Canon 5D MkIII still worth buying?

[mikef]

My trusty 5D (original model) suffered some serious damage on a hiking trip last month. I'm thinking not worth repairing, given the residual value.

Below are pictures recovered from the card, which have a sort of sentimental value, if not artistic merit.

I can get by with my Sony RX100 MkIII, but having a collection of decent Canon L lenses, I am looking at new bodies in H Dew's sale. Given that I was happy with the 5, is it still worth getting the ageing Mk III, or should I fork out about £500 more for the MkIV?

Last pics from the Canon 5D:







One from the Sony RX100:

[Tony1963]

Or, how about saving a load and buying a used 5D2? If you were happy with the 5, you'll be ok with it.

I'm a 5D3 owner and would probably stretch to a 4 if I was starting again.

Be harsh with yourself. Do you think you'll ever use the extra features?

[mikef]

Did a bit more searching and Canon have the 5D body on offer cheaper than the grey imports: https://store.canon.co.uk/sale-cameras/

Also how does a 6D mk II stack up against a used 5D mk II? as the price isn't that far different from a good condition used example, and a UK warranty wouldn't be a bad thing to have (most of my kit came from B & H in Brooklyn, so didn't have a UK warranty)

[mikef]

ps: to answer your question on features. I might take some 4K video if the quality is good, I have a 4K editing suite

[Tony1963]

In that case, get the 4! Don't ask us to talk you out of it

[Phunk]

Do not get the mk4 for shooting 4k video - it’s st.

Much better with a 5Diii and Magic Lantern RAW

The 6D mkii is also a fantastic camera to look at.

Or try going used and make sure you have insurance with mechanical breakdown. I managed to score myself a 5DIII that was well used for £500

[mikef]

The video is a nice-to-have; a MkIII and GoPro would come in cheaper, and the MkIV isn't going to be the newest and shiniest for ever. I guess my question is more whether the MkIII is still good enough 10 years on to warrant buying

Goes off to Google magic lantern...

[Tony1963]

The 3 isn't even 6 years old!

[mikef]

Correct, I was confused by Canon bundling it with a 10-year anniversary strap, that's 10 years of the 5D (so mine had a decent innings)

[alabbasi]

if you already own a bunch of Canon lenses, you need to stick to that system.

[mikef]

And the outcome is: 5D Mk III from the Canon Store. UPS delivery Friday

[Tony1963]

I doubt you'll regret it. I love mine.

Will you be using raw?

[mikef]

Yep, always shoot in RAW and fix anything in post. I have an awful lot of disk storage (need it...)

[Phunk]

Nice one!

You'll love it, if you need any tips on the video side of things give me a shout.

[mikef]

Thanks P, will do

[checkmate91]

mikef said:

Did a bit more searching and Canon have the 5D body on offer cheaper than the grey imports: https://store.canon.co.uk/sale-cameras/

Thanks for posting this, I was considering a used 5D mk3 in the New Year, around £1,400 for c. 50k clicks. This offer seems like a no-brainer to me. I just want a better low-light indoor sports camera to complement my 7D (which, let's face it is a bit noisy indoors). 7D still good (for me) outdoors.

[mikef]

Actually Phunk, I do have a couple of video questions already

1. Can I record photos exclusively to one card on the 5Diii and video to the other?
2. I assume you transcode to an editing video format with timecode for NLE? I normally do my 8-bit FCP work in Apple Prores 422. Do you use a dedicated converter like Divergent Editready, or just convert in Compressor or the equivalent on your OS?
3. Mic - for corporate stuff (training videos) I tend to use a Sennheiser lav, but probably need a simple on-cam mic too. Is something basic like the Røde VideoMicro OK, or does the 5Diii really need more pro audio recording kit (assuming I stick with on-camera)?

[Phunk]

mikef said:

Actually Phunk, I do have a couple of video questions already

1. Can I record photos exclusively to one card on the 5Diii and video to the other?
2. I assume you transcode to an editing video format with timecode for NLE? I normally do my 8-bit FCP work in Apple Prores 422. Do you use a dedicated converter like Divergent Editready, or just convert in Compressor or the equivalent on your OS?
3. Mic - for corporate stuff (training videos) I tend to use a Sennheiser lav, but probably need a simple on-cam mic too. Is something basic like the Røde VideoMicro OK, or does the 5Diii really need more pro audio recording kit (assuming I stick with on-camera)?

1. I don't think so. Mine is setup with Magic Lantern on a small SD card that lives in the camera and I record everything to a CF card (Extreme Pro for RAW video)

2. For the 8bit footage I just bring it straight into Final Cut which handles it fine. For RAW footage I use MLRaw viewer, tweak the exposure and white balance then export as Pro Res.

3. Always try and get the mic as close the subject as possible. Ideally I'd have a lav mic and a shotgun mic going into a recorder then syncing via a clap.

I picked up a Takstar 598 a couple of weeks ago and it works surprisingly well ( Review here)

[mikef]

Thanks Phunk

Interesting if FCP is decoding H.264 in real time without any frame loss. Does that preserve the frame rate accurately? I have a Mac Pro 12-core, 128Gb RAM and a couple of 2017 Mac Pro’s, all with PCIe SSD so expect they would be as good as anything at decoding on the fly.

Shooting RAW video uses third-party firmware? That sounds interesting.

Your mic looks like a decent alternative. My W100 lav is on-camera wireless so without a separate recorder, which is a faff without set-up for each shoot, it’s that or the boom mic.

[Phunk]

mikef said:

Thanks Phunk

Interesting if FCP is decoding H.264 in real time without any frame loss. Does that preserve the frame rate accurately? I have a Mac Pro 12-core, 128Gb RAM and a couple of 2017 Mac Pro’s, all with PCIe SSD so expect they would be as good as anything at decoding on the fly.

When you bring the footage into Final Cut it'll take a few minutes to transcode to Pro Res. No issues whatsoever with frame rate. Up until a few months ago I was editing on a 2010 i7 MacBook Pro which handled it pretty well. I'm sure your Mac Pro will be fine

mikef said:

Shooting RAW video uses third-party firmware? That sounds interesting.

Yup - part of the fun of Magic Lantern!

mikef said:

Your mic looks like a decent alternative. My W100 lav is on-camera wireless so without a separate recorder, which is a faff without set-up for each shoot, it’s that or the boom mic.

The in camera recorder is OK with a line in, certainly does the job, magic lantern allows you to view audio levels on screen whilst recording and the headphone jack is handy (surprisingly not many cameras have them!)