Canon Rumors beat me to it, I’ve been checking daily to see if Canon had released the manual for the 5D mark 3 and they finally have. Why do I care? Because it tells me a lot about the way the camera will behave from a UX perspective; and it gives me something to read until B&H ships me my 5D Mark 3, hopefully something next week.

The great fear I had with the 5D mark 3 was that Canon was going to similarly gimp it as they had in previous mid tier cameras. There are a number of configuration settings I’ve found very useful and come to rely on on my 1D mark 3 that are just aren’t there in the lower tier cameras. Fortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case with the 5D-3.

Features and Settings

Safety Shift

Call it poor mans auto ISO or whatever you want, but when the scene just isn’t working and exposures are all over the place I’ve ahd this save my butt more than once. Canon has, at least since the 40D, had a function they called safety shift; it worked something like this.

When the minimum exposure is reached, but there’s room to adjust either the aperture, shutter speed, or in some cases the ISO, the “free” variable would be adjusted to to get a proper exposure. So what that meant for most people is if you’ve got the camera set to 1/250th ISO 400 in aperture priority with an f/2.8 lens, if you’re under exposing at 1/250th f/4 ISO 400, the camera can open up the lens automatically to f/2.8 to help the exposure.

The 1D mark 3 and later, took this one step further, allowing you to let the camera “float” the ISO up to the highest non-expanded ISO setting. In practice, this works something like auto ISO but you specify the desired ISO not the camera, and it only shifts if there’s a serious exposure error.

The 5D mark 3 brings this to the non 1D bodies, and it’s a hugely welcomed feature in my opinion. On the 5D Mark 3 this is under Custom Function 1.

Reversing Dials in M mode

Again this is one of those anachronisms for how I work that doesn’t necessarily apply to everybody. For me when I’m shooting in manual mode, the aperture is my primary control, and therefore I prefer it to be mapped to the main dial behind the shutter release instead of the one on the back of the camera. This is one of those 1D features, that make me really like using the camera over any of Canon’s lower tier bodies, with the exception of the 7D and now the 5D mark 3.

The 5D mark 3 carries forward the 7D’s expanded configuration options that allow the exposure controls (aperture and shutter speed) to be mapped to either button when in manual mode. On the 5D Mark 3 you’ll find these settings in the Custom Controls sub menu at the end of C.Fn2

Bracketing

Bracketing on the EOS 5D Mark 3 works very much like bracketing on an EOS 1D. That is you can choose 2, 3, 5, or 7 frame brackets, and set the bracket step size from 1/3-3 stops. Unlike previous 1D bodies though, the direction of the 2-frame bracket is controlled though the bracket settings instead of needing to play with the bracket sequence custom function.

As it stands, the only setting that seems to be missing compared to the 1D bodies I’ve been using, is the ability to set the exact frame rates for continuous high and low. That’s not to say that’s the only thing missing though, as many features have changed how they are set or configured, resulting is a smaller custom function list without necessarily removing the actual features.

AF System

One thing I’ve always liked about Canon is that they actually provider their users with all the information they need to know about the AF system to not be surprised when shooting. Unfortunately as the complexities of the AF systems increase, the qualifications become increasingly complicated and convoluted. On the other hand, it’s more of an academic exercise and less of a practical concern when working in the field.

On previous pro-level cameras, Canon has basically had 4 points to be cognizant of.

1. For lenses between f5.6 and f/8
2. For lenses between f/4 and f/5.6
3. For lenses between f/2.8 and f/4
4. For lenses f/2.8 and faster

In each of these cases the system built upon the slower level adding more points or increasing the accuracy and precision. For example on the 1D mark 3, only the central point worked at f/8, at f/5.6 all the points where horizontal line sensitive, at f/4 the center point became cross sensitive and at f/2.8 and faster the 19-selectable points became cross sensitive.

The AF system in the 5D mark 3, and the EOS-1D X since they are the same system, adds a significant amount of complexity not only in what and how the points are and are arranged, but also with respect to what points are functional with what lenses due to how the lens’s optical aberrations and geometry will affect the accuracy of focusing.

The 5D Mark 3 and EOS-1D X AF system divides Canon’s lenses into 8 groups depending on aperture, optical aberrations and geometry. For most photographers, this will be a non-issue even though it sounds like it might on paper. In fact, what it really boils down to is:

Most fast primes, and some f/2.8L zooms will have 5 very high precision dual cross AF points in the center column, the rest will only have the center most.

Most f/4 lenses, and the EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM will be able to use all 51 points including the center 21 cross type points but they won’t have any dual cross type points or peripheral cross type points, not that it would make any real difference.

F/5.6 lenses, will have 21 central cross type points and the rest will be horizontal line sensitive.

Most older EF lenses, the 180mm L macro, the 1200mm f/5.6L and 800mm f/5.6L IS USM, won’t be able to use all 61 AF points, though the AF system will still be cross-sensitive for whatever points in the central group are available (all 21, 15, or 1). The disabled points will be removed from the viewfinder display and be inaccessible.

Okay so in practice, it’s somewhat more complicated than that, or at least it can be if you use various classes of lenses. If you stick to somewhat modern L lenses, you’re basically down to thee variations; 5 central extra precision cross points for f/2.8 or faster lenses, 1 central extra-precision point a hand full of specific f/2.8 or faster lenses, or no extra precision central points for everything else.

The normal phase-detect AF system will not function with f/8 lens or lens+teleconverter combinations, though like other Canon cameras that support contrast-based AF in live view, you can focus using that with slower than f/8 lens/lens+teleconverter combinations.

The only outstanding question left to me is how are 3rd party lenses classified. Obviously if the camera recognizes them as an F-H type lens, you’ll see a the loss of peripheral AF points. But figuring out which of the A-D, modes will be used, or if the camera will just default to E mode is still an unknown.

Micro Adjusts

Canon has fixed the two biggest issues with their AF micro adjust system; the inability to adjust multiple lenses of the same type, and the inability to have different adjust settings at the wide and telephoto ends of zooms.

The rules for serial number specific saves aren’t entirely clear, some lenses may be incompatible with teh system in which case you’ll only be able to save adjustments for 1 lens of that type. In any case, if the lens doesn’t have a serial number the camera can read, but doesn’t display an asterisk indicating that multiple copies can’t be saved, you can make up and enter your own serial number.

In any case, 40 lenses can be saved.

So far, the 5D Mark 3 looks to be much better suited as a second body to a EOS-1D user than the previous versions were. Many, if not all, of the customizations that really impact the way a 1D user might be used to using their camera can be duplicated on the 5D Mark 3.

Oh ya, the EOS 5D mark 3 Manual can be downloaded from Canon USA here (second download link).