Camera Labs

If I were to pick one up, no doubt I'd do D800 (okay, I'm a Nikon fanboy with a Nikon lens collection, but I have reasons to back me up!). The price difference is what really makes it for me, here in Canada the 5D III is a full $700 more expensive than the D800, and still around $400 more than the D800E.

Regarding resolution, the 36 MP is really obsolete unless you have a lens collection to match its unparalleled detail. However, being able to crop your images to tiny sizes and maintain a quite usable image is very convenient when you simply don't have a long enough lens. That being said, though, the 5D makes up for its lower resolution with better noise performance and a higher burst rate, both must-haves for action photogs.

Honestly, though, if I had that much money to blow on a new body, I'd just invest in some decent gladd; a 24-70 would be nice.

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-Evan

Gear: 7 Nikon Nikkor AI-S and AF-S lenses, SB-700 flash, Nikon D7000, Nikon FM, variety of accessories

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."
- Ansel Adams

Have thought of that, however If I do decide to go with the 5D Mk III am planning to buy an EF 70-200mm IS F2.8 II whan I eventually save up for it, so won't need to crop

Most people normally dont crop out half or a 1/4 of an image anyway - and if you are.... you are wasting 36MP and something is really wrong with your framing and composition

I shot with 6MP for years and then moved to 10MP and my composition never changed - I hardly crop because Im always happy with my composition.

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1) Olympus OM1 [Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.8]
2) Pentax MZ-60 [Sigma 28-90 & 100-300]
3) Canon 7D [EF-S 15-85 & 70-200mm f/4 IS]

Leo's Flickr Page

Is it really so hard to imagine there are many situations where you don't have the luxury of spending forever to get perfect framing?

Also, 36MP FX isn't that much still. Equivalent to 16MP at 1.5x crop, so the demands on the lens are not tough except possibly in the far corners if you need it across the whole frame (landscape/architecture?).

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

My problem is less the framing than the reach. My longest lens is the 100-400mm but sometimes 400mm isn't enough. On my crop frame camera I get an equivalent reach of 640mm - better than 400mm. That's the only thing I'm missing in the 5D3. For about anything else but reach the 5D3 is great. The D800 can crop the pictures for more reach with (still) high resolution.
Cropping the 5D3's images to APS-C size you end up with 8.7MP pictures. Still OK but not really that big. And cropping further is... well...

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Canon EOS 500D + Canon EOS 5D Mark III + Canon EOS 33v
Canon EF 24-105mm 4L IS USM + EF 100-400mm 4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 100mm 2.8L Macro IS USM + Sigma 12-24mm 4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM + Canon Speedlite 580 EX II + Nissin Speedlite Di 466