I owned a 5D and a 5DII. In general I liked the 5D better but that was mainly because of the banding problem with the II that Canon finally fixed the second time I sent it in for repair. I really appreciated Live View with the II and also the C1,2, and 3 knob for easily switching settings. As noted above, the 5D is a dust magnet, the II is much better in that respect. If those things are important to you then I'd get the II, otherwise I'd get the 5D. I thought image quality was the same and AF with the outer points was either the same or better with the 5D, I.
Prior to the 5D3, if you needed to change the settings stores in C1-C3 to constantly adapt to changing field conditions they would be forgotten as soon as the camera timed out or you switched to a different mode and tried to switch back again. Not good. You'd have to constantly fumble around and re-register them.
With the 5D3 you can set it so that they constantly update themselves to whatever settings you are currently using for them. Very nice for changing real world conditions and when you are constantly jumping say between video and action types and more static type shots.
I know people are ripping on the 5d3 for not having significantly better noise performance than the 5d2, and I think that's baloney. The camera is miles better. Luminance noise might be similar, but chroma noise is vastly improved, and you can actually shoot 6400 to 25,600 without chroma noise causing problems. You can't really see how big a deal this is from looking at laboratory samples of coins and balls of yarn, but when you shoot an image with a huge blue sky, and chroma noise on the 5d2 turns that blue sky into an ugly patchwork of purple and blue blotches, you'll instantly understand why the new camera is so much better.
I'm very happy at the moment as I got the 5D and the 5DIII.
What I found so far after some 2500 shots with the 5DIII and some 50K or more with the 5D:
5D
Has cleaner low ISO
Better colors for my taste at low ISO
Very simple to use
You just focus on taking pictures and forget to check the crappy screen
Very good RAW conversion in Aperture (My taste)
I can see the Focus point in red in the VF
Option for deleting all pictures is easier to find
5DIII
Better AF, I nail things I could not before
Somehow I can recover more in the shadows
RAW conversion is poor at the moment with both Aperture 3 and LR. (personal opinion)
6FPS so I can consider some sports
Resolution for cropping
High ISO from ISO 800 and forward, ISO 3200 is my new ISO 1250.
VF is brighter and bigger and it helps me a lot for MF
LV just amazing with that screen
The screen shows better pictures than what you get in reality
Sensor cleaning. YES YES YES to that one
Two Cards but strange implementation, still welcome.
Silent mode with up to 3FPS
More Frames bracketing
HDR. (It works well sometimes and if you want you can keep the RAW originals too)
Etc...
The 5D III is a very nice camera. It has the focus all 5D's should have had for the cost charged.
Short of a 1D IV; it is a very capable sports camera. Something the 5D or 5D II were not so good at.
The only downside I have seen is the price.
5D3 does having at least 1/2 stop better SNR, not a huge deal but it can be noticed a bit the larger difference is that at the much higher iso it has a bit more dynamic range and less banding so photos taken at high iso that happen to have large areas near black can tend to look much better sometimes by much more than 1/2 stop, so while the general random noise might be only modestly better you might find a shot usable on the 5D3 that won't ne on the 5D2 because the 5D2 shot will have banding and ugly junk going on enough to ruin things, so it's only like 1/2 to 2/3rds at most stops better and yet, at times, you might be able to use it as much as 2 stops higher, depending.
At least that is my vague impression, just based upon random usage. Perhaps a careful comparison would show otherwise, but probably not.
The 5D and 5D interfaces are utterly divergent. The 5D menus scroll over multiple pages. You can't make a custom page with your most common functions. There's no C1/C2/C3 on the dial. It's a hell of a lot slower to use if you need to change settings on the fly.
5D II and 5D III video are almost identical. Plenty of videographers continue to use the 5D II.
alexdi wrote:
The 5D and 5D interfaces are utterly divergent. The 5D menus scroll over multiple pages. You can't make a custom page with your most common functions. There's no C1/C2/C3 on the dial. It's a hell of a lot slower to use if you need to change settings on the fly.
5D II and 5D III video are almost identical. Plenty of videographers continue to use the 5D II.
5D3 gets rid of all the nasty moire though. OTOH Canon totally crippled the usability and there is no MagicLantern for it so the features/usability are actually worse for 5D3 video. But the quality due to lack of moire can be much nicer (if still remaining somewhat soft). The 5D3 video is also nearly 2 stops better SNR. For controlled studio lighting and careful subject matter to minimize moire maybe it's not so different but for natural world stuff or freedom to shoot any subjects the 5D3 quality is certainly better. But man how could Canon cripple it to have worse features by miles than an old 5D2 with ML?!? They just blow all the leads they get even ones they get by accident. Stop worrying about silly internal conflicts and competition and worry about taking other before outsides totally do.
I'm of two minds about Magic Lantern. I don't like the way it slows startup and card formatting. It's difficult to use. The controls have nothing whatever to do with the button labels and some important functions are poorly implemented or coded, occasionally causing stability problems. If it weren't for the focus assists in video mode, I'd probably stay with the stock Canon firmware.
But it does have a tremendous feature set. In a professional capacity, I might consider a few of them necessities.
alexdi wrote:
I'm of two minds about Magic Lantern. I don't like the way it slows startup and card formatting. It's difficult to use. The controls have nothing whatever to do with the button labels and some important functions are poorly implemented or coded, occasionally causing stability problems. If it weren't for the focus assists in video mode, I'd probably stay with the stock Canon firmware.
But it does have a tremendous feature set. In a professional capacity, I might consider a few of them necessities.
Yeah it is sort of a pain, it's a shame Canon won't just add a few of the basics that it adds to begin with.
If budget is an issue or you just want to see how much better full-frame can be, get the 5D. It's amazing and amazingly inexpensive right now. I just got a 5D3 and will be keeping my 5D. It's that good. And super-simple to use by comparison to 5D3.
If you know you're switching long-term and budget matters, get the 5D2. It's also a great camera. But if cost is not a concern, the 5D3 is much improved in feature set (though IMHO much more complex to use at full potential).
I do manual focusing 95% of the time, mainly Zeiss/Contax primes. So for me the biggest improvement 5D3 have over 5D2 - very much improved AF - means almost zero. And, to push the balance, Canon no longer support fast mattes such as the EG-S which I cannot do without.
And to top it all, Magic Lantern is not available for the 5D3. It provides some really useful features even if you only shoot stills. Some cool stuff too.
So if you're anything like me the 5D2 have some significant benefits lacking in the 5D3.
I'm going to double up with skibum5 here. The 5D3 does video better and vastly better high ISO. And the interface is vastly better for shooting video. In my circle, there are no 5D2's anymore with video crews (at least with weddings). They all use the 7D because of the better interface and the 17-55 2.8 IS. I'm starting to see 5D3's show up now but it's a slow influx even in the high end of the spectrum because the price is so high and the economy is down and there's no 24-70 2.8L IS.
Yeah, Canon really loves to bat against a no-hit pitcher on certain things. I think they crippled the 5D3 video because of the C300. However, I know 2, count them 2 videographers who have one. Most people aren't even splurging on the 5D3 and those that do have the exact same complaints about the camera. Really silly. Of course Nikon is dead in the water with videographers but Panasonic is really creeping in to the videography scene. Hopefully they'll be a driving force and cause Canon to remove head from butt ;-)
skibum5 wrote:
5D3 gets rid of all the nasty moire though. OTOH Canon totally crippled the usability and there is no MagicLantern for it so the features/usability are actually worse for 5D3 video. But the quality due to lack of moire can be much nicer (if still remaining somewhat soft). The 5D3 video is also nearly 2 stops better SNR. For controlled studio lighting and careful subject matter to minimize moire maybe it's not so different but for natural world stuff or freedom to shoot any subjects the 5D3 quality is certainly better. But man how could Canon cripple it to have worse features by miles than an old 5D2 with ML?!? They just blow all the leads they get even ones they get by accident. Stop worrying about silly internal conflicts and competition and worry about taking other before outsides totally do. ...Show more →
bmichalak wrote:
Well I am still confused. Apparently the perfect camera, just like lens just doesn't exist. How about we create a poll, 5D vs 5DII vs 5DIII...
A poll won't tell you anything that the discussion doesn't reveal, I'm afraid. You could look somewhere other than forum discussions, where some people can occasionally hold to positions about which they feel strongly but which may not necessarily reflect "truth" or consensus.
You might try some of the following:
Read multiple reviews of the camera by credible reviewers. (I'd rather not name the ones that are not credible, but if you read a good cross selection you will likely be OK.)
Look at photographers whose work you like and see how many of them use the cameras you are thinking about. Check around to see if they have offered any thoughts on the cameras.
If you are really energetic, you might track back to previous posts by some of the folks who have offered opinions here and on other forums where you might have asked about this. Doing so might give you a better sense of the quality of their advice.
Also, consider carefully what features might or might not actually be important in your intended use. Looked at generally, no camera will be perfect at everything, and some complaints are simply about things that are not in line with your expectations.
Ignore the common low iso shadows issue, 5D3 is the best all around cam right now in canon land. Canon will move it better if they lower its retail value to $2700.
