Canon 5D MkIV Rant – But not what you think

Opinions are like arses; everyone has one and it’s good to show it off occasionally, but you don’t need to go stuffing it in people’s faces all the time. Unfortunately, with the modern age of the internet, it’s becoming more and more common for massive arguments to start over one person’s opinion without a single fact or piece of evidence being thrown into the mix.

Where has all this come from? Well, unless you have been living under a rock for the last week or so, you’ll have probably heard about the release of the Canon 5D MkIV; something wedding and portrait photographers have been awaiting eagerly for around 4 years. The initial specs seem to be leaving a lot of people underwhelmed, with some really strong opinions on how rubbish this new camera is going to be without seeing a single image produced by the camera. The keyboard warriors are absolutely up in arms about it, saying it’s a camera from a 2011 era; they believe that everyone should go out and buy a Nikon and anyone who disagrees and buys a MkIV is just a Canon fan boy.

I do not really wish to start throwing my opinions around as well, as that will just add more coal to the fire, but let’s look at some of the most common arguments:

“I can’t afford to spend that much on a camera”

No offence, but if you can’t afford to spend that much on a camera, then it probably isn’t the camera for you. This is a professional grade wedding / portrait camera that any photographer would probably have paid off after two weddings. It is not something that is aimed at Joe Bloggs down the street who wants to take photos of his kids in his back garden. There are plenty of other bodies out there more targeted at the hobbyist photographer which are far more affordable.

“It is too expensive, way more than the 5D MkIII is”

The 5D MkIV is £3599. It is hardly surprising that the brand new 5D MkIV is more expensive than the 4 year old 5D MkIII is today. Rewind 4 years, and you will find the 5D MkIII was released at £2999. Taking things into account like inflation; that amounts to around a 4.5% increase per year. My monthly services like gas, electricity and broadband have increased by more than that each year!

“It only takes 7fps and the buffer will be full after 3 seconds”

If that is something you are going to come into problems with each time you use the camera, I feel sorry for the models you are shooting. I can just see it now… “Ok, smile… CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK … damn my buffer is full”. No one doing a wedding or a portrait shoot, or even a landscape for that matter, is going to take 21 consecutive photos. If you’re doing sports or wildlife and you want to do that sort of thing, perhaps looking at the sports and wildlife cameras like the 1DX MkII or the more affordable 7D MkII would be a better idea?

“It is only 30MP; my <insert camera here> has over 40MP”

I thought we had grown out of the Megapixel war. We found out pretty quickly with the more modern camera phones; more megapixels do not a better picture make. All it really does is allow you to print off a bigger image. I don’t know about you, but I hardly print pictures out, let alone print them out the size of my house. Typically, the camera sensor size doesn’t change; you are just packing more ‘photosites’ into the same size space. The more densely packed the ‘photosites’ are, the more they can start to interfere with each other. Obviously, more megapixels allow you to crop down more and get a clearer image, but even on your average 8×10 print, it’s not going to make a massive difference. I would concentrate more on capturing a nice image, than listening to sales-person BS and capturing a crap image with lots of megapixels. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say “Wow, what a beautiful photo; your camera must have had a lot of megapixels!”

“It still uses UHS1 SD and CF Cards”

Now, I’ll agree that should really have been upgraded, but if the card format is fast enough to handle the usage of the average wedding or portrait shooter, does it really “need” to be upgraded? I can almost guarantee you the second they change the card slot, everyone would moan that they have so many CF cards and now they need to spend more money buying new cards. Really, Canon are damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Obviously, this is something that is still up for debate and only testing time will really reveal whether the card technology is up to the job. I will say though, it’s not as if Canon haven’t spent a long time tested this camera, so it is pretty safe to assume it is up to the job! I can’t see them releasing a camera that isn’t fit for purpose.

“It only does 4K video in a 1.7x crop at 30fps, not 60fps”

I hate to break this news to you, but the Canon 5D MkIV is not a video camera first and foremost. It is a stills camera designed for weddings and portraits, with the ability to capture some casual video at the same time. As with most things, it is more about the specs on paper and the fact a product “can” do something more than the quality in which is does it. It is a bit like keeping up with the Jones’, if other products can do 4K video, this camera needs to as well to appeal to the spec hungry magpies. Hell, my iPhone can record 4K video, but that doesn’t mean I am going to use it to produce a commercial video now does it. For those needing a high capability video camera, Canon has a nice range of Cinema cameras already. You need to understand that you have to compromise somewhere. No product can do everything and do it all perfectly. A 4K video camera cannot take good still images. Clearly, this camera is more aimed at stills with the ability to also do some video. It also comes down to cost, once again! People are already moaning about how much this camera costs. If they added in more technology, what do you think would happen to the price?

I could go on all day, but that would just be opening myself up for even more flack than I’m already going to get.

Overall, if you are a professional wedding / portrait / landscape photographer already using Canon gear, I’m sure the 5D MkIV will be the camera for you! I hope we will have a review out some time soon. If you are a hobbyist photographer on a budget, get yourself an 80D or a 6D if you want full frame. If you are a sports or wildlife photographer and need the speed, get yourself a 7D MkII or a 1DX MkII. If you are not a Canon user, quite frankly why are you even getting involved in the discussions in the first place? Chances are, the kind of people looking at a camera like this are already very financially committed to Canon and are not going to sell up and move brands.

That’s it… done… the end… I’m glad to finally get that off my chest. Let the hate begin!