After years of saving, I have finally upgraded to a full frame DSLR: the Canon 5d MarkIV. I’ve had about a month to play with it and want to share my thoughts on it below.
A couple years back, I was actually set on the MarkIII as it has such a great reputation and had friends who told me about how well it performed. But it was coming up on being 5 years old at that point & I suspected that Canon would be releasing its successor soon, so I waited and saved.
The release was finally announced fall last year and I was so pumped to see the features it had so I scoured the internet for weeks reading & watching reviews. There have been a large amount of positive reviews on image quality though many videographers were upset with the way it uses jpg frames when recording 4K video. The thing is though; I was looking for primarily a still camera with excellent quality, so these particular comments didn’t faze me. (Once I jump back into video again, I’d want a dedicated video camera anyway.)
The other reason why I decided to pick up the MarkIV instead of the MarkIII was the fact that if I was going to invest in something I might as well get the latest with additional features that I can make use of. (Trust me when I say I am in no way obsessed about having the newest gadget, I used my T3i for 4 years and my phone is going on 3 years now.) I just felt it was time to upgrade & wanted something to last me for many years to come.
But enough back story and into my thoughts!
Some specific additional features I love are:
- The Touch Screen
- Wireless Capabilities
- Dual Card Slot
- It may seem gimmicky or even behind-the-times with so many other cameras having this feature, but surprisingly Canon hasn’t jumped on this as much as other companies. I find this feature especially helpful for focus, as it allows me to quickly touch the exact point I want instead of taking far too long scrolling a wheel or half pressing my shutter button again and again.
- This feature is so helpful with taking self-portraits because I can connect my camera to my phone or iPad and automatically have a wireless external monitor. Some cons to this are that the app lags and having the wireless on drains my phone battery very quickly, so I wouldn’t recommend doing this for a long shoot (unless you have a way to charge the device you connect.)
- I know this will come in handy when I have very long shoot days or a wedding. It allows me to either record to one card at a time and once full switch to the second card, or to record to both cards simultaneously.
More things I’ve noticed and love are:
The overall quality
The exposure
The Kelvin white balance
This may be slightly skewed considering this is the only full frame I’ve worked with, but I’ve definitely noticed higher quality overall. It may only be a slight or unnoticeable difference to some, but I can really tell. Another excellent improvement is that it is so easy to obtain accurate exposure. What I see on my LCD is close to exactly what I see on my computer monitor and my histogram is also the same! This is such a time saver because previously on my T3i and even the 60d at work, the LCD shows a much brighter version than the raw file I shot so I wound up underexposing many times. I noticed this ease when shooting various food dishes (a subject where proper exposure is a must.) And I can finally set my white balance using the Kelvin scale! I typically edit my thematic portraits with a cooler, touch of magenta white balance in post, but with this option I can save so much time and at least do a more customized measure in camera.
All-in-all, I am very pleased with this addition to my photo gear family. I know that it will be an awesome tool for years to come.
May the light be with you.
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