First impressions + rough and ready sample

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

Thank you Andy for the link to that Raw video clip, it really shows what the Mk3 is capable of.

[Andy Wilkinson]

It is amazing isn't it, along with excellent examples posted by Josh - Now I'm 90% sure I'll end up buying a 5DMkIII.

Just want to see what else Canon (and others) may have up their sleeves at NAB before I push the button, especially as I don't urgent NEED yet another new camera (but would like to add extra capability this year).

Now all I have to do is keep my business credit card locked away in the Safe until mid-April....that's going to be tough now!!!!

[Tim Polster]

Thanks Josh.

It is a tough choice. I have GH2s and a 5DMKII. I only use the MKII for still work. So I could stay put or sell them all to go for two 5DMKIIIs.

To be honest, Canon not including HDMI output on the MKIII is a pause for me. If they had included this I would not hesitate.

[Chris Hurd]

Canon not including HDMI output on the MKIII is a pause for me.

Just to avoid any confusion, actually there is indeed an HDMI output on the
Canon 5D Mk. III -- but the output has overlays which cannot be turned off.
That's the issue. To say that Canon didn't include HDMI output is an
inaccurate statement. They did include it. It's just not clean.

[Tim Polster]

Sorry, my writing was meant to be in context regarding the PIX external recorder.

This brings up a question. Yes, the 5DMKIII has HDMI output with screen characters. Can one record this output to an external recorder at all of the different and proper frame rates?

For example, the GH2 can only output a 1080i signal for external recording and the frame rate is 60 fps not 59.94 or 29.97.

It would be interesting to see if the 5DMKIII could output 720p60 or 1080p24/30 for recording and be recognized as industry standard frame rates?

Is so, then maybe a little tweak could remove the screen overlays and we would have true clean HDMI output for recording.

[Andy Wilkinson]

For those that are interested Philip Bloom has now posted his own first impressions of the 5DMkIII on his website.

[Luis de la Cerda]

It looks like it's resolving more detail than we might think.
The problem is that the sharpening algorithm in the camera sucks.
I would rather keep the detail setting at 0 and do your sharpening in post.
Check out the following example created from posted images...

The first one is the unsharpened version.
The middle one shows photoshop unsharp mask.
The bottom one in-camera sharpening.

[Andy Wilkinson]

Hi again Josh (or any other owners). Moving away from picture performance for minute, I was wondering if you could comment on the audio side, specifically the preamps in the 5DMkIII.

Are they less noisy than previous Canon DSLRs? Yes I know it's not pro audio with XLRs etc.... but heck even my prosumer TM900 camcorder has better sound preamps than most Canon DSLRs (if my 7D is typical in this regard).

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

While we are waiting for a full review from Chris...here is a recent short review of the latest Canon 5D Mark III:

Canon EOS 5D Mark III Review: The Best DSLR For Shooting Video | Gizmodo Australia

[Steve Maller]

Originally Posted by Andy Wilkinson

Hi again Josh (or any other owners). Moving away from picture performance for minute, I was wondering if you could comment on the audio side, specifically the preamps in the 5DMkIII.

Are they less noisy than previous Canon DSLRs? Yes I know it's not pro audio with XLRs etc.... but heck even my prosumer TM900 camcorder has better sound preamps than most Canon DSLRs (if my 7D is typical in this regard).

Andy, what most people are doing for "real" audio is using an external recorder such as a Zoom H4n, and just using the camera's audio for reference. I use Plural Eyes to manage the audio sync. Works 99% of the time and gives me perfect sync.

[Andy Wilkinson]

Yes I know. That's what I do too. But it would be good to at least have something a little BETTER than the terrible hissy preamps that Canon DSLRs have had up until now. I use a Rode Videomic Pro for non-critical audio capture on my 7D with the 20dB boost switched on. That helps a bit and at least gives another audio option that might be useable in a pinch and something hopefully good enough for family type stuff.

Sure, it's not XLR pro audio so for anything corporate or if the client is paying I have double system sound with various Rode and Sennheisser mics, (lavs and others) plugged into either my EX3 and/or Fostex FR2-LE. I find the Fostex much better than my Zooms, BTW.

[Jon Fairhurst]

My son has the FR-2LE. It's definitely quieter than the H4n or the DR100. But then again, so is the 5D2 with Magic Lantern and a juicedLink...

[Bill Pryor]

When I had the H4N I always used double system sound because the pass-through audio to the camera wasn't very good. Then the Zoom died and I replaced it with a Marantz PMD 661, which has real line outputs rather than just the headphone jack. I set the camera to match the -12db tone from the recorder and double record. For normal interviews I find the camera sound to be very good. I have actually intercut camera sound with that from the Marantz and nobody noticed any difference (it's there but not very much). I'm not sure why the sound is so much better than with the Zoom, but the line outputs and preamps on the recorder are the only thing that's changed. The Marantz is bigger and heavier than the Zoom but still has a 1/4"-20 socket. It uses 4 AA batteries, costs about $600.

Even though the camera audio from using the Marantz is good, I always double record since there's no way to monitor what the camera is getting. That's one nice thing about the 5DIII.

[Andy Wilkinson]

Some pretty clean city night shots at high ISO in this video out of the 5DMkIII (with 35mm Samyang F1.4).

5D Mark III High ISO Test - YouTube