Canon USA Announces EOS 5D Mark III

[Lee Mullen]

Originally Posted by Dylan Couper

The most pleasant surprise is that no one has complained it isn't the same price as a T3i!

Why should they?

[Robert Turchick]

Originally Posted by Jalan Salur

Would rather be wise and wait till others have discovered any issues first.

Im jumping in... If it really has issues, they'll creep up well within BH's return window! I do a lot of still photography too and want a full frame to go with my 7D.
Plus, somebody's gotta test the thing! I'll be performing the overheating tests here in Hell...I mean Phoenix...once summer arrives!

[Dylan Couper]

Originally Posted by Jalan Salur

Would rather be wise and wait till others have discovered any issues first.

Nah. Where's the fun in that?

Why should they?

That was a joke based on the endless threads we had about people being angry with the C300 prices. Ya had to be here I guess.

[Murray Christian]

Go forth early adopters, so pov-o scum like me can shop wisely.
If I have seen greater savings than those who have come before, it is only by standing on the shoulders of giant pixel peeping blog posts!
Huzzah to you.

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Jon Fairhurst

Also, we know that we'd be getting all the pixels. That means proper anti-aliasing for sure.

I'm not sure I follow that. I'm assuming you mean that because it's 4k, all the photosites on the chip will be read every frame? If the recording is RAW, that could start to be feasible, because it moves the processing bottleneck from camera to computer, so yes, that's possible.

But it would also follow that the chip would be approximately 8 megapixel, as with the C300. Yes, it will work well for video, but will an 8 megapixel DSLR sell......?

Yet again it's a case of trying to engineer a good stills and video product in the same device seemingly leading to conflict. Optimise the video performance and expect still performance to suffer, and vice versa.

[Jon Fairhurst]

If it's 4096 wide (though it might be 3840), S-Video, in a 2:3 aspect sensor, it would be 2731 tall. That would be 11.8 MP.

If the camera records 4K from an S-Video window in a FF sensor, the width would be 1.6x 4096 = 6554. In a 2:3 sensor, the height would then be 4369. That would be a 28.6MP sensor.

RED EPIC/SCARLET-X does 4K at S-Video and 5K at roughly APS-H size, so there is precedent for this sort of thing.

There are a few ways for Canon to skin this cat.

BTW, marketers like MP because it increases with the square of the linear size. But we humans perceive resolution linearly. A 4K wide still isn't a huge loss of resolution compared to the 5616 wide stills from the 5D2, but 11.8MP sounds a whole lot worse than 21MP.

[Josh Dahlberg]

Originally Posted by David Heath

Yet again it's a case of trying to engineer a good stills and video product in the same device seemingly leading to conflict. Optimise the video performance and expect still performance to suffer, and vice versa.

David, you made an excellent case for this on the D800 thread, but a spec I'm very curious about on the 5DIII is the sensor width: 5760 = exactly 3x1920.

Care to chime in on the potential significance of this; on the face of it Canon seems to have arranged the sensor configuration of a stills camera to in some way improve video requirements. ie: the 1mp bump was specifically to produce superior video scaling, in which case it seems Canon is taking us video folk pretty seriously in this release.

What is this spec likely to mean for how video is arrived at? Am I reading too much into this?

[Jon Fairhurst]

Josh, I don't think you're reading too much into the 3x1920 width. With square pixels that allows a 3x1080 height in Movie Mode.

I'm thinking that Canon isn't necessarily reading all the pixels into the DIGIC 5 DSP. It's possible that the chip allows the reading of three summed lines of pixels. That way the chip, lines, and processing don't need to all be 3x faster. It can treat a 3x3 area as one super pixel, reducing aliasing dramatically. The optical anti-aliasing filter would still be a bit too sharp, but the aliasing would be much better controlled and the light sensitivity much better than with the line skipping method.

I don't know for a fact that is what they are doing. It's just an educated guess.

Frankly, it would be a great way to deliver nice looking video as well as crisp photos from the same system.

[Josh Dahlberg]

Originally Posted by Jon Fairhurst

I'm thinking that Canon isn't necessarily reading all the pixels into the DIGIC 5 DSP. It's possible that the chip allows the reading of three summed lines of pixels. That way the chip, lines, and processing don't need to all be 3x faster. It can treat a 3x3 area as one super pixel, reducing aliasing dramatically. The optical anti-aliasing filter would still be a bit too sharp, but the aliasing would be much better controlled and the light sensitivity much better than with the line skipping method.

I don't know for a fact that is what they are doing. It's just an educated guess.

Very interesting... can't wait to see some full res comparisons of the 5DIII against the Nikons... could this sensor configuration give the Canon a meaningful advantage. If so, how will the 1DX stack up?

It's curious indeed that Canon hasn't made any mention of the sensor width matching 3xHD. Perhaps they don't wish to antagonize stills photographers (the primary market for the camera) by highlighting how the sensor *appears to have made* a clear concession to video demands.

Addendum: Jon do you ever sleep?

[Jon Fairhurst]

I sleep, but I usually don't remember it. :)

[Emmanuel Plakiotis]

I don't know if it is hilarious or sad, but the sensor with the best pixel management is inside a smartphone:

http://europe.nokia.com/PRODUCT_META...Whitepaper.pdf

Even at the end of the digital Zoom In, the HD image is composed out of 8mp+ with full RGB. Not to mention the ability to derive multiple field of views from a single lens.

[Andy Wilkinson]

I've been following the announcement and this thread along with lots of stuff all over the web - but I don't think this 5DMkIII video has been mentioned yet on DVinfo. Sure, like one of the official Canon films, it features yet another sport I've no interest in - but some of the shots look pretty good to me!

Canon 5D EOS Mk III: Lion City Rollers (Test) on Vimeo

EDIT: Updating Vimeo Link to a newer version.

[Lee Mullen]

Originally Posted by Dylan Couper

Nah. Where's the fun in that?



That was a joke based on the endless threads we had about people being angry with the C300 prices. Ya had to be here I guess.

OK :)

What about thos EOS C I have heard of?

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

After waiting so long for the 5D Mark III, I guess I was hoping for even more improvements over the orginal 5D Mark II.

The problem with moire, especially when filming moving ripples on water, has been a bit of headache in some scenes and hopefully with the Mark III it will be a thing of the past.

Are the other improvements enough to make me want to buy the Mark III, or would it be better to stick to an extra couple of Mark II bodies or/plus lenses for a similar price? Decisions, decisions! :)

The biggest factor for me is the latest Nikon D800, which also has a great range of features for video and stills.

I'm looking forward to trying both the Nikon D800 and Canon 5D Mark III to see how they truly compare in a variety of situations for serious photo & video work.

If anyone has managed to already get their hands on both models, I'd be interested to read their views.

[Jim Martin]

Canon doesn't lower prices.....they do offer instant rebates and I expect to see those coming or continuing for the mk II.

Jim Martin
Filmtools.com