This new camera from Canon has been rumored for many moths and finely on Friday, March 2, 2012 Canon launched this new generation of 5D series. I am not technical expert, so I do not want to write a technical review I will leave that for others, but since I own Canon 5D mark II I feel I can write about my own impressions and whether I am going to upgrade or not. So for those who do not want to read the full story, I can say right now that I am not going to upgrade and I will stick to my current camera until it keeps working. I am seriously very happy with it and most of the new features of mark III are not really important for my work. I believe that Canon is right in saying that they listened to the existing 5D mark II users and they tried to satisfy most of their needs. Internet was full of complains about the mark II autofocus and speed with only 3.9 fps. I am not expert on video functionality, but there were also few complains in that area, which Canon tried to solve trough firmware updates.
I always consider 5D to be landscape or studio camera, with the amazing resolution of 21 MP, I did not care about autofocus, since in most cases I do use manual focusing together with live-view and the same applies to speed of the camera since I do not need more that one frame per couple of minutes:) So that is how I always looked the the 5D series I was appreciating it for different reasons than sport and wildlife photographers. I believe that the new focusing (more or less like Canon 1DX), 6 fps, new metering system and improved hight ISO performance must be so exciting for above mentioned groups of photographers. However, now come the question is 22 MP really up to date, or it is already obsolete, especially when one would compare it to new Nikon D800 with 36 MP? My answer is I do not know, but I can imagine that with 22 MP on small sensor one might achieve better quality picture than from 36 MP squeezed to the same size sensor. But as I said I am not technical expert and I leave this to be decide by others which camera is able to produce better quality files. This displayed photograph was taken with mark II and printed on 60 x 80 cm baryta paper and the amount of detail is quite amazing, so I have to wait to see if more pixels on small sensor can give me even more details.
Title: Ice and Sea # 1, Camera: Canon EOS 5D mark II, Lens: Canon EF 17-40 f /4L USM, Filtr: Lee Big Stopper and Lee ND Grad 0.6, Exposure: 90″ , f 18, ISO: 50
From the landscape and creative perspective I found the ability of mark III to take multiple exposure and in camera HDR files quite interesting, but the real improvement I see in improved weather sealing and new viewfinder with 100% coverage. So what to say at the end. I believe that this new camera will find a lot of supporters and also lot of opponents. As I mentioned at the beginning I will not upgrade, but also I will not switch to another system, just because of more megapixels. So I will wait and use my current 5D until it works or Canon will make totally new camera, let say with square shape chip, ISO 25, integrated GPS and maybe little bit more megapixels or with something else.