Gear Review - Canon 5D Mark III with EF 24-105 f/4L

What have I done?

I rented some gear for an upcoming wedding, because it's an evening wedding in the fall, and my old backup body just doesn't handle low-light very well. My main body, the 60D does a great job, and when it can't handle it on its own, Lightroom picks up the slack. It's been working out well for me, but, if the 60D picks that night to have a fit, I would have been in a lurch. Enter the Canon 5D Mark III, and its (arguably) most commonly-paired lens, the EF 24-105 f/4L IS.

I was really hoping to be underwhelmed by this combination of body and lens. I was kind of hoping I'd put it through its paces and say "Yeah - nice camera, but, it's not worth four thousand dollars." (Just typing that number made me blink, and hard).

I was wrong. It's worth it. The 60D is amazing up to ISO 1600, great at 3200, and salvageable at 6400. I don't run it higher than that, because it's not worth presenting the pictures to a client. In a "gotta get that shot" type of situation, I'd bump it up to 12,800 and hope for the best, but, not at a paying gig.

The following shots have had work in Lightroom done to them - why not, since I'll be doing it anyway?

ISO 6400:



This shot was taken at ISO 102,400 (Read that again, it's not a typo)



You know what? I can work with that. It needs color work done, or it might get converted to Black and White, but it's usable. At 102,400.

Here's a different shot, taken at ISO 12,800 (an ISO that I would not use on my 60D):




I wouldn't lose any sleep over giving that to a client. It's clean, it doesn't have any noise, and, as long as they're not planning on making a massive print out of it, it's roughly a Brazilian times better than most of the camera-phone shots that populate social media.

Speaking of social media, I shot a few new timeline covers with this, purely to test it out:





And, a shot processed by giving it a gritty feel:



Let's keep this all between you and me, though, OK? I've got to figure out a good way to let my wife know that I'm planning on buying a camera that cost more than my motorcycle.