Ken Rockwell just wrote the world’s first professional review of a real, shipping Canon 5D Mark III!
The Canon EOS 5D Mark III is the best digital SLR ever made by Canon. It just started shipping at the end of March 2012.
Everything about the Mark III is a little better than the 5D Mark II, which is far better than the original Canon 5D. Well, almost everything.
Huge improvements are that the 5D Mark III is Canon’s first full-frame camera to correct lens color fringes, the first full-frame digital Canon with a power switch that doesn’t turn itself off by accident, and the first with a depth-of-field and a (programmable option to put a) play button where you can hit them with your shooting hand. Call me crazy, but I’ve never liked how my Canon 5D Mark II and original Canon 5Dwere always turning themselves off by accident, and how I needed two hands to press PLAY or to tap the depth-of-field preview. Bravo, Canon!
I’m not happy with the Mark III’s new autofocus system, which is about the same as Nikon’s old D300 AF system of 2007. Its added complexity and inferior, obstructive LCD finder display is getting in the way of my pictures. I can’t see my subject under the ugly black AF-area squares, and its added complexity demands that I stop what I’m doing to set it. By comparison, the simple, fast AF system of my5D Mark II and original 5D never required more than one click to adjust, and my eyes never had to leave my subject.
The original 5D and 5D Mark II didn’t impress me much either when I bought each as it was introduced, but free firmware updates made each extraordinary as the years rolled on, so I’m sure that my petty whining about the Mark III will be addressed as well. My 5D Mark III which I am reviewing here has firmware version 1.0.7.