Canon 5D MKIII or Nikon D800

[Jase]

Having been away from the Photography scene for a while, I have the bug again and looking to get some new gear etc.

At first I was going to get the Canon 5D MKIII but I'm considering changing to Nikon.. on paper the D800 (or D800E) looks really good and it's actually cheaper than the 5D MKIII so I'm wondering why ??

From what I can see the D800 has more Pixels, I like the idea of having a DX mode and I prefer the Nikon Black Lenses to the Canon White ones.. on the minus side it is only 4 fps compared to the 6 fps of the canon, it has less AF points and I've read about quality issues with the this model.

As for the Canon the only minus points are less pixels and I don't like the white lenses (yeah I know stupid).

At the end of the day I just want the best camera, so what's the current opinion on these 2 (3) ? which should I get

 

[Jase]

OK, I don't want this to turn into a Canon vs Nikon thread, if it does I'll close it..

Maybe I should have explained better.. Basically I had a load on Canon gear, 5D MKII, about 6 "L" lenses and was enjoying photography.. then for about 12 months I was working 80+ hours every week and had no chance to use any of it.. having it around annoyed/stressed me so I started selling stuff off but couldn't bring myself to get rid of it all in the end so I'm left with a 5D MKII, a 16-35 2.8L, 70-200 2.8L IS II and that's it. Luckily I still have my Lee Filter's, Tripod, Arca Swiss head etc which will of course work on everything.

Anyway, in the new year I'm going to be doing more realistic hours and need something to de-stress and this is it, I can go back to what I enjoyed.

So I could (and probably the sensible thing to do) just buy some lenses, flashes etc for the 5D MKII but I figured as I'm going to have to buy so much I may as well consider my options. I didn't sell any of the gear "for the money" so that's not an issue as I didn't spend any of it, and yeah I'll only be getting the good stuff ie replacing what I once had.

 

[Jase]

All much of a muchness tbh. The extra DR the nikons have is rather pointless as processing that far just makes images look like a flat HDR anyway. If you are already invested in a system, might as well stick with it.

That's the sort of feedback I was looking for the DX sounded good on paper but if the image quality is not as good then it is a non-starter for me.

 

[Jase]

Thanks for the feedback all, I'm edging towards the 5D MKIII at the moment due to the 6 fps however the shop I'm going to buy from stocks everything so I will be able to try both before buying.. I'll be doing a part-ex with them anyway so we'll see how the morning goes.

 

[Jase]

OK I better update this thread on what I decided, and in the end I got the... Nikon D800E

Firstly can I thank everyone for their feedback and a big thanks An Exception who took time to email me sample photo's of stuff I was looking for.. although in the forum he may come across as favoring Nikon but in the conversations we had he was very fair to both.

Anyway i'll explain my decision.. I was lucky enough to be able to play with both Camera's and they were both really good and both offered what I considered to be an upgrade to the 5D MKII. I think in image quality the Nikon is better purely down to the extra MP's however I wasn't going to let that be the deciding factor.. the canon was better at Video however after reflection I only used that feature on the 5DII a couple of times. The AF on the Canon is apparently better but I couldn't tell however the 6FPS was definitely an advantage and the 4 FPS did concern me as that's pretty much what the 5D MKII is. I liked the feel of the 5D MKIII it sat comfortably in the hand, the D800E felt bulkier. Their were controls on both that I found awkward so they cancelled each other out.

One of my major considerations was I wanted to keep my 70-200 2.8L II or get the Nikon equivalent but I expected to loose a fortune on it and my other lens and on that basis I would have kept with Canon.

To my surprise though the Lenses keep their value very well, and there was discounts available on buying a lens with a Nikon and also cash back on them to! The shop gave me prices for my gear and I calculated the difference between buying the 5D MKIII and keeping my present lenses or changing to Nikon with equivalent lenses.. to my surprise it worked out cheaper to change to Nikon and get new lenses! it was only then I made my final decision.

I picked up the D800E, 70-200mm AF-S Nikkor f2.8G ED VR II, 24-120mm f4 G AF-S ED VR (which I wanted as a walkabout) and a 105mm f2.8 G AF-S VR IF ED macro.. I also got thrown in a Grip which apparently will address my FPS concerns.. I still need to get a couple of extra lenses but will pick them up on Friday/Saturday after I've looked into it more.

I hope I've made a good choice, I'm sure there's isn't a wrong choice and tbh I'm hoping the change will be a good thing for me and re-light the fire for photography which at the end of the day is what I wanted.. Tech sheets don't make interesting photo's so I need to get out making the camera work!

All I need to do now is learn how to use the Nikon system and try to remember Lightroom/Photoshop

I look forward to taking part in this part of the forum again !

 

[Jase]

I'd love one of these camera, look forward to seeing some of your photo's Ray