Still awaiting arrival of my 5DIII, so no first hand experience.
"Normal" silent shooting with the 5DIII reportedly makes half the noise of normal shooting, leaving it still too loud for some ultra silent shooting requirements like silent theatre.
After reading most of the manual, I find myself wondering if the 5DIII LV AF and silence modes would make it suitable for this. Where rangefinders were required (very silent live theatre productions), maybe I could use the 5DIII in LV mode (never used RF by the way).
The 5DIII has 3 AF modes:
1. Live mode (mirror stays up)
2. ;-) Live mode, meaning face detection (mirror stays up)
3. Quick mode (mirror slaps down, AF, mirror up again)
Obviously my question is not about mode 3.
The 5DIII has 2 LV silent shooting modes:
Mode 1: Mirror stays up, shutter recocks automatically, even 6fps if H is set
Mode 2: Mirror stays up, shutter recocks after shutter butten release
Typical light levels are 1/200 @f2.8, ISO 3200.
So will the 5DIII focus reliably using Live mode AF 1?
Anyone tried the face detection yet? Is AF accurate?
How is the shutter sound in LV silent mode 1? Would an audience be bothered by it? This is very important because I won't be allowed to shoot if I can be noticed.
rabbitmountain wrote:
Typical light levels are 1/200 @f2.8, ISO 3200.
So will the 5DIII focus reliably using Live mode AF 1?
How is the shutter sound in LV silent mode 1? Would an audience be bothered by it? This is very important because I won't be allowed to shoot if I can be noticed.
I've done LV contrast AF at 1/40 sec, f/1.4, ISO 256,000.
It's very accurate and sensitive. Under above conditions, I've also observed contrast AF locking on while phase AF hunts and hunts and gives up finally. 5D3 contrast AF is VERY fast (with my micro-USM 50 f/1.4 lens) in comparison to previous implementation for older Canon DSLRs.
Shutter does not flip under contrast AF.
Note battery life drains very quickly with live view.
The 5D3 shutter is S mode is as quiet a shutter as ive ever heard in a DSLR. Its not even close. Its extremely quiet. However, its not silent. The best camera with a totally silent shutter is the Nikon V1/J1. Otherwise you need to muffle the sound with a Sound Blimp.
Hi,
Regretfully, a Nikon V1/J1 cannot handle my 70-200IS2, which I need for the theatre work.
Today I checked LiveView on my 40D. I noticed that the blackout time when staying in Live View (I mean the time from when the display goes black to when the LV image comes up again) is about 1 second. Of course I set viewing time to "off".
Would some 5D3 owner be so kind to tell me how long this blackout time is for the 5D3? Would be greatly appreciated.
Hi rabbitmountain, I personally don't do any of the type of shooting you do (i.e. theatre, quiet). However, I just did a test. Blackout is a good 1 second. I tested LV Live mode and in Live VIew there are 2 different silent modes accessed in the menu (mode 1 was quieter but not sure what the difference is). However, I actually think the normal silent mode (non-LV) is quieter than the LV mode. I'm hearing similar volume but more obtrusive sound from LV than I am from the new regular silent mode. Hope this helps a little but people sitting right next to you are still going to here the shutter in a theatre if it is fairly quiet in the theatre.
Also from your original post, the silent burst mode is only 3FPS, not 6FPS. But it is still just as quiet and very cool.
Hi Geoff, thanks for the testing. If it's one second it's the same duration as the 40D. That makes it suitable for wide angle and mid-range, not so much for tele.
About the fps: that is very odd, the 5D3 manual says it's 6 fps. In Live View mode that is.
What amazes me, is that you say that normal (not LV) silent mode (thus with mirror slapping up/down) is more silent than Live View Silent 1 (without mirror slap). I always thought the mirror slapping up and down is mostly responsible for the "clack" of normal shutter sound, more so than the shutter itself.
Anyway I take your word for it, of course. Thanks again for testing.
Sorry, In LV mode it is 6FPS, just in the regular silent shutter mode it is 3FPS max. I had misread that you were talking about the two LV silent modes in the OP.
The sound is very close between LV silent 1 and the regular non-LV silent. Its hard to quantify it but the LV mode has more of a click sound and the non-LV is more of a soft thud. After going back and forth I think I would choose the non-LV as the less obtrusive but again very close and hard to say. Still not silent enough for a quiet theatre, I wouldn't think.
OK thanks! This being the case, there is no point in using Live View, as it is not quieter than normal silent mode. This implicitly means that normal silent mode must be very very quiet indeed.
Thanks to you all for contributing, I know enough.
