A Work of Art. This is a user not a professional review. Otherwise, I’d suggest go to dpreview.com or your preferred reference. I think they are capable of showing evidence of issues such as vignetting or chromatic abberration in a product that could get the attention of the manufacturer’s engineering department. They helped or convinced me with the purchase. My intention is to give feedback on the couple of points they’ve raised and highlight what I’ve experienced as a user so far.I agree that this camera performs excellent at 12,800 ISO or even higher. At f/4, this allowed me to shoot handheld and flipped the mirror in a fraction of second. The almost black sky showed the clouds in the captured image which was not visible to my eye (my vision is 20/20). At some situations, you can have a 4L lens function at 2.8L. I was going for the new 24-70mm 2.8L but I had to wait 2 months for the 5D body only so I went for the kit. I guess it’s a good accident.I am pleased with the new 61-point AF. Fast and gets my focus right most of the time so far. What I mean by fast is less than half a second or probably faster than that. I could catch a bird flying within my frame without exciting some nerves. I won’t mention how the new AF system works. The pros could discuss this all day. What’s important is that when you use AF you can capture a nice pic fast without going for MF or manually controlling the exposure. I was able to produce a silky background blur consistently (1 foot away from subject) with AF using the kit lens. Nevertheless, if you bought this camera you would find the MF as sweet or sweeter than the AF.35mm camera these days can do still and motion pictures but not excellent at both worlds in my opinion. 5D3’s video is handsomely good but if you spent $3500, I think you wouldn’t mind going a little further and buy a possibly lighter, smaller and more than capable video cam and get the 1080p/60fps. Pros I’ve met use their SLRs mainly for shooting still pictures. However, its video performance can be used in some production in my opinion as it’s way too good for the end user.The manual states that this 5D does not comply with the Ultra High Speed memory cards but SDHC/SDXC can be used. I guess Canon is referring to writing at 95MB/s. I used the SDHC (600x) it worked just fine but I’m noticing some delay (around 1/4 second) when flipping images in the LCD. It might be normal. I will try the CF (600x too) and see the diffence. If you’re considering to get the latest and greatest like 1000x you might want to wait a little while. Canon might release a newer firmware and make it fully compliant with UHS. Fast cards need fast writer too. Having both CF and SD is winner for me. Saving money on cards (unless CF and SD cost and perform the same) but achieving the same thing. Record to both or use one then switch. Don’t have to worry losing the images or clips and backing up to the laptop regularly unless somebody steals the camera or I dropped it above the mariana trench.22M pixels is more than enough I believe unless you print posters or billboards. It’s too big for me already. Large prints consume 10MB in the card. I don’t see much difference shooting lower (12) than 22M pixels. Noise seems to show faster and noticeable at higher pixels and ISO.Physically, it’s ergonomic and the buttons are placed almost perfectly. Kenrockwell articulated this well and I agree with him that 5D3 is the best well rounded SLR that Canon ever made. However, I disagree when he compared the D4 and 5D. It’s like comparing BMW’s SUV with Audi’s sedan. Anyway, when I first lifted 5D3 the thumb, index, and middle finger put a groove in the grip. I’m 5 foot 8. Fits my right hand perfectly. The battery compartment has an internal lock – ensures pins remain in contact and it gets more secure as you put your hand around the grip. The camera is not heavy I would say but with the lens and the first all day shooting I felt the weight.Not sure why Canon did not go for USB 3. 128GB CF/SD will be a norm soon. Imagine taking hours transferring files to your computer via USB 2 where it could take in minutes. This is my biggest disappoinment. The touch pad is like the egyptian table compared to iPhone and it’s a bit redundant with the track ball (above the Q button). I saw some cosmetic imperfection around the mode dial. It looks like a dent. If you notice this, please let me know. The top LCD looks to have a protective film but not the 3.2 LCD. I can’t find anyone selling screen protector so I ordered the ones for the iPhone. I will cut and fit when it arrives.In summary, excellent ISO, AF, ergonomic. Best form factor out there for full 35mm SLR for me – I shoot outside and under the roof. No flash which is a plus for me – makes camera smaller and you won’t need it most of the time if you have good lens but if you do, you wouldn’t want the built-in flash. I have a couple of minor issues but the thing still deserves 5 stars.I will post some pics.

Converted from D7000. Wow, where do I begin.To start with, I’ve been a Nikon guy up until this point. Going back to my first SLR with the N80 film camera back in the day (god only knows how many rolls of film I exposed with that thing), to the D70, the D200, and the D7000. I was skeptical of all the hype around the 5D3, so being a cautious man I rented it and a 16-35 LII first. As soon as I held the camera in my hand, I knew I was hooked on the ergonomics alone. Further shooting continued to impress with it’s amazing user experience, refined menus, and incredible autofocus performance. So I ended up buying a 5d3 along with a 35 1.4 L. (16-35 had too much distortion for my applications)Ergonomics:This thing fits your hand like a well worn glove. My hands are on the small side being only 5’7″ tall, but even the big full frame body just snugs in my hand like it was custom designed for me. You really need to hold this camera to believe how ergonomically amazing it really is. It balances perfectly both with the 16-35L II and the 35 1.4 L. The physical buttons are very customizable, letting you configure the camera to make it’s operation so intuititve, it just gets completely out of the way and let’s you focus completely on shooting.User Experience:The top notch physical ergonomics and the customizeable buttons combine to make a user experience like I’ve never had before. I liken it to my Volkswagen GTI – everything is in the perfect spot and the product feels like it was designed to maximize the joy in the user experience. It really must be used to be believed.Refined Menus:Despite being a Nikon DSLR users since 2004 with the D70, I’ve never got used to Nikon’s menus. On my D7000, changing anything takes me forever just to find the item. I’ve had the 5D3 for less than a week, and I can already find items right away. Maybe it has to do with Canon’s method of Horizontally orienting the menus, instead of Nikon’s veritical orientation. I’m really not sure, but I know for me the menu is so much more intuitive than Nikon.Autofocus Performance:Autofocus performance is simply stunning. I’ve heard it said in the photography world that Nikon has accurate and slow autofocus, and Canon has inaccurate but fast autofocus. I’ve used the 5D3 to shoot challenging indoor sports, and I’m blown away by it’s speed AND it’s accuracy. On both the 16-35 and the 35 1.4, the autofocus feels like it BITES into the subject. It’s very confidience inspiring, letting you worry about important things like Light, Color and Gesture.Screen:While I admit that I have not personally tried a D800, several reputable review sites complain of it’s green tinted dispaly. This is not confidence inspiring. The 5D3’s display is just gorgeous – bright enough to see outdoors, responsive, quick, and accurate.Why I went with the 5D3 instead of the D800:After analysis, I felt like 5D fit my ‘shoot from the hip’ style of photography best. The d800, as evidenced in DxO Mark and other sources, cleary gives better technical IQ. But as most of my work is indoor sports and candid photography, the 5D was the clear winner for it’s silent continuous AF-DRive mode, higher FPS (4 vs 6) in fast mode, user experience, and legendary canon autofocus.Conclusion:This camera was cleary designed with THE PHOTOGRAHER in mind. It becomes transparent , letting you focus on what matters – Light Color and Gesture. To me, this is the clincher. LCG are really what is most important in photography.Update 10.24.2012Color:I used to convert all my images to B&W when I shot Nikon. With this camera however, I find myself loving the way color images look. Colors are deep and smooth, without being overly saturated and harsh. I find myself using Silver EfxPro less and less. I’ll A/B in lightroom between the color image and the B&W converted image, and the color image has some inexplicable ethereal quality that I love. Remember Kodack NC and VC film? This camera renders skin tones like NC, and colors like a slightly less saturated VC. It’s a beautiful balance – it has a soul to it, like an old Fender Twin reverb tube guitar amplifer. Smooth and soulful.Now admittedly this could just be an evolution of my style, but I thought I would throw this in here and you can take it with a grain of salt. Also note that I think a lot of my love for this camera comes from my love of the 35 1.4 L that stays glued to it. Also #2, I always shoot RAW. So I can not comment on the camera’s color modes or .JPG engine.Also #3, I’ve learned with this camera to “overexpose” by about 2/3 EV and turn down exposure by 1/3 to 2/3 in post. When you do this, the noise performance in the shadows is stunning.Update 01.11.2013I’m continually amazed at how clean the sensor says. Using the D7000 in the same environment I’m using the 5D3 in, I was forced to continually clean the sensors. The 5D3’s sensor cleaner is quite effective – I have a sensor loupe, and even upon inspecting the sensor that closely I still haven’t seen a single particle of dust adhere to the sensor. This could also be a testament to the 5D3’s weather sealing. You may think “yea, big deal” but dust can be difficult to remove from photos without leaving any traces.Loving this camera more and more.Update 05.07.2013I know I mentioned the autofocus above, but I wanted to talk about how much I love the spread of those cross type focus points. Having 41 (YES, FORTY-ONE) of those things to choose from really enables some creative freedom with regards to composition. I shoot a lot at f/1.4, so the whole “focus then recompose” thing just doesn’t cut it for me. The focus points cover a large portion of the frame, which lets you put your subject closer to the edge of the frame for some cool negative space or environmental compositions. It can be tough to see your photo this way, but once you realize you can do it it becomes a powerful story telling tool.

Can’t go wrong. Saved for a long time for this camera and it has taken my business up several notches! I have been incredibly pleased with its performance and the quality of the shots I am finally able to achieve. I did a lot of research and spoke with many seasoned photographers before I made my choice. So glad I did!

Product description said “used” but camera came in in an immaculate condition with no signs of usage. Delivery was much quicker than expected. Came with 24-105 f4 use lens, which is a Canon L lens but did not impress me. Camera settings are complex and may cause an extended learning curve despite the fact that I have been a Canon user since long mostly using Rebel series. Auto focus system on this camera is unquestionably the best. The price paid is unbeatable.

The Best Camera I ever used. What is there to say? At these low (second) hand prices, this is really a no-brainer! In my opinion, one of the best camera’s coming out of the Canon stable. Build as the proverbial tank, beautiful (Canon) colors and super usability! After being treated very badly by the Sony customer service people for a requested repair for an A7II, I threw my Sony stuff in the bin and bought myself two of these babies! (Luckily for me I was using my ‘old’ EF lenses on those Sony cameras so the only casualties were a pair of convertors and the two A7’s mentioned!) Anyways, if you are into serious photography and want a camera (or two) that will probably live longer than you, do consider this beautiful work of Canon engineering. You won’t regret it!

Falsely Advertised. Nowhere in the product description does it state that this is a gray market item, not intended for sale in the United States. Lenses don’t fit securely on this camera body. I sent it to the manufacturer for repair, but they won’t honor the warranty because this item was not intended for sale in the U.S. market. I would not have purchased this item if I knew the manufacturer’s warranty doesn’t apply. Buyer beware. To make matters worse Amazon won’t honor their A to Z Guarantee. They don’t care that the item was falsely advertised.