I prefer to minimise my use
of flash as it can often spoil a very natural moments, so when Canon promised
this new version would deliver high quality performance in very low light, I was
interested.This feature alone makes it ideal
for jobs such as a winter portrait photography, photographing a reportage wedding last dance, or an evening conference event where key speakers have no lights on the stage area.
It’s a bit investment so I
thought it over for quite a while before bringing it home.
I have no commercial links
with Canon so I’m being totally honest when I say that having spent 27 years as
a North East commercial, wedding and press photographer working on all kinds of
photography commissions and in places from Dumfries & Galloway, North Yorkshire down to Teesside, I genuinely feel
that this takes the game to another level.
I decided to give my new Canon body its first outing at Stockton on Tees Council’s Prometheus Awakes. This was the launch
event for the Stockton International Riverside Festival 2012 (SIRF), and an outdoor
spectacle led and performed by disabled people, featuring gigantic puppets and bringing
together dance, theatre, circus and sports.
I like to work with the
minimum of equipment, but still get the best results, so I took along the 5D mark III camera
body, a very fast Canon 50mm F1.2 (fav lens) and the Canon 135mm F2 telephoto lens. Stockton town centre was
packed with people and lit by street lamps, fire sources and vivid professional
lighting set ups, which all presented the perfect testing conditions.
The hundreds of adults and
children on Stockton’s High Street were transfixed by the 8-metre tall figure
of Prometheus, as it walked down the street, defying the gods by creating light
and humanity, and I was able to move through the crowd, working quickly to try
out the settings and photograph the audience and the performers.
Lucky no rain was present in the air at this event, but if it had the camera has improved weather sealing. This will pay off
when I’m photographing north east winter weddings or covering outdoor sports events such as the
Stockton River Rat Race.
In older cameras like the Canon 5D, Canon 50D and older 1D's the pixels in the shots broke up, but I was pleased to see the Canon 5D Mark III lived up to its
promise – check out the picture of the child in his father’s arms – the detail
in his eyes is pin-sharp as he gazes past me.
Even in extremely low light the camera picked up the tiniest details, such as the sparks coming off the flames of the flare, as well as faithfully reproducing colours. The image quality was fantastic, and means the shots can be used for press work or blown up for posters, billboards and other large formats.
The Canon’s fast focussing
ability showed itself in some shots of children blowing bubbles in the dark.
When I’m working on wedding photography commisions across the North East speed is
essential for capturing relaxed, natural wedding moments of the bride & groom - a split second can make all the
difference.
People often ask me what
camera I use, and how many pixels it shoots at. For the record, this one shoots
at 22 million pixels, but while that’s important to a degree, a good photograph
takes the right combination of lens, sensor, pixels and the photographer! The lens is particularly important,
there is no point investing in a top quality camera and teaming it with a poor quality lens.
My camera kit list
includes three professional camera bodies, plus a range of lenses from a 15mm fisheye to powerful 400mm suitable for photographic jobs ranging from pictures of commercial wind turbines half a mile out in the north sea, to detailed
close ups. I’m fairly fit – all the running round photographing sports events sees
to that – but I don’t want to heave around big bags of kit. It would interfere
with the relaxed atmosphere I like to create, so people forget about the camera
and I can get the natural, reportage photos that are my trademark style.
To sum up, the Canon 5D Mark III camera is an
incredible piece of kit, and I haven't even look at yet! using the Canon camera’s full HD video capabilities, which is something I’m going to explore in
my own work.
When I first used a digital
camera (Nikon D1) back in 2000 it was a revolution in
professional photography. Even today’s mobiles have more camera power than that
one, and the Canon is the next logical step – who knows where technology will
take us next?
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