Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

It was a mixed day. On the downside the new iPad wasn't delivered as promised but on the upside when I called in to collect my shiny new Canon 5D Mk III with 24-105mm F/4L they had a spare that had not been reserved so I was able to buy one for my wife too. I haven't even taken a still or shot any video yet but I just wanted to let everyone know that they do exist & are shipping.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

Wow you lucky thing! Please please please upload some footage ASAP!

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

We are staying in a hotel the next 3 nights as we are shooting two big Jewish weddings back to back Sunday & Monday. I don't think that I'm going to have time to do anything worthwhile as we will be too busy. I'm not even sure that I will use it for the weddings as there are quite a few changes regarding controls & buttons that have been moved around a bit so I am a little concerned that I might mess up. It's almost but not quite the same as the 5D2. Also I'll be needing to match the footage with a 5D2. I suppose if I give myself a crash course this evening I might be ready. I'll keep you posted.

The new LCD screen is sharper & nicer for focusing. I'm not sure that low light performance is 2 stops better. I'll grab some footage with a 5D2 & compare.

BTW The current firmware is 1.0.7

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

I'm figuring Nigel could be a little too busy to be posting footage getting thanked for bringing his wife home such a gift! :) Anytime tomorrow would be fine.....

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

'..There was a spare 5D Mark III...so I bought my wife one too...'

I love that one! :)

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

Yep. I can only afford one for myself!

Just came across this new video from Japan with the 5DMkIII - lots of night shots etc. but I don't care too much for the aesthetics of the fisheye stuff in the second part of this 5 minuter. It's certainly worth a look in YouTube's 1080p if you're remotely interested in this cam - or happen to own a couple already!

The link is in Japanese so looks odd on the forum (lots of ????) - but I've just tested it and it should work.

Canon 5D Mark III ?????? ?? ?? ?? sogo ???? ?? WB0043 2012 - YouTube

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

And another one here. UK this time!

https://vimeo.com/38658374

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

Just to clarify it was not an impulse buy. We had budgeted for two cameras for the business & we already had them on order from another source (orders now cancelled). It was just that it was too good to miss the opportunity to collect from Digital Depot in Stevenage (very nice people & a very good camera store) as we were passing by yesterday.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

Hi Nigel, How well does the 24-105 perform in low light with the MK3 compared to the 5DMK2? It's wide enough for me to film the groom and family making thier entrance and gives me enough to zoom with. Only issue is the aperture and I am hoping the 5DMK3 ISO capabilities will take care of that in low light.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

Another test video...

https://vimeo.com/38717195

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

I really want the extra f-stop because of the venues I shoot in, the lights are pretty much always off with just the DJ's strobe lights. So I am looking to purchase the 24-70 my question is regarding IS for video.

Glidecam have said to me that whenever I balance a camera on the Glidecam VC or IS should be turned off, which then brings me onto using IS for when the camera is on a monopod. I will be using the 5DMKIII with a 561BHDV-1 and the Glidecam 2000HD. Will I be kicking myself when I watch the footage back, how bad is footage without IS if on a monopod? I have tried with my Tamron 17-50 and I honestly can't see much difference.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

Tariq - If you only have the DJs strobe lights to work in, you are really going to need some form of lighting yourself. An extra 2 stops will certainly help in that level of illumination, but the use of a small light will enable you to lift the colour and detail in any low light situation, it will also help a great deal with focus and colour balancing. We need light to produce good images, just as we need good mics for sound and a good tripod for stable shots. Light is our friend.
BTW. Its common practice to turn off any stabilisation when the camera is mounted in a tripod, slider or any other stable platform. Practice with your set up on a monopod, it should be fine without IS.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

This new 5DMkIII test video looks promising in YouTube's 1080p...Canon 24-104mm IS F4 and Canon 15mm F2.8 lenses, all shot at F4. Some significant moire in the opening shot (ceiling tiles, top of frame) but otherwise looks good, albeit lacking a little in the (often false) edge sharpness we've seen with the MkII.

Canon 5D Mark III: Footage (Video Test) - YouTube

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

Still waiting for mine!

I Had a nightmare with the lens choice 689.95 for the 24-105 with the 5DMK3 or pay the extra £250 for the 24-70 f2.8.

I finally decided to go for the 24-105 as the ISO the 5DMKIII should give me enough to play with, there is hardly any difference in the bokeh and I can't find any review where the 24-70 really outshines the 105 in terms of optics. It's light so I can also use it with my glidecam without breaking my arm and I have that extra zoom which is always handy.

I also have the Samyang 35mm 1.4 so I am hoping that the two will work well together.
I will take my unomat lx 301to give me extra lighting once the lights go off!

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

Hi Peter,

I find the IS on my 17-55mm EF-S (that's on my 7D) and absolutely brilliant feature for video. I'm sure you made the right choice with the 24-105mm IS for the kind of work I imagine you will do with the 5DMkIII. It's the lens I'm narrowing down on.... IF I buy a 5DMkIII. I still really don't understand why Canon launched the new 24-70mm F2.8 without IS (and some new wide primes with it - very strange), and there is a separate thread for that discussion.

I'm waiting for NAB in mid April - in case they announce a "C100" that I might rather have than a 5DMkIII - assuming I can afford it. Sony or Panny might also pull a bunny rabbit out of the hat, who knows? Also, I want to see good in-depth reviews of the video features of the 5DMkIII by people I trust before I'll push the button on one. Just a little worried we might have lost some of the "magic" in the image of the 5DMkII as a trade-off regarding much less aliasing and better low light ability/noise processing. I guess you can never have everything! Certainly there are often times with my 7D where aliasing makes clips completely unuseable, especially in 720p50 mode. So far, I'm please with what I've seen regarding keeping aliasing much more under control with the 5DMkIII videos, albeit just on the web.

Here's a new 5DMkIII video shot in 720p50.

Slow Motion: Canon 5D Mark III (Video Samples) - YouTube

Just seen on Twitter that Philip Bloom now has a new 5DMkIII. It'll be interesting to see what he thinks of it when he gets time to test it thoroughly. Let us know how you get on too!

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

Hi Andy,

Yes Mr Bloom is the man so I guess I may just wait that little longer for his review to. I have spoken to Ian Cruz and he swears by the 24-70 over the 24-105. He has them both and said the weight for the 24-70 helps the glidecam and after a little practice you no longer need IS. He purchased the 24-70 after owning the 24-105 because he was always wanting that extra fstop.

That has really made me think again as he knows his stuff. If I see a C100 I am going to crazy, but looking at how long it's taking for the C300 to roll out I doubt it will be shipping anytime soon.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

The general impressions that I'm noticing (from the various 1080p web videos and downloadable clips that are starting to appear) is that the 5DMkIII looks pretty soft, probably somewhere near 700 lines of resolution has been mentioned by some (but I don't know how accurate that claim is). My gut feel is that this figure seems to be "in the ball park" - until we know for sure by those that are good at testing these kind of things. Disappointing if true.

That being said, the low light performance seems truly stunning in some of the web videos I've seen. Amazing. And of course its a great stills camera (which is its primarly role after all).

Hmmn.... roll on NAB.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

On the 5D3 given a choice between resolution & low light performance then I would go for high ISO every time. The resolution is good enough for us. We use all 'L' lenses & the images are pretty sharp. I stopped using old manual lenses because the Canon lenses are easier to use but also because the 'L' lenses are sharper. There are so many other new features that anyone who is an experienced 5D2 user will appreciate that this a really worthwhile upgrade.

30 minute recording time is ample for just about any gig we do.
3/4 letter user configurable filename prefix so we can tell which camera the clip is from & don't end up with duplicate filenames.
Improved Live View LCD screen which is much easier to focus with even without using my customary loupe (Zacuto will have a re-designed attachment plate real soon now).
The A+ auto-everything still photo mode is a bit of a WTF? for a professional camera but makes it really easy to flip between shooting video & shooting stills which are pretty damn good. We have never been able to carry off shooting video & stills at the same gig & this just might make it achievable. AF in stills mode is amazingly fast & accurate.
Moire & aliasing are absent.
Two card slots is good although personalIy I would have preferred two CF slots like the 1DX.
Low light performance is fantastic. Where we wouldn't normally shoot over ISO3200 with the 5D2 at the weekend at the two big weddings we filmed we were using ISO6400 & even ISO12800 & the image is clean & noise free. This will make such a difference to our work as instead of having to use F/1.2 or F/1.4 primes in dark receptions & churches we can use an F/2.8 zoom or even the lovely 24-105mm F/4L. It makes keeping stuff in focus easier too.
I couldn't care less about clean HDMI out as I prefer to use a DSLR with as little extra baggage as possible. I don't have a shoulder rig & find a loupe is all that I really want for focusing & extra stability.
We haven't really compared the differences between the high bit rate All I-frame & lower bit rate IPB mode but we used the latter all the time at the weekend & a welcome spin-off was that at about 30Mbps versus the 40+Mbps of the 5D2 that the recording time on the cards is improved by a big chunk.
We haven't even shot anything at 720p yet but with the lack of moire & aliasing & improved CODEC I am expecting it to be far superior to any of the older Canon DSLRs.

There are changes from the 5D2 that as a long time user irritate me. Moving recording start/stop from the Set button in the middle of the rear wheel up to a dedicated video button like the 7D is particularly annoying & several times I caught myself hitting Set to start recording. Many functions can be custom configured on various buttons but sadly start/stop on Set is not one of them.

Most of the comments around at the moment regarding the new 5D3 are ill-informed as there are so few of us who have actually had hands-on experience. Resolution could be higher but really is perfectly good enough. Our brides don't want every zit & wrinkle exposed anyway. The colour, look & Canon full frame aesthetic are still all there & it's easer to handle plus stripy shirts & brickwork are no longer terror objects they once were. Those who expected an Epic or a C300 at this price point are bound to be disappointed but that doesn't stop them mouthing off in forums. It's expensive compared to a GH2 but so much better in so many ways (I speak from experience). It's not expensive as a professional tool & we will quickly & easily recoup the purchase price. It's a lot cheaper than buying a new car.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

Great info. Thanks Nigel.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

That is a big disappointment for me, because the stop/start button is now too far away from my thumb when the camera is inside my Scuba housing. Hopefully I can rig up an underwater remote cord that will perfom the same function.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

I am not sure if this will help your situation but you can now set up the camera so that you can use any Canon remote to start/stop video. It was an old gripe with the 5D2 that you could use a cheap wireless remote to take stills but not to start/stop video recording. This is of great importance if you have a locked off unattended camera. You could with the 5D2 use the £700+ Canon WFT-E4A Wireless Transmitter & operate the camera from an iPhone but now a £10 device that can restart video recording from across the room is probably all that many of us need although with 30 minute record time there is less need to restart than with a 12 minute limit.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

Hi Nigel.

Would you say the SanDisk Secure Digital High Capacity Card Extreme Video HD 16GB are good enough to use with the 5DMKIII For video? I have a ton of these and hope they won't fail me.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

As far as I know they should be fine. There is no list of blessed cards like there is for the Canon XF cameras so any that are a decent named brand & meet the specs should be fine. The 5D2 certainly has never been picky about what cards it works with. If I start using the all i-frame high bit rate mode I may even be converted to using SD cards as I see that the Transcend 64GB Class 10 SDXC cards are only £64 while the equivalent CF cards are nearly double the price.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

I've been using the RM-40 to remotely start & stop video recording on the Mk2 for the past few years and it works fine. It also works on the Nikon and Pentax cameras. The RM-40 is however, difficult to use inside of a housing with the Mk2.
I use three different remote controls for the Mk2 in varied situations to fire off stills:
1) Shoot delay-Timer Remote
2) JYC Remote
3) Phottix Hector Live-View Remote Phottix Hector Live-view remote.

It is possible any of these could be set up inside the Scubacam to control underwater video start/stop function. If that doesn't work, then the only other option would be to buy a completely new UW housing for the Canon Mark III...an extremely expensive road to take!

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

Just picked up my 5DMKIII and 24-70! Woo Woo! So excited!

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

I see it was mentioned earlier in this thread that you wanted to use it in dimly lit situations where the DJ will use strobes...

Strobes are TERRIBLE with DSLRs... I shot some band stuff at night clubs and asked them to turn the strobes off... They didn't. And half of the DSLR footage was ruined. Thankfully the HM700s were doing just fine.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

If worst comes to worst I will use my XHA1.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

Hi All.

Anybody had any luck trying to get the focus check button working in the top right instead of the left? Is it possible? I am so used to using my thumb to check focus and now it just feels wrong.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

From what I have read you can reassign the SET button for Focus Assist so that you can use your thumb for that (much used!) requirement with video. This should be a lot better than the 5DMkIII default button to the left of the LCD which requires a second hand to activate. Whoever thought that was a good idea to position this button there should be shot!

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

It's amazing how that was cleared by canon.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

If you were going to mix 550D, T3i footage and 5DMK3 footage in 1 timeline does the compression method for the 5DMK3 have any impact when editiing? I am not to sure if I should be choosing IPB or ALL-I.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

You may want to test the codecs in your editing system Tariq.

Final Cut Pro 7 struggled with the All-I when I tired it. Switched to FCPX and it's a breeze to edit ALL-I with - you shouldn't have to worry about mixing this with footage from the other cameras. Just ensure the timeline is set to render to something decent like ProRes and it will all be conformed.

And yes, Andy is right, you can assign the Set button to focus magnification.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

but you cannot assign the Set button to start/stop video recording. As this is the how you shoot video on the 5D2 it is really irritating me as even after a week I am still automatically hitting the big Set button with my thumb to start/stop rather than the little button at the top of the camera. I suppose it's OK for those who are used to the 7D but as a long time 5D2 user it's going to take quite a while to retrain my muscle memory never mind the hassle of when I switch between a 5D2 & 5D3. Why couldn't they have left things as they were? By default the Set button isn't even allocated a function in video mode.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

Thanks Josh/Nigel

Looking at the manual it reads

IPB 1hr 4 mins with a 16GB Card@235 MB/min
ALL-I 22mins with a 16GB Card@685 MB/mins

I don't fancy carrying 22 memory cards and changing them every 22mins on a 8 hour wedding shoot. Even I were to go ahead and buy 15 32GB SD Cards it seems like a lot of money. I think you need SanDisk Extreme Pro 32GB SDHC Card which writes over 90Mbps and they are over £75 each!

Has anybody tested the two codec’s and found a massive difference in quality between them?

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

Me again with my reading. Please test this yourselves as you have cameras but there are reports that the All I codec is flawed with a mosquito type noise in some situations and that the other codec is actually giving better results. Tests are needed! At least the IPB is more gentle on card usage.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

That is also a big problem for me in many ways Nigel, especially for underwater filming. Even for topside filming I've got used to using the rear "Set" button.

Another problem is when the normal shutter button on the front grip of the Mark 3 is in operation for Start /Stop video function, it locks the ability to shoot stills using either the finger button shutter release or any cord remotes and wireless remotes that are attached.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

I sold one of my 5D2s a couple of weeks ago to create some budget for the 5D3, but now having watched quite a lot of example footage out there and reading some reviews, I'm getting cold feet about investing in it.

Because I only really use these for video, I can't see *enough* improvement over the 5D2 to really warrant that extra £1,500 spend (maybe for the photographers out there). It's really great that they've improved on the moiré and aliasing, and that was definitely one of the features I was shouting for. But let's not forget that Canon have had 3 years R&D on this machine. Perhaps its highly anticipated announcement has left a lot of people feeling somewhat shortchanged (myself included).

I think 1080/60p would have won me over, I'm really so surprised we haven't got there yet with these cameras. Mind you, even the C300 doesn't do that? But the Panny AF100/101 can? I just don't get that.

I'm afraid I will be one of those that waits it out a bit longer to see if we have any announcements on the 4K Canon. I am disappointed, truth be told - But I'm not ready to desert Canon just yet - Not with all these lenses anyway! ;-)

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

NAB is just a few weeks away, so I guess it makes sense to wait until at least then if you are unsure of the 5D3. However, my gut tells me that there will be no new announcements that will change your mind. I believe that the next significant announcement will be for a crop camera without moire and maybe some other camera in the cinema line (eventually, anyway.)

Back in November, Canon said that the 4K DSLR would be introduced near the end of 2012. I can't imagine them accelerating the schedule to April. Engineering schedules tend to go long, not short.

To me, aliasing has always been the worst part about DSLR video with 8-bit contouring holding second place. For 35mm DSLRs that leaves the 5D3 and the 5d2 with VAF. But the VAF has some funny side effects and can't go ultra wide. Add in the two stop improvement of the 5D3, and it's a pretty clear winner... for now.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

Jon, I think I could wait until end of 2012, but I'd prefer not to go beyond another year for an upgrade!

Would be fantastic for filmmakers if Canon could fill that gaping hole between the 5D2/3 and the C300. I can't think of any camera suitable to take its place in there.

Re: Canon 5D Mk III is shipping in UK (pictures)
 

I would think that there are some features on the C300 that could be stripped to make a C200(?). HD-SDI comes to mind. And of course, the sky is the limit on the high end.

We can predict that there will be crop cams below the 5D3 without aliasing. We just don't know the timing or details.

And then there's the 4K DSLR that takes the hybrid role: DSLR form factor but movie-centric features. Given that RED is bragging on shooting for Vanity Fair, I think Canon has some additional motivation to deliver this product.

The last piece of the puzzle would be mirrorless cameras with EF mounts - or a new mount with a 100% compatible EF adapter. This is the "EVIL" camera that has been theorized for years, but has never really been hinted by Canon. It remains a possibility, but no more than that.

With the C300 as the anchor point for the "C" line and the 5D3 as the anchor for new alias-free DSLRs, there are a number of good possibilities down the road.

The future is bright. :)