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Jared Polin, FroKnowsPhoto.com and this is a side by side comparison between the Canon
5D Mark III and the 5D Mark IV.
Now I am going to be going over the specs and I want to help you decide, if you already
have a 5D Mark III whether you should upgrade to the 5D Mark IV or if you have been waiting
for the 5D Mark IV to come out to see what would happen with the price of the 5D Mark
III, I am here to help you figure that out and this is not a review of the 5D Mark IV.
We will have a full one of those out in the not too distant future, so let’s get into
the specs starting with the price point.
The 5D Mark III is currently selling new for $2599 but you can get it re-furbed for $2099
at the Canon store online and the 5D Mark IV is $3499 new.
So that is our base starting point, you have to remember that when the 5D Mark III came
out, it was also priced at $3499.
So obviously you can see the 5D Mark III is less expensive than the 5D Mark IV.
So let’s look at the mega pixels, you have 22.3 mega pixels in the Canon 5D Mark III
and you have 30.4 mega pixels on the 5D Mark IV.
So in this case the 5D Mark IV is going to be a little better because it has more mega
pixels, it’s newer, it’s an upgraded sensor but that is given between the two cameras
that are four years apart.
The Mark III has a DIGIC 5+ processor and the Mark IV has a DIGIC 6+ processor.
So just for processing power it is going to be slightly better on this but again that
is a given ISO range.
ISO 100 to 25,600 on the Mark III and you have 100 to 32,000 on the Mark IV.
So that’s not even a full stop better but part of the reason why it’s not a full stop
better on the Mark IV is that it’s 30.4 mega pixels.
They have upped the mega pixels but they weren’t able to expand the ISO, because of that but
being that it is four years newer it should give you cleaner ISOs at much higher places
than what the 5D Mark III could do.
In my experience I really didn’t want to go past 12,800 in this bad boy and with my
limited testing experience of this camera, I have gone up to the 32,000 and it looked
pretty good at least in the sample images that I was taking.
Now let us move on to the card formats.
The 5D Mark III has a compact flash card and an SD card slot and then the 5D Mark IV has,
wait for it, wait for it, compact flash and an SD card slot.
So the only thing that get updated there is that the SD slot is now UHS1 supportive.
So that means it supports those type of SD cards it should have gone further, that’s
one of the main reasons people are complaining and trying to figure out should they stick
with the 5D Mark III or the 5D Mark IV.
It should have had C-fast and it should have had the UHS2 support.
In terms of frames per second, the 5D Mark III does six and the 5D Mark IV now offers
you seven, so slightly better there.
Are you going to have a noticeable difference between the two of them, not really so much
but where you will see a slight difference is that with the six frames a second, you
can get 18 to the compact flash card and 12 to the SD in full roll to the 5D Mark III.
It would have been better if they went with the C-fast and the UHS2 slots of course, but
in this case the 21 frames and the 19 frames is a little bit of an upgrade over what the
5D Mark III is doing, it should have been more but we have already established that.
So moving on to the next thing, let’s talk about the screens.
You have a 3.2 inch screen on the 5D Mark III and on the 5D Mark IV you have a 3.2 inch
screen that is fully active touch screen.
One of my favorite features in a camera is to have a touch screen and it is also a 60%
higher resolution screen.
Now let’s take a look at the auto focus system, with the 5D Mark III you have 61 auto
focus points with 41 of them being cross types, on the other side the 5D Mark IV has 61 auto
focus points with 41 of them being cross type.
You may be saying is that exactly the same, well, yes, it is exactly the same but what
they have done is they have expanded the focusing points to cover more vertically, so you have
a little bit more reach there and it’s also an updated auto focus system that’s supposed
to be the same if not similar to the one in Canon 1D X Mark II.
So which of these two cameras offers you Wi-Fi built in, well it is the 5D Mark IV, it offers
you Wi-Fi, NFC as well as GPS where the 5D Mark III did not have Wi-Fi built in and it
also does not support the new Wi-Fi adaptor that Canon just released.
The 5D Mark IV adds a new feature called dual pixel roll that allows you to shoot in a new
format that gives you micro adjustments after the fact to your focus, if you miss slightly
you may be able to make an adjustment in the computer to get a sharper image.
On the other side it didn’t have it but that was four years ago, not a deal breaker
at all, we will see where that technology leads us.
So now let’s get into the ergonomics, the bodies are pretty much exactly the same with
some minor tweaks.
The 5D Mark IV is two ounces lighter than the 5D Mark III, where did they get the savings
I honestly have no idea.
They both take the same exact battery, so battery life should be pretty similar except
when you get into shooting 4K video which we will get to in the video section.
The 5D Mark IV has added a new joy stick to the back of it which is updated from the 5D
Mark III.
You also have the new AF area select button which comes in handy, I like that, it’s
not in the 5D Mark III.
You have more button remapping options in the 5D Mark IV, one of those that I absolutely
love is the ability to make the back button focus change between AF Servo and single focus
with the press of the button.
You can’t do the same thing over here on this camera, it is a nice added function that
they added in the Mark IV.
For those of you who like to shoot tethered, you now have USB 3.0 in this camera, you only
had 2.0 in this camera.
So if you are in the studio and you need to get faster transfer rates from your camera,
the 5D Mark IV is going to be the one that may be for you.
The 5D Mark IV has added a new mirror system, it’s the same one that they added in the
5D S and the 5D S or it is going to give you less mirror bounce as well as less black out
time in the view finder.
That’s just a slight upgrade over what the 5D Mark III gave you, another difference that
you will find with the two cameras is that you have what is called a view finder 2 in
the newer camera where you didn’t have it in the older one and what that’s giving
you is more information when you are looking into the view finder you can have more information
about what focusing modes you are on, what ISO you are on, whether you are shooting RAW
or JPEG, it’s really a pleasure to shoot with, now that I have shot with it I absolutely
love the new view finder.
Another minor difference is you will find better weather sealing in the 5D Mark IV than
you will find in the 5D Mark III and I think that brings us to one of the biggest tests
to determine which camera is better and that, of course, is the wind tunnel test.
Let us turn both of these cameras to the side and see which one will fare better in the
FroKnowsPhoto wind tunnel.
Here we go.
DNA sold separately.
All right, let me make sure I have the right cameras on both sides, yep, that is the Mark
III over here and this is the Mark IV over here, oh it’s a tough call.
I actually think that the 5D Mark III wins the wind tunnel test because it has a little
bit more of a sleeky curve.
I know everybody was waiting for the wind tunnel and that is all they really care about
but let’s get into the video specs.
So the 5D Mark III gave you some nice options when it came to video at least when it came
out and we know that the 5D Mark IV is upgraded so let’s take a look at some of the differences.
The 5D Mark III does 1080 P at 30 frames a second in 4 2 0 and it also gives you 720
P at 60 frames a second.
Moving over to the 5D Mark IV, it gives you 4K at 30 frames a second in the motion JPEG
Kodak, now that is an older form of compression, some people will be upset about that.
The newer ones that some of the newer cameras are doing is H.264 which is a newer compression
and it’s going to give you a smaller file size.
The 5D Mark IV gives you 500 mega bits per second and remember that it does not have
an updated memory card slot so you are doing that to the compact flash card or to the SD
if it’s a supported SD card for shooting 4K.
But don’t worry it will shoot 4K to the compact flash card as long as you have a fast
enough card to support it.
And we even tested out a UHS 2 SD card in this camera and it actually did record fully
in the 4K but when we tested UHS 1 card in the camera it stopped every two minutes.
You also have full DCI cinema at 4096 by 2160 but one of the major issues is it does the
4K but it does it at a 1.74 times crop factor so that means you are losing that extra wide
angle when you throw on something like the 11 to 24.
A lot of people want full frame and one full frame that does full on 4K so that you can
take advantage of the widest lenses possible.
For those photo journalists out there that are going to be shooting 4K video, you also
have the ability to pull out eight mega pixels stills from that footage.
So this camera also gives you 1080P at 60 frames a second where the 5D Mark III only
gave you 30 frames a second but the bit rates are basically the same between both cameras.
So if you are just looking to shoot in 1080 may be you stick with the 5D Mark III and
pick one up refurbed, that could be a better option.
Also if you are somebody who likes to shoot with something like an Atomos, an external
recorder you can’t get a 4K clean out from this camera, you can get only 1080 which means
you can also only get 1080 out from the 5D Mark III.
And since they are basically exactly the same you may be better off going with something
like this, of course, the ISOs are going to be slightly different but if all you are looking
for is 1080 video straight out to an Atomos, 5D Mark III might be a better option.
The 5D Mark IV gives you 720P at 120 frames a second where we already said that this one
did 720P at 60 frames a second.
Moving into auto focus for video, the 5D Mark III, no auto focus for video except for when
you press the back button and it locks your focus and when you get it, now the 5D Mark
IV adds dual pixel AF which is an incredible feature and function that we have tested out
and it works incredibly well.
And a couple of minor additions, you have HDR video shooting in here as well as a time
lapse mode, you did not have that in the 5D Mark III.
So I would love to hear your comments before I finish up this video, leave them down below,
which one is going to be for you also give us a thumbs up if you like the video and go
ahead and subscribe right here on YouTube.
So now it’s time to decide which one is for you, of course, you have to make the decision
if it is a worthy upgrade for you.
I think it is a worthy upgrade if you can afford it but if you are not a full on full
time professional and you just love taking photos and you want to get better video, you
can upgrade to a 5D Mark III re-furb right now for $2099 while the supplies last, I am
assuming, at Canon’s website but let’s look at somebody who has a 5D Mark III.
If you are a full time working professional is it a worthy upgrade to this camera, if
you shoot stills I think it is a worthy upgrade, if you are getting paid to take photos and
you make money time in and time out then, yes, this tool is going to give you some new
options that I think are going to make your job much easier.
If you all ready own a 5D Mark III and you are not a full time professional or you don’t
think this is worth it upgrading for you because you don’t need the 4K video or something
else gives you a better option, then obviously don’t upgrade.
But this is a great opportunity for somebody who’s wanted to jump into the full frame
game and get a really good professional camera for around $2000 re-furb.
So if you have a 60D and you want to upgrade, this could be the option to do it and take
the extra $1500 that you are saving and put that into some good glass.
So pretty much guys, it comes down to you, do you think it is a worthy upgrade, let me
know down below, I personally do for the type of work that I do and I really think it’s
a well put together camera with some major things that Canon left out, of course, we
will review that all when we do the 5D Mark IV Real World Review, that video will be out
shortly.
But that’s pretty much it guys, this is a side by side comparison of the specs with
some of my thoughts and ideas put in there and really it just comes down to what works
for you out there and that’s where we will leave it.
Jared Polin, FroKnowsPhoto.com, see you.