5D MKIII specs

[dustylense]

Cheers cowpunk! Pick your poison indeed, lol.
Big ups to all you Pros. It's great to be here on this forum and learn from you all....even if I'll only ever shoot for the love of shooting, it's worth it to learn from you all!

As for the 5dMIII. I'm sure it will have a strong following from the photogs. We'll see what happens with the vid peeps. Looks like there will be several on this forum. Looks like some are underwhelmed. Also looks like the D800 has some a nice look...some problems that the 5dMIII doesn't have....so....looks like it's getting crowded. If Nikon fixes a few things, they'll be a serious threat for peeps like me....(especially if the sub 1K stuff has clean HDMI out too....)

Mad love to DVXUsers everywhere!

THis to me is the distinction, HHL. Name the cameras that can walk on a job and take high end still digital photos with stobe lighting and then in the blink of an eye be a high quality video camera? I can't bid a still shoot without being asked if I can provide video footage anymore. I can't think of the anyone in the network of my stills shooting friends that don't get the same requests. These are friends with clients like Apple, BMW, Sony, Budweiser and my favorite friend that has shot every celebrity you can possibly imagine. Not just wedding guys here. The 5dmk2 has made them and myself multimedia shooters. That same celebrity shooter (Robert Sebree) just spent weeks in South America with Jennifer Lopez and Mark Anthony for a talent search for an new Idol type show. He shoots with the 5Dmk2 (I help convince him to buy it). They asked about video and he called me up seeing if I would join him for the trip to handle video but the budget wasn't there for a second shooter and I would have overlapped my booking. BUT.... If I were to have made the trip and if the 5Dmk3 were available, I will tell you right now that it is the camera I would have taken. Because I'm a stills guy and a video guy. Multimedia.
Being able to get a 22mp strobe lit still photo and with the same gear shoot gorgeous video in near dark? Again, what cameras do that, and without major issues like moire and aliasing? I can think of 3. The 5dmk3, the D4, and the soon to be 1Dx. The C300 will get you the video, because thats what it does. THe FS100, same thing. The F3, Af100, ALexa, all made for motion. THe Red Epic and Scarlet? Sure you can grab a still from it and film at the same time. But you can't light with strobes. And finding that still grab at 24 frames a second? ANd to do a campaign with that? Nightmare!

As just a video camera that by chance takes stills? Still pretty darn amazing!

 

[squig]

-yep! I can shoot some music video for some teen age group that sounds like crap (but dang!....it was fun)

LOL

-yep! Pros wouldn't be caught dead shooting with my equipment

I have no problem shooting with a sub 1k camera if it's the right tool for the job.

-yep! Many folks will say that people like me have/are ruining indie film

Why? digital music production has been good for the music industry over the last 15 years. Bands aren't at the mercy of labels as much as they used to be. There's not anywhere near enough good storytelling. In the days when I used to go to the video store I'd have to stand around for ages trying to find something good to watch. And there's almost nothing good on TV...except for Nightrider of-course. The more people making films the better.

 

[alpi69]

Fair enough. Of course you do realize that your answer actually excludes you from "people like me" right? I'm not looking for a "viable professional tool". I'm in a different category. I'm looking for (and many folks on this forum) the best image quality for less than $1K. True, I can go and buy a C300....but the fact is that I'm not shooting professional projects anymore. (As in someone is paying me more than 3K to do a job....I'm making less than 5K per year shooting video.) I have great respect for folks like you who are making a living (or more than $50K per year) shooting video. Heck, if you're making $15K per year (on the side)....you've just paid for your C300! ***nice***

This is what DVXuser is all about. To make a sub-1k solution work is amazing. I am quite sure most of us here started like that. And we respect the budget-indies, because technically and artistically they beat our C300s most of the day.

 

[snowleopard]

True. Good posts. Like the old saying goes, it's the carpenter, not the tools.

Found Dustylense comments on video+stills=multimedia rather compelling, and factual from what little ($) I see. I never thought I'd buy a DSLR to shoot with, and just rent one if I really needed some shallow DOF shots, but the game is changing.

 

[KahL]

THis to me is the distinction, HHL. Name the cameras that can walk on a job and take high end still digital photos with stobe lighting and then in the blink of an eye be a high quality video camera? I can't bid a still shoot without being asked if I can provide video footage anymore. I can't think of the anyone in the network of my stills shooting friends that don't get the same requests. These are friends with clients like Apple, BMW, Sony, Budweiser and my favorite friend that has shot every celebrity you can possibly imagine. Not just wedding guys here. The 5dmk2 has made them and myself multimedia shooters. That same celebrity shooter (Robert Sebree) just spent weeks in South America with Jennifer Lopez and Mark Anthony for a talent search for an new Idol type show. He shoots with the 5Dmk2 (I help convince him to buy it). They asked about video and he called me up seeing if I would join him for the trip to handle video but the budget wasn't there for a second shooter and I would have overlapped my booking. BUT.... If I were to have made the trip and if the 5Dmk3 were available, I will tell you right now that it is the camera I would have taken. Because I'm a stills guy and a video guy. Multimedia.
Being able to get a 22mp strobe lit still photo and with the same gear shoot gorgeous video in near dark? Again, what cameras do that, and without major issues like moire and aliasing? I can think of 3. The 5dmk3, the D4, and the soon to be 1Dx. The C300 will get you the video, because thats what it does. THe FS100, same thing. The F3, Af100, ALexa, all made for motion. THe Red Epic and Scarlet? Sure you can grab a still from it and film at the same time. But you can't light with strobes. And finding that still grab at 24 frames a second? ANd to do a campaign with that? Nightmare!

As just a video camera that by chance takes stills? Still pretty darn amazing!

Now here's the funny part. Ready for it?
Whoever said the MKIII had "gorgeous video"? Ironically, from every image we've seen, the video looks damn near God awful and that's comparing it to the MKII.
I've seen the JLo/Mark Anthony show you're referring to also. Like him, had you been there, may have been good to stick to the MKII or GH2 if you optioned for that as well.

 

[hgf4]

Cowpunk and dustylense both mentioned their GH2s crashing on them. Is this a regular occurrence for hacked GH2 owners? Are there no hacks that provide stability?

 

[C-Mac]

I have a 5DMKIII and 2-5DMKIIs. I like the 5DMIII footage. I thought it looked pretty soft when shooting... I shot in Neutral mode with 2 set for sharpness. I disabled high ISO NR. When I added contrast in CC, it looked plenty sharp to me on my Sony PVM-20L5/1 20. However, I have been placing a softening filter, for years now, on my lenses when shooting video with my 5DMKII.

Chris McGuinness

www.chrismcguinnessdp.com
www.puslecinema.com

 

[-Sandro-]

The d800 in this video https://vimeo.com/38912704 definitely look sharper that what I have seen until now from the canon 5d3, but unfortunately it does exhibit quite some aliasing, don't know how the 5d3 would fare in this situation. In terms of details in wide shot, I think that it will easily beat the 5d3 because with the clean hdmi and proper codec in an external recorder it will keep the detail. Unfortunately I don't think the clean hdmi will reduce or eliminate the aliasing. I would like to see the crop mode which will have less pixel skipping and could be a bit better.

I agree the aliasing is quite awful, like going back 10 years!

 

[manakiin]

Cowpunk and dustylense both mentioned their GH2s crashing on them. Is this a regular occurrence for hacked GH2 owners? Are there no hacks that provide stability?

There are stable hacks. It's just that people like to use experimental high quality ones...

 

[squig]

Now here's the funny part. Ready for it?
Whoever said the MKIII had "gorgeous video"? Ironically, from every image we've seen, the video looks damn near God awful and that's comparing it to the MKII.
I've seen the JLo/Mark Anthony show you're referring to also. Like him, had you been there, may have been good to stick to the MKII or GH2 if you optioned for that as well.

What is this gorgeous video you speak of? I want a digital VistaVision replicant and right now the 5DMKIII appears to be the best available option...for the next 3 weeks at least give or take 3 months for 4k C-DSLR availability.

 

[KahL]

What is this gorgeous video you speak of? I want a digital VistaVision replicant and right now the 5DMKIII appears to be the best available option...for the next 3 weeks at least give or take 3 months for 4k C-DSLR availability.

Well all things considered:
- 5DMKII image is sharper with sharpening options either high OR low. MKIII's image is either soft and or muddy, even with sharpening in post
- ML improves the codec substantially beyond even what ALL-I does
- ML adds headphone and sound monitoring functionality
- At most, the 5DIII seems to add better low light (w/ a muddy image) and HD out HDMI when recording

Beyond that, what exactly is "...best..." about the MKIII thus far? It's more expensive as well, considering that the image is a downgrade from the last version and minor, overdue functionality updates, when you think about it.

 

[Jaime Valles]

Cowpunk and dustylense both mentioned their GH2s crashing on them. Is this a regular occurrence for hacked GH2 owners? Are there no hacks that provide stability?

The GH2 is not finicky, it simply needs to be understood. Stability depends on the hack, SD card and lens used. There are some rock-solid hacks available for almost any type of SD card (the "Sanity" hack is great), and some that require nothing but the best ("Orion V4b" needs the Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB 95MB/sec cards) and can only be used with non-Panasonic lenses. Some hacks limit you to 1080p24, others allow for different frame rates and 720p. If you're doing the hack, you have to do the research to know what you can do with the equipment you have. I've been using the top-of-the-line Driftwood Orion V4b hack on my GH2 with the Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB card and Canon FD and Voigtlander lenses. Works like a charm, zero crashes, and the image is stunning. And if you find it's not stable enough for you, then you can always revert back to the original firmware.

The GH2 is definitely not a replacement for a dedicated video camera like the Canon C300, with its XLR inputs, ND filters and tons of other features that video shooters expect in a camera. But it's also $16K. You can shoot a whole feature film for the cost of that one camera body. As for the 5DmkIII, there's no way I'll spend $3000 on a DSLR to shoot video, when the GH2 with the hack gives me better video quality for only $800. And the GH2 doesn't have the stupid 30 minute per clip limitation.

 

[Cosimo Bullo]

Cowpunk and dustylense both mentioned their GH2s crashing on them. Is this a regular occurrence for hacked GH2 owners? Are there no hacks that provide stability?

This is not the norm for our two GH2s at all. Very reliable. Buy the correct cards, use the right hack.

 

[cowpunk52]

Cowpunk and dustylense both mentioned their GH2s crashing on them. Is this a regular occurrence for hacked GH2 owners? Are there no hacks that provide stability?

We had card/clip corruptions, not camera crashes. We were using Driftwood's Quantum 9B hack on Sandisk 95MB/s 64GB cards and Canon FD & Voigtlander lenses. It was not a regular occurrence, but did happen a few times over the course of 16 twelve hour shooting days between three cameras. Not often, but enough to make me think twice before using it again on a long-form project with money on the line. I'm not saying I wouldn't do it, because the image can be breathtaking for the price - I would probably just try to find more money for camera dept

Current hacks may be more stable, and before the feature I had not experienced an issue.

When I say that the camera is 'finicky,' I'm specifically talking about things like the noise bug, the gamma shift, and the thin dark band across the image in underexposed areas. I found those to be very annoying problems that are difficult to constantly remember to avoid while in the chaos of shooting a feature. As always, YMMV.

 

[Kholi]

Cowpunk and dustylense both mentioned their GH2s crashing on them. Is this a regular occurrence for hacked GH2 owners? Are there no hacks that provide stability?

Not for me. Have shot GH2 Hack B-cam RED Epic for a number of days on at least three different jobs, never had a crash. But I went out and bought 64GB Sandisk cards and I use stable patches. Not sure what others' experiences are in that area.

Yeah, the footage actually cuts with Epic at any resolution (5K is more noticeable of course) for big screen, at least at 18 feet projected @ 2K. 5D doesn't, no way no how.

I do understand what CP is referring to, though. Having to worry about the ISO bug is a major one for me. Probably the only thing now. Gamma shift can be reduced by adjusting the LCD settings, near indistinguishable, and I've never gotten the thin dark band, ever. Or clip corruption. Another annoyance is not being able to monitor 720/60 without it reverting back to 1080/60i recording. That's weird.

If the ISO bug weren't there I don't think I'd have any issues with the camera operations at all. But, the ISO bug IS a big one, and it's almost enough to drive me away from using it for more than leisure or experimental.

 

[stefancolson]

I'm in the final days of shooting a feature using hacked GH2s (Quantum V100 w/ Sandisk 30mb/sec 32gb and 16gb cards), and we've encountered very few problems along the way:

The ISO bug can be avoided if you just make it a habit to always approach 160,320,640,1250, and 2500 from the setting below them on the screen.

We haven't had any banding or posterization issues at all.

Occasionally files won't play back in camera. No corruption problems after dumping footage however.

As Kholi said, no 720P if you've got anything plugged in via HDMI. Same goes for ex tele. Greatly diminished the usefulness of those modes.

Once you understand what happens in terms of gamma shift once you hit record it isn't that hard to deal with.

Overall the ergonomics of the cam leave a little to be desired, but operation becomes second nature after a couple of days. The image is holding up extremely well, and everyone is amazed by this little consumer cam. The GH2 is certainly feature-ready, if you spend the time getting familiar with the camera before you shoot (which should be the case no matter which camera you're using). I also wouldn't risk not having at least one backup on set.

 

[dustylense]

There is no doubt the Gh2 can be amazing for what it is. That is why I will never sell mine.
But I think most are missing my point of what a true DSLR is really about. The multimedia machine. Face it, the Gh2 is a crap stills camera when stacked up against the 5d series. It also has probably the worst rolling shutter out there. But if used correctly, one wonders why video is limited in consumer devices when you're able to get a 150m/bits out of a Best Buy camera. But even with the hacks, I have never stepped into the theatre with the knowledge that I might see a few gh2 shots. But I've seen plenty of 5dmk2 and 7d footage used in high profile cinema releases. I've also seen, been part of, and read about stills guys that get the request for supplemental video added on stills sets. 9 out of ten times it's the 5dmk2 requested. Why is that? Because the camera takes a unique image.

I'm with Cow on thoughts of the Gh2. It's the IQ of the functions that turns me off of the Gh2. But yet it's just another tool, as is the 5dmk3. Either you like it or you don't. I'm positive were going to see many fine looking motion projects out of the 5Dmk3, just as we saw out of the 5dmk2. Why argue that? If you don't like the image, then they are not the droids you were looking for...The good thing is, there are almost too many fine cameras out there to choose from. Ummmm, I wonder what sparked that?

 

[maarek]

...the video looks damn near God awful and that's comparing it to the MKII.

So now the 5d mark III looks GOD AWFUL? What is wrong with you guys?

 

[Danielvilliers]

For the price of a 5d3 you could get the best of the two world a D800 and a gh2 ;-) That will be my dslr setup. I am looking at this video http://vimeo.com/39097915 it is very very encouraging compared to the last one that he posted that had a lot of stair stepping . I am thinking if there was a workflow problem for the first one as the difference is staggering. The first one seamed to really lack a field in vertical plane and every straight line had some ugly aliasing. For one moment I was thinking if nikon had not done the line problem in the initial d90.

What seems good also is the DR and rolling shutter. Just crossing my finger.

 

[dustylense]

For the price of a 5d3 you could get the best of the two world a D800 and a gh2 ;-) That will be my dslr setup. I am looking at this video http://vimeo.com/39097915 it is very very encouraging compared to the last one that he posted that had a lot of stair stepping . I am thinking if there was a workflow problem for the first one as the difference is staggering. The first one seamed to really lack a field in vertical plane and every straight line had some ugly aliasing. For one moment I was thinking if nikon had not done the line problem in the initial d90.

What seems good also is the DR and rolling shutter. Just crossing my finger.

Looks pretty good. Just another tool to choose from.

OK guys. First, set your monitor up to view 1080P (no Imacs at 2560x1440). Now, by no means is this a work of art. But watch this video full screen and back off your monitor no less than 7 feet. BACK UP! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAZThIm0KZc
I posted this because this guy pointed the camera at every instance I would avoid shooting with the 5dmk2. I will say that the 5dmk3 is a vast improvement, and thats not counting the build of the darn camera (which under the hood and the exterior is a 100% improvement). But then again, just like the d800 than daniel posted, it's in the end just another tool.
You're all gonna get hairy palms pressing your noses against the monitor! View in 1920x1080 and please for the love of all things living, back off your computer.