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crashwins

Active member
It's wonderful that today we have so many options to choose from and we have a market with stable competition, but the downside -- at least for indecisive folks like me -- is it's tough to choose. It's like standing in the aisle with 130 kinds of toothpaste..

I'm a stills shooter looking to take a dive into video. To put it succinctly: is there a better option for video AND stills in one package than the 5D3? i've agonized over, say, getting a Fuji again for my stills a Gh2 on the side, but the glass and gear piles up A LOT. The second one looks into forums like here or the ML forum or anywhere there's always "never this" and "never that" and the decision gets murkier. I get that the BMCC may be better or worse than the 5D3 for some reasons -- same with the GH4 -- but these can't take good stills as they're not really designed for it (maybe the GH4 if you like m43). Ack!
 
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If you really care about stills and need AF for them, then I would say it's either the 5D3 or the D800 (which has some aliasing/moire but is sharper and has a bit more DR). All the other cameras that have better video than those either have a smaller sensor that you may not want for stills (D5300, D7100, a6000, GH4) or are mirrorless bodies without phase-detect AF (GH4, a7s).

If you can deal with the RAW workflow and don't mind shooting with a modified firmware, the 5D3+RAW delivers a very nice image, much sharper and with a lot more DR than its H.264.
 
Thanks..Did you mean better video as h264? The RAW seems to be holding up well to anything I've seen. I dealt with RAW once before with the 5D2 and it was a drag, but it seems there have been many improvements, though it's hard to keep up with the myriad forum reports!
 
I mean: 5D3+RAW video is a lot better than 5D3+H264 video (it is sharper, it has more DR, it has no compression artifacts)
 
I was thinking about moving from Canon to Nikon. I still might do that if Canon doesn't give us a higher DR sensor at Photokina.

But realistically I doubt that I will do it. I am looking forward to getting into a version of Dual Pixel Auto Focus. I also think Canon has better lenses now. Every new lens since 2010 has been fantastic at it's price point.

I am mostly happy with the DR that I get for stills. DR is rarely an issue. And Canon RAW and Dual ISO with Magic Lantern on the 5DIII are great tools for video ....



I have the Canon 24-70 2.8 II and 70-200 2.8 II.
I also like the 18-135 STM. Plus 3 600EX flashes with radio control.

I could swap all of that to Nikon. But I also have about 8 "second tier" and "third tier" lenses, 4 older flash units, etc. that aren't worth a lot of money, but are really useful as backup....

I also have 2 EOS M bodies and the 18-55 and 22 mm STM which I really love.

Plus the learning curve for all new equipment.... In the end it just isn't worth the work required to switch.

We know that Canon has the codec, sensor, and expertise from the Cinema line. I'm hoping that they feel enough of the heat from Panasonic and Sony to push a lot of that down to their DSLR's!


I did buy a Nikon D3200 and 24-85 about 2 years ago to try out the sensor. That 24 MP sensor is still basically as good as the one in the D7100, except that the 7100 doesn't have an AA filter.

Even with a 24MP chip on APS-C, it is hard to find a zoom that gives me the 13MP sharpness that the Canon 24-70 2.8 II shows on the 18MP 700D. So you have to choose carefully to realize much of a gain. There are only 2-3 zooms rated at 13MP or above on the D7100.

I may buy a D5300 and one good Sigma zoom to play with again.

But for most work a 5DIII, with that precision autofocus and the Canon 24-70 and 70-200 will stay as my preferred tools.

Depending on what the 7DII looks like...

The whole thing is not easy. Good luck!

Best,
Michael
 
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