Canon USA Announces EOS 5D Mark III

[Chris Hurd]

Full, official press release with all of the (accurate!) details plus several pics, located here:

Canon U.S.A. Announces the EOS 5D Mark III Digital SLR Camera at DVInfo.net

-- no more 4GB clip length limit (record HD up to 30 min. per clip)
-- borrows numerous video features from forthcoming EOS 1DX flagship
-- dual card slots (CF + SDXC, but no rollover HD recording between them)
-- has a headphone jack (finally!)
-- but still no clean output over HDMI
-- $3500 body only; $4300 kit w/ EF 24-105mm f/4L IS zoom lens

[Chris Hurd]

Sorry Jon -- we're linking to our own copy of the press release.

[Chris Barcellos]

First thing that may disappoint some video shooters, still only 720 60p ?

And of course, nothing over 60 fps.

Sure would be nice to have video resolution higher than the 5D II.

[Jon Fairhurst]

No problem, Chris. The word is out!

Less moire and color artifacts. Check.
ALL-I encoding. Check.
720p60. Check.
29 minutes with auto file spanning. Check.
Timecode. Check.
Dual card slots. Check.
Headphone jack. Check.

If the moire reduction and codec improvements are serious, this camera will rock!

[Ted Ramasola]

The question for a would be "mkII upgrader" like me is, IS THIS BETTER THAN 5D MKII+VAF5D2+ML UNIFIED ?

:)

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Chris Barcellos

still only 720 60p ?

Huh? It was 1080p before and it's 1080p now.

If you're referring to the frame rate, it is 1080p30 (+p24 & p25) and 720p60 (+p50).

You won't ever see 1080p60 on one of these until it becomes a broadcast standard...
in other words, not anytime soon. Maybe on a Cinema EOS product, eventually,
but not in the regular EOS lineup.

[Josh Dahlberg]

Originally Posted by Jon Fairhurst

If the moire reduction and codec improvements are serious, this camera will rock!

Yes... The press release claims moire, false colour and other artifacts have been virtually eliminated. Is this likely to bode well for resolution too? The 5DII lags a long way behind more recent DSLRs such as the GH2 in terms of resolving power in video mode. I'm hoping along with suppression of nasties, the 5DIII offers a much more detailed image.

[Jon Fairhurst]

As expected, there's no clean HDMI output. IMO, if the new ALL-I codec is good enough, it won't matter. The reality is that portable HDMI recorders also compress the video. Realistically, who will cart around a RAID for true uncompressed capture? Also, HDMI isn't that robust. Given the same quality codec, it's cheaper and better to record into the camera than over HDMI.

The exception would be in a green screen studio. I can see an HDMI RAID capture there...

[Jon Fairhurst]

Here's a sample video!
- Moire reduction looks real.
- Compression looks to be improved.
- Still some rolling shutter, but definitely reduced.

Nice!

Canon EOS 5D Mark III - EOS Digital SLR Camera - Canon UK

[Edward Mendoza]

Does that mean there's still a down-converted image out of HDMI port?

[Barry Gribble]

Yes - that's my biggest question, too. When you hit record, does the HDMI drop to 480p like the 5DII? Or does it stay at HD like the 7D?

[Josh Dahlberg]

Originally Posted by Jon Fairhurst

As expected, there's no clean HDMI output. IMO, if the new ALL-I codec is good enough, it won't matter.

From DP review's brief hands on:
"you'll fit 22 minutes of All-I footage on a 16GB card"

By my rough calculation that means it's a approx 100mbps codec. If well implemented Jon's comment is right on the money, it could be ideal.

Excuse my ignorance, but can we assume this would still be a 4:2:0 codec?

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Barry Gribble

When you hit record, does the HDMI drop to 480p like the 5DII?

No -- it does not. My understanding is that it stays in 1080p over HDMI out while recording.

(but ... with overlays, unfortunately)

[Dylan Couper]

I'm in. Sent my order into B&H... like 392,000 other people probably also did. :)

[Jon Fairhurst]

On the 5D2, one can press the AF button on the top of the camera and select face detection. This removes all overlays. The image is scaled to a 1620 x 910 window. Previously, that additional line skipping made the image look terrible. With the VAF-5D2 anti-aliasing filter, my initial results look pretty good.

Note that the magnification buttons do not work in this mode. To zoom in for focus, one would need to choose a different AF mode, zoom, focus, go back to face detection, and start the HDMI recorder.

It's possible that the 5D3 will have a similar arrangement, but without the need for a VAF-5D2 filter.

It's not 1080p, but for delivering 720p web video, it could be pretty killer for compositing or subtle grading projects.

EDIT: In face detection mode, a box pops up if it sees a face! Only use for establishing shots with no faces!

However, if you move the zoom box out of the way and turn your lens to MF (AF will show a gray boxes on the focus points), you can get 2.08:1 widescreen at 920 pixels wide. And you can film faces!