Canon should have given this camera a different name. By adding the label "Mark III" a lot of people automatically associate this camera with its "predecessor", the 5D Mark II. From the outside, yes, there is quite a bit of a resemblance but from the inside it is a completely different camera. Just based on the name, a lot Canon users started to complain that this camera is what should have been 3.5 years ago. Needless to say, I don't share that opinion. Canon didn't have this autofocus technology back then.

The Canon bashing continued ad nauseum on internet fora for a few months after the camera became available. Discussions and mostly complaints ranged from not having enough dynamic range, banding or noise in the shadow areas and of course, not enough resolution. Are the complaints justified? Well, for my personal use, this camera performs perfectly fine. It has been always my skill that limits my photography and for sure not the camera. I am always for improving my technique and the art of capturing images, however.

What's there to like about the camera? First, the autofocus system; it is simply awesome and very responsive. It has 41 cross-type autofocus points and together with the horizontal-sensitive autofocus points, there are 61 points in total. They are spread nicely, covering more of the viewfinder than any Canon camera up to this point. The new flagship Canon camera, the 1DX has a similar autofocus system but tweaked to perform even better, faster and more sensitive than that built into the Canon 5D Mark III.

How about the image quality? At 22.3MP, the improvement in resolution is minor. Seriously, an increase of a single MP over the 5D Mark II or the 1Ds Mark III is hardly worth mentioning. However, the actual image quality seems to be better in a more way than just the single MP increase indicates. The noise level has also been lowered and somehow, the files from this camera seem to be more robust than those coming from the 5D Mark II.

I have had and used quite a few Canon DSLR cameras, including the professional-grade bodies, such as 1Ds Mark I through III and 1D Mark II through IV, which were more expensive than this camera. I have not been so enthusiastic about any camera than with the 5D Mark III. So, for sure, it is not because of the price and not because it is a new camera, but there are a lot of features built into this Canon 5D Mark III that I simply love and tremendously enjoy, with all its drawbacks, real or perceived. Enough so and it makes me want to go out, be creative and take pictures. This is not a review of the camera but just a blurb about this, in my honest opinion, a great camera. Is it the best camera out there? No, not really but what is?

Yes, the AF of this camera is superb but is this camera capable of capturing action shots? I had the chance to shoot wildlife during a 3 week trip to South Georgia and Falkland Islands. I came back impressed with its AF performance as it can be seen in the last few images of this gallery. The limitation? At 6FPS, it may not be sufficient for sport actions and may not give you sufficient peak actions but for my purposes, this camera is more than just adequate. It strikes a perfect (well, almost) balance between image quality and AF speed. Yes, I realize that this is just my subjective opinion, of course.

This gallery consists of real life and not test images captured with the camera. I will be updating this gallery on a regular basis by adding more images either as new captures or existing files that will be processed on a later date. Since this is currently my favorite camera, this has become pretty much a catch-all gallery for the time being. Thank you for visiting and feel free to post your thought or comment on the image or on the gallery directly, please.