iii, which you can find at http://www.5dmarkiii.com/
For advice on how to get the most out of your new 5D Mark iii, see the full list of specs, and to find the best deals online, go to http://www.5dmarkiii.com/
