Thinking of 5Dmk3.

[Tom Cudzilo]

Mainly shoot birds and landscape. Landscape when I am up north kayaking or hiking and birding while at home walking the Lake Ontario shore.

I used to shoot with 1D bodies for a long time. I sold the last one IIn few years back because I did not have the time to get out anymore and shoot. At that time I got a 7D and for the little shooting that I did it served me well. Now I am trying to get out birding again and am quickly finding that unless I have a really and I mean really good light I cannot get the same quality shots that I did with the 1D cameras. So I got reading and I am not the only one with this problem as it seems, but I also know there are few who really like the 7D. So my question is would a 5Dmk3 be a step up and worth the almost 3x difference of 7D for my needs? My biggest worry is the crop vs ff here. I pretty much always have to crop even the 7D images somewhat to get what I want, so on a 5D that would mean crop even more.... weird thing is I used to crop my 1D images and never had a problem with noise or sharpnes.... what do you guys think?

Another thought that goes through my head is that maybe my post processing needs to be adjusted for the 7D? In the past, and I still do this now, I would open up RAW in ACR do the minor adjustments to WB, exposure etc. and then open up in CS5 and do the rest. I find now the images are very noisy and God forbit I crop more than 25% then its just all wrong. So who knows maybe its not the camera maybe its the operator?

Any help would be much appreciated.

[John Chardine]

Hi Tom- The likes of Daniel Cadieux here at BPN and another great Canadian photographer, Glenn Bartley, make the 7D sing. Dan has published a guide to post-processing with the 7D. Can't remember where so just Google it.

The 5DIII has roughly 6.3 micron pixel sites versus the 7D's 4.3 micron so shooting with the 7D is like having a teleconverter on all the time. To get the same pixels on subject with the 5DIII you will have to get closer to your subjects or use a longer lens (note that this has nothing to do with sensor size, FF or crop, but everything to do with pixel size which is independent of sensor size).

If you are willing to improve your field craft and get closer and/or invest in bigger glass, the 5DIII would be a marvellous camera for you. On the landscape side it would be a big step up from the 7D and you would be getting what you paid for out of your EF glass (I assume you don't just own EF-S glass which would not work on the 5DIII).

[Tom Cudzilo]

My main birding "walk around" lens is a 500f4is with 1.4x converter.
When I go kayaking I take with me 17-40mm and 100-400mm. These are the lenses I use the most. I dont own any EF-S lenses other than the "nifty fifty".
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I wish someone could send me RAW files of the same subject (bird ideally) shot from the same distance with the same lens, settings etc. Then I would be able to do PP like i typically do and see what I come up with after cropping etc.

[John Chardine]

All your lenses are EF then cuz the "nifty fifty" is EF.

Unless you use Monty Python's famous Norwegian Blue (dead) parrot, it will be very difficult to obtain the comparative images you are requesting.

This is a relevant article by Roger Clark:

http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/telephoto_reach/index.html

[Tom Cudzilo]

All your lenses are EF then cuz the "nifty fifty" is EF.

Unless you use Monty Python's famous Norwegian Blue (dead) parrot, it will be very difficult to obtain the comparative images you are requesting.

This is a relevant article by Roger Clark:

http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/telephoto_reach/index.html

Sorry meant to say non L lens.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Tom,

Good points by John. For landscapes the 5D3 is def a big upgrade no question about that. For birding it depends on how small/far the birds are. With the 5D files are clean and sharp even at higher ISOs but if you crop too much it will lack fine details and won't give you great results...I used the 500 and the 5D2 for a long time and I got great results with it...so it depends. Note that the 5D3 AF is much better than the 7D so that itself helps a lot as well. Remember for almost the same price of a new 5D3 you can also buy a used 1D4.

In order to get the best out of your Canon camera you need to use Canon DPP for RAW conversion. ACR does not do a good job, in particular for high ISO shots.

good luck

[David Stephens]

I own and shoot both the 5D MkIII and the 7D. I've shot tens of thousands of shots with both and much prefer the MkIII because of its more accurate and more consistent AF, particularly when tracking BIF. I'm using the EF 500mm f/4L IS, often with the 1.4X TC-II. I plan to start using the EF 2.0X TC-III as soon as Canon offers the promised update to the MkIII's firmware to allow AF down to f/8. My keeper rate with the 5D MkIII is double or triple better than with my 7D.

[Tom Cudzilo]

You know what guys...my other hobby is high end audio. I have lots of experience there and when someone asks an advice I always say that what I like and what suits me might not be what you will like and what suits you. Therefore buy something used if you can and try it... if you dont like it you can always sell it and not loose too much. I will follow my own advice here and go for the 5D3 and compare myself. thank you all for chiming in.