Canon 5D MKIII official owners/users thread, anything related to the 5D MKIII

dave_bass5 said:
Same here, although only as a back up in the camera. CF speed is a lot faster so I try not to use the SD slot unless I have to.

Welcome to the new owners. Now you know what all the fuss is about ;-)
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I just got my markIII two days ago. I was thinking that the cf card may be faster so this seems to answer the question. I do have another question though. If I use the cf card as the primary and use the SD card as a back up to it, will the SD card slow it down? Shooting speed seems ok but after a burst shot it buffers before I can review. If there is a way to keep it from doing that I would love to know. One last question if I may, can you please advise Me of the best cf card. What should I be looking for in one of these? Thanks for your help.
 
shaylou said:
I just got my markIII two days ago. I was thinking that the cf card may be faster so this seems to answer the question. I do have another question though. If I use the cf card as the primary and use the SD card as a back up to it, will the SD card slow it down? Shooting speed seems ok but after a burst shot it buffers before I can review. If there is a way to keep it from doing that I would love to know. One last question if I may, can you please advise Me of the best cf card. What should I be looking for in one of these? Thanks for your help.
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Yes, as long as the camera isn't actually writing to the SD card it's ok to leave it in the camera as a back up etc.
One thing I like doing is to copy all the files to my SD card in camera after a days shooting, if I have the time, and then I can view them on my ipad on the journey home.
This is the card I use. It's not the fastest but Its fast enough, although I do plan on getting another soon. Just as a back up.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00422IVY4/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
alz123 said:
hi

i use a 32gig Sandisk SD card as back up and speeds not been a problem

here's one of the pictures i took at the week end (Raf Cosford)

alan
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Very nice shot. Almost 3D looking. I need to visit a museum with my new 24-70 soon. Might give RAF Hendon a visit at the weekend.
Can you give me more info on that shot please. Lens/ISO etc.
 
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hi yes

shot on a 50mm 1.8

Exposure 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/2.5
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 200

i need to get a WA lens looking at a 24-105



alan
 
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alz123 said:
hi yes

shot on a 50mm 1.8

Exposure 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/2.5
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 200

i need to get a WA lens looking at a 24-105

alan
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Thanks Alan. I'm surprised its only ISO200. I thought it was a lot higher (only because of it being in a museum). I thought it looked very clean though.
Great shot though, good use of DOF.

The 24-105 is a good all round lens although a Tarmon 24-70 might be more useful. Not only for its one stop advantage and shaper optics but its also wider at 24mm (really).
 
dave_bass5 said:
Yes, as long as the camera isn't actually writing to the SD card it's ok to leave it in the camera as a back up etc.
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Are you sure about that? When I had a 16g Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mb sd card in, it slowed my CF performance down. I do events and corporate stuff but also like my wildlife shots too and have stopped using the SD card slot now.
Love to be proved wrong on this. I use Sandisk Extreme Pro and Lexar 1000 CF cards.
Maybe it was an early firmware thing. I got my 5D3 a year ago when they first came out.
I do remember that as soon as it was inserted even as a backup, the amount of continuous shots the camera displayed dropped.
 
hi

i use s sandisk 16gig CF card and a 32gig SD sandisk

i shoot low fly and never had a issue at 6 frames it writes to both cards at the same time
i believe if you write raw to CF and jpg to SD this will slow it down ??


alan
 
Well i did a lot of research last year when i got mine and the general feeling was as long as you arent writing to the SD card then speeds are not capped.
I must admit ive not tested this fully with my camera, i do notice things slow down if i switch to using the SD card as the default rather than the CF, with both still in the camera.
 
dave_bass5 said:
Well i did a lot of research last year when i got mine and the general feeling was as long as you arent writing to the SD card then speeds are not capped.
I must admit ive not tested this fully with my camera, i do notice things slow down if i switch to using the SD card as the default rather than the CF, with both still in the camera.
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Will have to dig the SD cards out again and test.
 
hi

just been on phone to canon tech it appear we are both right
if that sound right.

the amount of delay is slight and depends on what mode you have your camera in

i must admit it went a bit over my head with what he was saying

i am going to do some testing

i have sandisk 60 CF write speed and a sandisk 45 class 10 SDHC


alan
 
alz123 said:
hi

just been on phone to canon tech it appear we are both right
if that sound right.

the amount of delay is slight and depends on what mode you have your camera in

i must admit it went a bit over my head with what he was saying

i am going to do some testing

i have sandisk 60 CF write speed and a sandisk 45 class 10 SDHC


alan
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Good work... i think lol.
I have the same two cards by the looks of it.

One thing that might stop me from noticing too much is i tend to shoot in silent mode most of the time, so im already shooting at a slower than max speed rate.
I have just tried holding down the shutter button and listening to the speed (out of silent mode now), writing to just the CF card but with the SD card still in, then took the SD card and did the same test. To my ears it sounds the same.
Shooting just to the SD card i can hear a difference.

Very unscientific ill admit.
 
gary996 said:
I read that if you put a SD card into the camera it brings the speed of your CF card down to the SD card speed.
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Yes, I remember that being the general consensus. I also read that SD Card wise, the 5D3 did not even support the very latest ones so is even slower than the speed displayed in the card.
Had a couple of times doing events where the camera would low to a crawl. It was writing Raw to both cards at the time.
When I got home, I took the SD card out and the display for continuous shots improved. When popping SD card back in, it dropped again. Set the SD as the backup and the number still didn't rise.
I believed from that indication that the SD card was slowing things down. Didn't want to waste time on a paid shoot messing about so never put the SD card back in to try again.
Will try with my Lexar 1000 CF and Sandisk Extreme Pro SD card later.
 
alz123 said:
hi

just been on phone to canon tech it appear we are both right
if that sound right.

the amount of delay is slight and depends on what mode you have your camera in

i must admit it went a bit over my head with what he was saying

i am going to do some testing

i have sandisk 60 CF write speed and a sandisk 45 class 10 SDHC


alan
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I think my cards are faster than those but I don't know if that makes things better or worse lol.
What modes did Canon mention?
My problem was the camera grinding to a halt with the red led on the back stuck on and presumably the buffer full while it was trying to write all the information to the cards.
 
dave_bass5 said:
Yes, as long as the camera isn't actually writing to the SD card it's ok to leave it in the camera as a back up etc.
One thing I like doing is to copy all the files to my SD card in camera after a days shooting, if I have the time, and then I can view them on my ipad on the journey home.
This is the card I use. It's not the fastest but Its fast enough, although I do plan on getting another soon. Just as a back up.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00422IVY4/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Click to expand...

Dave thanks for the info. I was thinking of having the cf card as the primary and the SD card as a backup. The backup would need to happen automatically or it's really not a back imo. This way if the cf card ever failed I would not be loosing anything. From what I am getting here that method would indeed slow the process down because the camera would need to write to both cards ( is that right?)

A little off subject but you mentioned looking at you pics on your ipad, how exactly are you doing this? Thanks for your help.
 
alz123 said:
i have never tested that way

as i am focusing more on capturing the shoot

but will do some testing at weekend

alan
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You are implying that because you don't have a problem with it that it isn't actually a problem that exists. I am focusing on capturing my shots too. The camera does not know its at the Mach Loop or at an event. This has happened to me when I first got the camera. It's not a competition of who shoots the fastest object lol.
 
hi

just tested it CF only view finder shows 13 frames
and also 13 frames with with SD card in ????
writing to single or multi shutter sounds no differant to CF only in

we just have to be thank Canon for a great camera
compared to my old 7D which is a great camera i am glad i upgraded

if i had the funds i would have ad a 1DX

i have friend with 1D4 and he rates the 5d3 better (picture wish)

alan
 
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shaylou said:
Dave thanks for the info. I was thinking of having the cf card as the primary and the SD card as a backup. The backup would need to happen automatically or it's really not a back imo. This way if the cf card ever failed I would not be loosing anything. From what I am getting here that method would indeed slow the process down because the camera would need to write to both cards ( is that right?)

A little off subject but you mentioned looking at you pics on your ipad, how exactly are you doing this? Thanks for your help.
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I have now found it quite useful to have the cf card set up for raw and the sd card set up for jpegs. Then via the sd card adapter which you can get to plug into the charging slot ( either from apple or via 3rd party) you can easily drop images straight onto the iPad. Much easier than the 7d and good to see the shots taken at the time !

This is what I use:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-Camera-Connection-iPad-compatible/dp/B003K1EYM6/ref=pd_sim_sbs_ce_2
 
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sgott said:
I have now found it quite useful to have the cf card set up for raw and the sd card set up for jpegs. Then via the sd card adapter which you can get to plug into the charging slot ( either from apple or via 3rd party) you can easily drop images straight onto the iPad. Much easier than the 7d and good to see the shots taken at the time !

This is what I use:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-Camera-Connection-iPad-compatible/dp/B003K1EYM6/ref=pd_sim_sbs_ce_2
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Yeah, that's what I use although the iPad can also read the raw files as well as the jpg's
Mine is jail broken and I have a file explorer app on it. This allows me to navigate to the SD card and so able to read the raw files, just like in Windows.
 
alz123 said:
hi

just tested it CF only view finder shows 13 frames
and also 13 frames with with SD card in ????
writing to single or multi shutter sounds no differant to CF only in

we just have to be thank Canon for a great camera
compared to my old 7D which is a great camera i am glad i upgraded

if i had the funds i would have ad a 1DX

i have friend with 1D4 and he rates the 5d3 better (picture wish)

alan
Click to expand...

Yes, the 5D3 is a fantastic camera. Love it. Had a 5D2 before it and loved that too. Just got rid of my 1D mk3 as it's not a patch on the 5D3.
Was originally on the waiting list for the 1DX. After all the delays, I got the 5D3 as soon as it was available. Still getting a 1DX this year. Will be keeping the 5D3 too.
Will pop a couple of cards in later and see what it displays.
Also, will try and reliably see how many shots until the buffer fills.
 
alz123 said:
thats great

let us know how you get on

alan
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Well, done a bit of testing. The good news is that having the camera set to Auto Switch Card so the SD card only comes into play when the CF is full does not slow the camera down at all. At least with the cards I tested.
With just the Lexar 1000 32 gig (150mb a sec) card in, I get 42 shots before any slow down and the buffer takes about 2 seconds to clear. Putting the SD Card in, and camera set to "Auto Switch Card" makes no difference to this speed while shooting to the CF card.
Taking the CF card out and just shooting to the SD card which is a Sandisk Extreme Pro 16 gig (95mb sec), The camera only manages to shoot 15 shots and the buffer takes about 15 seconds to clear.
Writing Raw to both cards takes about 14 shots and about 14 seconds for the light to go off indicating the buffer is clear.
With the camera set to "Rec Separately", writing Raw to the CF card and highest quality Jpg to the SD card only gets about 6 images before the camera slows down but the buffer clears after about 2 seconds.
Funnily enough, no matter what card is inserted, the display only ever reads 13 shots available in burst mode unless you are shooting Raw and Jpg and set the camera to "Rec Separately". Then, it changes to 7. I remember the 5D mk2 being quite accurate in this regard but it seems the 5d Mk3 does not report burst rate correctly.
So, anyway, having the SD Card there as a backup will not slow the camera down until it has to write to the SD Card. Writing to both cards at the same time will.
 
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