Canon EOS 5D Mark III review

Canon’s EOS 5D Mark II has been a great success among both professionals and enthusiasts, thanks to its full-frame sensor, big viewfinder and sublime controls, all at a lower price and weight than the 1D series. It was also the first DSLR to record 1080p video, and has been at the forefront of a revolution in indie filmmaking since its launch in 2008.

Three-and-a-half years later, the Mark III landed, sporting significant upgrades. Don’t be distracted by the resolution, which only sees a small rise from 21 to 22.3 megapixels – the big news is to be found elsewhere. The Digic 5+ processor boosts continuous performance from 3.9fps to 6fps, complete with in-camera correction for vignetting and chromatic aberrations – a first for an EOS camera. The ISO speed range has seen a fourfold increase to 100-25600, and is expandable to 50-102400.

There’s also the autofocus system, which replaces the Mark II’s nine-point sensor with a 61-point sensor – the same one that was only recently unveiled in the flagship EOS-1D X.

The Mark III is built like a tank, and at a shade under 1kg, it feels substantial and comfortable without being cumbersome to use. There’s probably room in the body for a flash but Canon has decided against including one. Support for Canon’s new wireless flash system, which uses radio rather than IR, is likely to be more useful. The layout of the controls will make existing EOS users feel instantly at home, although the ability to compare photos alongside each other and rate them from one to five stars is new.

Moving the autofocus point is extremely quick and intuitive. A button on the back-right corner reveals all 61 autofocus points in the viewfinder, 41 of which are cross-type, measuring focus both horizontally and vertically, while a central column of five measures diagonally too. The selected point can be moved using the joystick, but it’s much quicker to use the command dial and wheel for horizontal and vertical movement. A button labelled M-Fn expands the active area to include a group of five or nine points.

The extensive autofocus setup options in the menu include five scenarios with titles such as “Continue to track subjects, ignoring possible obstacles”, each of which can be further customised. However, default settings delivered extremely reliable focus for movement, and for identifying vague subjects in both bright and dim light. There was very little interruption to the 6fps continuous speed when tracking moving subjects, and none from the memory buffer, either – the camera processed and saved JPEGs as fast as it captured them when using a 90MB/sec CompactFlash card.

The video mode has been improved significantly. Aperture- and shutter-priority modes are now available in addition to Auto and Manual exposure modes. Manual exposure settings can be adjusted via gentle prods of the touch-sensitive rear wheel, reducing the chance of shaking the camera or spoiling the soundtrack with mechanical clicks. The microphone socket is ready for serious use, thanks to a headphone output and proper level metering.

Another welcome improvement is the option to encode AVC videos as I-Frames, where each frame is described from scratch rather than using sub-frames to conserve bandwidth. This generates massive files at up to 90Mbits/sec but reduces compression artefacts in fast-moving scenes. Clips are limited to 30 minutes, spanning multiple 4GB files as necessary without dropping frames or causing audio glitches.

Video picture quality was excellent, but the Nikon D800 has a distinct advantage when rendering subtle details. The 5D Mark III exhibited barely any moiré interference, though, and noise levels were astonishingly low at ISO 12800.

Sadly, video autofocus remains so bad as to be unusable; it’s disappointing that the new continuous autofocus technology that appears in the EOS 650D isn’t included here. The lack of an articulated screen is another drawback for video capture. The 3.2in, 1,040kpixel screen is a joy to use, but not when you have to stoop or crouch to see it.

The D800 had the edge for detail in photos, too, thanks to its massive 36.3-megapixel resolution. The 5D Mark III’s photos certainly weren’t lacking in detail, though, and easily surpassed the D800 – and every other camera we’ve seen – for low noise. JPEGs at ISO 100 and 3200 were hard to tell apart, and even ISO 25600 produced serviceable results. The camera also excelled for colour output, striking a sublime balance between accuracy and flattery.

The D800 and 5D Mark III are extremely closely matched, but the Canon clinches the deal with faster continuous shooting, lower noise and sumptuous JPEG output. It’s a joy to use, and its output is consistently outstanding.

Click the links below for full resolution sample shots:
Test scene shot at base ISO, raw file converted with Lightroom 4 (15MB)
Test scene shot at ISO 6400, raw file converted with Lightroom 4 (7MB)
Bridge scene, raw file coverted with Lightroom 4 (16MB)
Resolution test card (6MB)

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