Canon EOS 5D mark III

I have recently taken delivery of a Canon EOS 5D mark III.  Looking around the web there seems to be a fair bit of negative comment about the price, some lack of features and general auto focussing problems through the 5D range.  But personally I have not experienced any of these problems.  I suppose it comes down to how you use the camera and what you expect of it.

I purchased the original 5D as I wanted a full frame camera.  I have used it extensively for wedding photography over many years.  I have two 5D bodies and they have not malfunctioned in any way.  I have never experienced any auto focus problems, but then I do not use fancy autofocus features.  I tend to use one centre auto focus point and re-compose as necessary.  The most testing use of autofocus is when I photograph musicians on stage, often in poor light.  Even there I have only occasionally had a focus hunting problem.

I bought the 5D mark II when it was first released in 2008.  I wanted it for a mixture of video and photos, and to complement a Sony HVR-A1E for multi camera video shoots.  It has taken thousands of still images and many hours of video, often in testing places such as India.  I have experienced two small problems: a slightly dodgy HDMI connector; a faulty LCD preview screen.  The latter was fixed within three days by Canon's CPS.  I continue to use limited auto focus and, of course, video is all manual focus.  Nevertheless, I do not get out of focus images.  I'd be in trouble if lots of wedding photos were not sharp.

First impressions of the mark III are good.  I have found some quirky things.  Unless I have missed something the menu for video settings does not come up until you select live view video mode, meaning that you cannot just go through the menu and pre-select your video options before shooting.  The auto focus section needs a manual of its own.  I am generally sticking to simple focussing and manual for video.  The video features are why I wanted this camera.  Now I can go up to 30 minutes in one clip.  I have tried a few hand held shots for testing and was amazed at how stable they look.  I don't know why this should be different.  Perhaps the subtle styling changes on the camera make it easier to grip.