Canon 5D mk III Released!

[brad_in_omaha]

Canon 5D mk III Released!

http://usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/p...os_5d_mark_iii

[grande man]

Nice specs, not so nice price.

[Bill Anderson]

Can one of you photo-techno geeks summarize for us simple picture takers why the 5D MkIII is worth $1,300 more than its older brother, the 5D MkII?

[brad_in_omaha]

From what I see, $1300 buys you speed.

ISO went form 25,600 to 102,400.
Frames per second went from 3.9 to 6.

Auto focus also went from 9 point to 61 point.

[Bill Anderson]

I wonder if the new 5D could serve as a full-frame sensor 7D for action photos. The 7D can shoot up to 8 frames/second, but 6 frames/second is very good.

[grande man]

Originally Posted by Bill Anderson

Can one of you photo-techno geeks summarize for us simple picture takers why the 5D MkIII is worth $1,300 more than its older brother, the 5D MkII?

The main improvement is AF performance. I never had any issue with the 5D2 but I rarely need servo AF. The bottom line is that Canon has been getting very greedy in the past few years. They started with the 7D. It was the real upgrade to the 50D...for an extra $500. The "MkII" lenses are Canon speak for "much higher price". For example, the 24-70L just went from $1400 to $2300. The 5D3 is just keeping with the trend.

The Canon glass I have is something I am thankful for. It does warm my heart when Sigma produces glass that equals Canon at a much lower price point. The Korean manual focus stuff is also putting Canon in their place. Some folks don't mind manual focus and the optics are good at a MUCH lower price than Canon.

The thought of dumping Canon altogether and going with one of the new mirrorless cameras is something I have considered. Ultimately, I decided to keep the Canon stuff I have (and love) and get an M4/3 set up soon for most of my day shooting. The weight and price savings are very attractive, as are many of the features. The Oly OMD E5 and the Panasonic G3 are two very nice cameras.

The bottom line is that I don't expect to be paying Canon's salty prices nearly as much in the future (unless the lottery thing pans out ).

[Bill Anderson]

I ended up buying a 5D Mk III. The high ISO settings and advanced auto focus system make it a better camera for bird photography than my 7D, while the HDR feature makes it better for sunset shots than my 5D Mk II.

[kenw]

also you'll need to consider the lower valuation of the US dollar in the equation. $3500 ain't what it used to be....