Canon EOS 5D Mark III Archives

It’s been Canon EOS 5D MkIII fever over here for the past few days, and with the age old argument of Canon Vs. Nikon ever-present, I thought it was about time we put them up against each other for a head to head battle. I’ve compared all the key details below, and using only facts, not opinion, I’ve listed which one comes out on top. My question to you is, which one will you be buying? Leave a comment below.

Check out more details about each camera here:

Canon EOS 5D MkIII
Nikon D800

	Canon EOS 5D Mark III	Winner	Nikon D800
Megapixels	22.3 Megapixel Full Frame CMOS sensor	Nikon	36.3 Megapixel Full Frame CMOS sensor
Processor	DiG!C 5+	Draw	Expeed 3
ISO	100-25600 (expandable to 102400)	Canon	100 – 6400 (expandable to 50 – 25600)
Memory Type	Compact Flash, SD	Draw	Compact Flash, SD
Focus Points	61 points	Canon	51 points
Frames Per Second	6fps	Canon	4fps in FX format, 6fps in DX
Viewfinder Coverage	100%	Draw	100%
Screen Size	3.2″	Draw	3.2″
Liveview	Yes	Draw	Yes
Min Shutter Speed	30 sec	Draw	30 sec
Max Shutter Speed	1/8000 sec	Draw	1/8000 sec
Self Timer	10 sec, 2 sec	Nikon	2 – 20 sec
Metering Modes	Evaluative, Centre-weighted, Spot, Partial	Canon	Matrix, Centre-weighted, Spot
Video	Full HD Movie	Draw	Full HD Movie
Connectivity	USB 2, HDMI, Mic Input, Wireless Remote (optional)	Draw	USB 3, HDMI, Mic Input, 10-Pin Remote Terminal
Battery Type	Lithium-Ion	Draw	Lithium-Ion
File Formats	AVI, RAW, H.264, MOV, MPEG-4	Draw	RAW, TIFF, JPEG, MPEG-4, H.264
Dimensions	152 x 116 x 76mm	Draw	146 x 123 x 82 mm
Quiet Shutter Mode	Yes	Draw	Yes
AF Assist	Optional	Nikon	Yes
Built-in Flash	No	Nikon	Yes
Battery Life	950	Canon	850
Multiple Exposures	Yes, up to 9	Canon	No
HDR Mode	Yes	Draw	No
Shutter Life	150,000 Actuations	Nikon	200,000 Actuations
Time-lapse Support	No	Nikon	Yes
Comparative Playback	Yes	Canon	No
Price	$3,499	Nikon	$2,999

Here’s the facts: Canon wins 7, Nikon wins 7, and there’s 14 draws. Pretty evenly matched, but which factors matter the most to you? And why is Canon $500 more expensive? Nikon’s higher megapixels count is more important to me than Canon’s comparative playback, but Canon’s ISO range is more important to me than Nikon’s built in flash, so it really comes down to personal preference. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Comparison table EOS 5D Mark III and Nikon D800

	Canon EOS 5D Mark III	Nikon D800
Max resolution	5760 x 3840	7360 x 4912
Effective pixels	22.3 megapixels	36.3 megapixels
Sensor size	(36 x 24 mm)Full frame	(35.9 x 24 mm) Full frame
Processor	DIGIC 5+	Expeed 3
Autofocus	Contrast Detect (sensor) Phase Detect Multi-area Selective single-point Single Continuous Face Detection Live View	Phase Detect Multi-area Selective single-point Tracking Single Continuous Face Detection Live View
Autofocus assist lamp	by optional dedicated Speedlite	Yes
Number of focus points	61	51
ISO	Auto, 100 – 25600 in 1/3 stops, plus 50, 51200, 102400	100 – 6400 in 1, 1/2 or 1/3 EV steps (50 – 25600)
File format	JPEG (Exif 2.3 [Exif Print] compliant) Design rule for Camera File system (2.0) RAW: RAW, sRAW1, sRAW2 (14bit, Canon original RAW 2nd edition) Digital Print Order Format [DPOF] Version 1.1 compliant	NEF (RAW): 12 or 14 bit, lossless compressed, compressed or uncompressed TIFF (RGB) JPEG
LCD	3.2″ Clear View II TFT	3.2″ TFT Color LCD with 170° wide-viewing angle
Screen dots	1,040,000	921,000
Viewfinder magnification	0,71x	0,70x
Built-in flash	No	Yes (pop-up)
Flash X sync speed	1/200 sec	1/250 sec
Continuous drive	6 fps	4 fps in FX format (Full frame) max 6fps in DX format (1.5 Crop) with battery grip
Storage types	CF Type I (UDMA compatible), SD/SDHC/SDXC	CF (Type I), SD/SDHC/SDXC UHS-I compliant
USB	USB 2.0 (480 Mbit/sec)	USB 3.0 (5 GBit/sec)
Video Format	H.264	MPEG-4 H.264
Resolutions	1920 x 1080 (29.97, 25, 23.976 fps fps), 1280 x 720 (59.94, 50 fps), 640 x 480 (25, 30 fps)	1920 x 1080 (30, 25, 24 fps), 1280 x 720 (60, 50, 30, 25 fps), 640 x 424 (24 fps)
Price	US: $3500 UK: £3000 EU: €3300	US: $3000 UK: £2400 EU: €2829

People are talking

Nikon EOS 5D Mark III
We’ve heard lot’s of bad things regarding the new announced EOS 5D mark III as it’s not good enough to justify the price difference from its predecessor. It can be read that the new camera is oriented more towards videographers, that it has less megapixels, etc. First of all I think this camera will be awesome. 5D mark II was great, a great FF camera with only two major downsides. It had lousy auto-focus engine borrowed from the first 5D and it was slow in terms of frames per second. 5D Mark III got the top of the range auto-focus engine, and 6 fps continuous shooting capability ! Even with just that, it makes it a blasting piece of equipment. Something that was for a long time reserved only for Nikon with its D700, it’s now available from Canon. You can now have a great full frame camera with the ability to shoot any action, including professional sport. Of course, Canon surprised us already when he announced the 1D-x with this full frame sport dedicated camera. Canon 5D became a fully capable camera everyone could wish for and you don’t have to give up anything like before with the 5D Mark II.

Megapixels are not everything

The number of megapixels (MP) a camera has, has very little to do with how the image looks. And in practice, plenty of cameras with low megapixel number can make better images than poorer cameras with more megapixels. You may just buy one of those new Nokia 808 smartphones, I’ve heard its camera has like 41 megapixels. MPs are great when you need to crop smaller part of picture and make a poster out of it and when you crop your images a lot, but are also often used by salespeople and manufacturers to make you feel as if your current camera is inadequate and needs to be replaced even if the new cameras each year are only slightly better. Seems like they had right – They might have just put the tone of pixels on EOS 5D Mark III and people would be happy and proud when bragging in front of their friends. But now, your super new Canon 5D mark III has less megapixels than Nikon D800. Oh – what now? Should we not buy it? What’s the coolest feature it has – give us some large numbers!

How about D800 ?

If you’re just a megapixel freak, then you should probably sell your lenses and go for Nikon D800, or even Nokia, at least they got more megapixels and that’s all it matters, right? Don’t get this wrong, no doubt that Nikon made a great camera because they always do, but it seems like Canon and Nikon switched roles. D800 is now what 5D Mark II was when it was announced (a full frame megapixel monster), and 5D Mark III is like D700 when it first arrived. Although, D800 can also produce the maximum of 6fps but only in DX mode and with battery grip attached. It means you’ll have to use only center of the frame like on a 1.5x crop sensor with the downside of pixel loss. As for the sharpness, I believe Canon will have sharper images compared to D800 and better ISO range. That we will find out very soon.

Video on Canon 5D Mark III

As seen by far, video control is much improved. That was expected of course but it’s good. You can now monitor the sound on screen and via headphones and even make a simple editing of your recordings. Video Format H.264 with resolutions (1920 x 1080 (29.97, 25, 23.976 fps fps), 1280 x 720 (59.94, 50 fps), 640 x 480 (25, 30 fps)). You can check video examples in article: Canon Presents the New EOS 5D Mark III

Image quality on Canon

Do not expect for image quality to be much improved because the quality so far was very good, although judging by the examples so far, the ISO quality is much improved. We should wait for the RAW files to come out but it should be and will be better.The disappointed ones are all of those who bought the 5D Mark II for its megapixel number and have used it for studio photography. They expected some crazy megapixel number to be attached with this new camera because they don’t know what to do with the extra 2 fps, and they haven’t even noticed the auto focus performance issues. On the other hand, the film makers and photographers that shoot some kind of motion from time to time will be very glad because instead of having two cameras like 5D Mark II and 7D, could now have only one powerful Camera.

Conclusion

Canon did a great job making this ‘’budget 1D-x’’ and if the pictures come out at least as good as they did on 5D Mark II – it will be a success. Canon EOS 5D Mark III is a full frame camera with respectable auto-focus engine and great video capabilities, able to produce both large size still photos and capture action.

So, what are the main differences between the Nikon D800 and the Canon 5D Mark III? First, it is obviously the image sensor – while both cameras have about the same size sensors, the Nikon D800 has a 36.3 MP sensor, while the Canon 5D Mark III features a 22.3 MP sensor. This essentially means that the Canon 5D Mark III is going to have an edge in terms of noise performance at high ISOs – but that’s at 100% view. A real and a fair comparison will involve down-sampling – a process, in which an image from a higher resolution sensor is down-sampled to a lower resolution, which ultimately reduces noise on the higher resolution sensor. I am planning to conduct such testing once I receive both cameras, so for now I will have to refrain on talking about image quality. True, Canon 5D Mark III has a two stop advantage in terms of native high ISO of 25,600 versus ISO 6,400 on the D800, however, I personally have no interest in such high ISO figures, since I know that anything above ISO 6400 is going to be too noisy for professional use. Neither camera will be able to match what the Nikon D4 or the Canon 1D X can do at very high ISOs anyway.

The second main difference is the autofocus system. Now this is the part that will definitely need a lot of testing to compare the two AF systems. While the Nikon D800 has a lower total number of focus points (51 versus 61) and cross-type focus points (15 versus 41), the Nikon D800 has working AF at f/8, with 9 cross-type sensors. The Canon 5D Mark III is limited to f/5.6. As for other differences, the Canon 5D Mark III has an edge on speed (6 fps vs 4 fps), LCD (1.04 Million dots versus 921,000 dots) and weight (860g versus 900g), while the Nikon D800 has better shutter durability (200,000 shutter cycles versus 150,000), better video features (uncompressed video), high-speed USB (USB 3.0 vs USB 2.0) and built-in flash. The biggest difference, however, is the price – the Nikon D800 retails for $2,999, while the Canon 5D Mark III is $3,499 – a $500 difference.