Canon 5D Mark III review

The body of the 5D Mark III is largely unchanged from the Mark II's, but there are a few key differences. The pentaprism lump on the top for example is a little larger and more rounded to accommodate the AF module which is 2.5x larger than the one in the Canon 5D MK II.Canon UK's David Parry tells us that the HDR mode is a handheld option as the 5D Mark III can automatically align images. Another new button is marked Rate and pressing it in playback mode allows you to rate the image, one press for one star, two for two etc. These ratings are logged in the EXIF data and are visible in Adobe Bridge and Elements etc. Pressing the Creative buttton in playback mode allows two images to be compared next to eachother.Some video shooters may be disappointed that the 3.2in screen is fixed rather than articulated - we have yet to see a full-frame SLR with an articulated screen. On the plus side the gap between the LCD and the glass cover has been with an optical gel which should reduce reflections significantly. Another difference between the mark 2 and 3 versions is that the newer camera has two card ports, one for compactflash and the other for SD format cards. There's no XQD card port.While the Canon EOS 5D Mark III may not have quite the wow factor that some were hoping for, the headline figures such as the pixel count aren't as high as some may have wished for,it's clear that a lot of work has gone into it. If Canon has managed to control noise levels at the mid to high sensitvity settings as much as it claims (it is supposed to have 2EV advantage over the 5D Mark II), it could be a very versatile camera and a real competitor to the Nikon D800.