Canon 5DmkIII

on
the new Canon 5DmkIII

Although it has only been three and a half years since the release of Canon’s 5DmkII, to say that things have come a long way since then would be a bit of an understatement.

An entire industry seemed to spring up almost overnight revolving around the use of the DSLR as a genuine film making tool. Several other manufacturers began to take notice and producing DSLRs capable of capturing 1080p video. Tons of new accessories, movement systems, rigs and other tools quickly began to appear. In that short space of time Hollywood filmmakers also began to incorporate the use of DSLRs into their workflow as B cameras, or even as the main 1st unit camera.

Vincent LaForet was the first to popularise the 5DmkII with his film, “Reverie.” After Reverie hit the internet a wave of young, old and new filmmakers rushed out to pick up the new camera. As LaForet recently mentioned during an interview panel at Sundance with Rob Legato, Jacob Rosenberg and Sharlto Copley, “…someone once said I was the best thing to happen to Canon and the worst thing to happen to Canon….”  (watch the full interview here)

At the end of 2011, Canon launched it’s Cinema EOS lineup with the c300. At this launch, they also gave a sneak peek at a 4K DSLR as part of the Cinema EOS range. The fact that Canon has now jumped into the digital cinema world, while Kodak has since filed for bankruptcy protection and ARRI, Panavision and Aaton have stopped production on their film cameras, is hugely significant. Four years ago, this would have seemed unimaginable to many.

Yesterday, the 1st of March, Canon announced the new, long-awaited 5DmkIII. I don’t have anything new to say about this that hasn’t been said already. So instead of repeating what everyone else is saying, here is a link to some good blogs about the announcement and specs: