Canon EOS 5D Mark III 22.3 MP Full Frame CMOS with 1080p Full-HD Video Mode Digital SLR Camera (Body)

This is my review as a landscape photographer. Upfront you should know that I don't shoot video. I realize there are many video upgrades but I wouldn't have a use for them in my current work. That's not covered in this review.When the MkIII first was announced, it was about $500 more than it is now. And on paper, I decided that for the quality differences in my actual images, it would not be worth the upgrade. I felt content in my analysis and went on happily using my MkII for several more months in which I logged thousands of frames and make several new additions to my portfolio, which you can see at LensTraveler18 and at this moment all images in the last 3 years are from the MkII. This winter, I traveled to Jordan with a group of photographers and met a guy who went through the same thought process I did. He gave me a complete tour of the new features and I was blown away with the improvements made by Canon.After the recent price drop, which brought the MkIII within about $500 more than what I paid for the MkII, I decided to make the purchase. I am thrilled that I did.I just returned from Iceland and used both cameras and started to notice differences that make my experience more enjoyable and my images "better" from my perspective. I will try and explain what I found and why those changes were important to me.This is a complete overhaul, upgrade and enhancement of the MkII.There are no similarities except the size of the sensor physically and the number of megapixels which is roughly the same as the MkII. So to consider this an upgrade is misleading.The body is shaped differently yet almost completely familiar to the MkII user, and the menu structure is an enhanced version of the MkII. It's VERY enhanced.The Canon "Experience:"If I were to summarize what I realized and what's been said over and over here in the forums is that Canon actually listened to users carefully and implemented nearly every suggestion for improvement, and there are many. I cannot say enough about Canon and Canon Professional Services (CPS,) who are the repair and service arm of Canon. Nikon readers should tune out here, I suspect you will be disappointed. Before I left for Iceland, I had my 5dMkII cleaned and adjusted by CPS, it took 3 days, the camera came back better than it was before and I had a long conversation with the service rep who explained what was found and what was done to my camera. Side note: I slipped and smashed a 17-40L zoom to smithereens. I spent 5 minutes picking up the pieces so I wouldn't litter. I put all the pieces into a box and shipped it to Canon. They charged me under two hundred and returned a perfect, tested lens. That's what you get with Canon.Features:With the MkIII, autofocus has been enhanced so much that it's practically telepathic. The problem is that so much new functionality is built in, the learning curve on the autofocus system itself is substantial. You can just use it like you did on the MkII and it's 1000% better but there's so much it can do. I cared about that, I was thrilled to see how heavily it was enhanced.The AEB (autoexposure bracketing) system now matches Nikon in allowing for 3, 5 and 7 frames, with 1/3 to 2 stops between each frame and with full offset. For HDR types, this is a huge improvement and very welcome. The memory card management system now accepts two cards, one SD and on CF, and you can separate which image types goes to which card or use them as backup. I realize Nikon's high end cameras had this before so it's catchup here too. But very welcome.There are two new "functions" which are useful and one of them is AWESOME. The camera can now shoot HDR and process 3 frames into a single Jpg image. I have no use for this since I do everything in software but many people will really enhance their results with this new feature. The other new function is "multiple exposure" shooting which I haven't had since my film days. Yes, I am that old. I had some fun with it this past weekend and I am thrilled it's there.Virtually ALL buttons are definable and a new "Q" button has been added. I think it was on other Canon models but not on the MkII. I have already become so used to it, I almost can't imagine working without it.The processor upgrade shows up as faster processing time for noise reduction, higher frame rates and generally snappier performance. Since I spend time out in the dark, I was concerned with low light performance. This gets into a discussion of how the new sensor performs. The new sensor has about double the dynamic range as the MkII. At night, I expose at ISO100 for 10 minutes typically and sharpness was always excellent on the MkII, I never complained. Yet the MkIII is better in several ways; the pixels are "sharper" the fringing/noise is far lower and the color appears more accurate. There are also non-specific differences in that images seem to "look better" which is totally subjective, when shot with the MkIII.I know the new 6D will be readily available soon and it will be a great camera from what I have read. And with the 6d came two improvements I wish were included in the 5dMkIII; the built-in GPS and WiFi. I did buy the external GPS receiver and I am generally happy with it. I wish it were smaller and more "informative" on its own. But now I can tag my image files with GPS data. And it works in Lightroom 4.Besides these two obvious exclusions, I have found wanting for almost nothing else with the MKIII. Yet, I do have my wish list. And this goes for all SLR's and even all digital cameras.My Wish List:- Include a built in intervalometer with bulb ramping (google it) and lightning triggers, along with full time-lapse as well as internal stacking. This would make a lot of sense.Better yet, the entire line of Canon cameras should have APPS. This way, the entire photographic community can create time-lapse, tracking, remote control and a host of other amazing functions all run from a menu. Wouldn't that be incredible? You could buy or create any software function you could imagine.- Like I said, include the GPS and WiFi remote control AND bluetooth functionality.- Add USB 3.0 transfer directly so I can stop using a card reader.- Lower the price by $500 and Canon, you will own the DSLR market.Thats what I have so far, I know I have left out a lot of the new functionality because it's not as meaningful to me. I will update this review after several more months of shooting.

After only having owned this camera for a couple days, I am incredibly impressed with the Canon 5D Mark III. I am upgrading to this camera from a 30D, and while I have used a Mark II once in the past, my primary experience was with that (30D) camera. Therefore, I will focus primarily on a couple features that this camera offers, and not attempt to compare it to the Mark II or other full-frame cameras. Additionally, since I am primarily a stills photographer, I am not really qualified to discuss the issues of most concern to videographers, so I will leave it to another reviewer to cover those features of this camera. Finally, years ago I made the decision to buy Canon over other vendors. My subsequent investment in glass means that I realistically cannot switch systems at this point. I am not a Canon zealot and recognize that Nikon (and Sony, Fugi, etc.) all have great cameras. I chose this Canon because it was the upgrade path for me to continue to use my lenses, not simply because it was Canon.Taking the camera out of the box, it feels very good in my hands. It is very well balanced, has excellent "grip" and is molded nicely to fit my thumb on rear panel. I do not have very big hands and the size of this camera is just about at the limit of what feels comfortable to me. The buttons are laid out in a manner similar with most of the other Canon prosumer models, with some new buttons and some rearrangement as well. Canon put some thought into the button placement, and, while it will take a bit to get used to new layout, I think that the changes made work very well. For example, the set of buttons along the left side of the rear display are nicely arranged to be image review functions (erase, play, zoom, and the new "rate" and "creative photo" buttons), while the right side of the display is dedicated to "before you click" functions. Newly added to the 5D series is the Q button that is finding its way on other Canon DSLRs, giving you a the ability to select and adjust camera settings all from the rear panel. At first I was didn't think that I would use this, since I am accustomed to using the other buttons for adjustment, but I have come to like that feature now.This being my first full-frame sensor body, that alone would be reason to upgrade. However, I chose the Mark III instead of the Mark II for a few key reasons-- the pro-level focusing system, the improvements in ISO performance, and the improved weather sealing. As mentioned, I only had limited experience with the Mark II, but one of the things I didn't like was the small number of focus points (given the cost of the body), and the fact that they were really squished into the middle ~40% of the viewfinder. I was psyched when I learned that the focusing system from the 1DX was being added to this camera. It seemed like it could be cumbersome to use (the 61 available on the 5d Mark III is a big step up from the 9 on my previous camera), but it is really simple to select the focusing method (using the multi-function button) as well as select the focus point(s) (using both the main dial and the quick control dial). The result of these added focus points is a system that is very quick to lock focus, and very accurate. The high number of single and dual cross-point sensors really benefits the photographer.The ISO performance is no less impressive. The Mark II already was a great performer at high ISO, and the Mark III is even better. Stunning, nearly noiseless results all the way to ISO 6400. And still incredible results all the way to ISO 25600. Given that you can set the top end of the auto-ISO value set by the camera, you can *almost* leave the camera on auto-ISO with 6400 at the top end. I say almost because you can see some minor noise creeping in at 6400 when viewing shots taken in low light and viewed at 100%. Given better lighting conditions, you truly get EXTREMELY usable images directly from the camera all the way to 25600, and with a bit of post processing, those very high ISO photos look great as well.A few other things that I really like about this camera... The view finder is huge (perhaps only because I was shooting with crop-sensors in the past) and bright. The camera is very configurable, from changing the behavior of the buttons to the amount of focus data to display in the view finder, setting servo tracking parameters, it really can be individualized to suit your needs and manner of shooting. Also, I love the rear monitor as well-- very bright and crisp. And, while I know that video shooters will not be happy that the monitor does not flip out, given that this was done to improve the weather sealing of the camera, that was okay with me as well.There is so much more for me to discover with this camera that I have not had a chance to as yet. I am interested in seeing how good the HDR feature works, as well as the multiple exposure feature. And, I am interested in playing with the creative photo features as well. All in good time... As I learn more about this camera, I will continue to update this review.The Canon 5D Mark III is an incredible camera. However, it also comes at a pretty incredible price. $3500 is a steep hill to climb for any camera, and when compared to the less expensive, higher MP Nikon 800, it might appear that Canon got this to market just a few months too late. Time will tell if that is the case. In my opinion, however, Canon has done a great job at balancing image size and image quality with the Mark III, and, for me, this camera is worth the price. The upgrades over the Mark II are significant, and the resulting images are truly amazing. I can certainly understand those who would opt instead for the (now much less expensive) Mark II and a great lens for the same total cost-- the Mark II is also a great camera. However, if you do decide to get the Mark III, I believe that you will LOVE this camera, and won't regret the investment for one second.

I really can’t understand how a product like that can be sold and to say that it’s used in good condition. It’s a far stretch. I will say that it’s fair at the most probably not even that.The glass on the top screen is broken hard to see the picture