My Humble & Quick Review of the Canon Mark IV

Keep in mind my video review can be played below (at the bottom of the post)

P I N

Taken with the Canon IV & 8-15mmL 

edited with The Kansas Collection

After a little thought I decided to grab the Mark IV this week (thank you Amazon Prime!) so yesterday Greyson had a late week practice and I took it out to compare it to my Mark III and my ID-X. This is not necessarily a review of the Canon IV rather a comparison of color and such to my Mark III and 1D-X. I know there are some weird color issues that everyone reported so I was curious about that. I am also always interested in noise handling and burst speed or continuous mode speed. But one of the main reasons I wanted this particular camera is for the video options. Obviously I don’t do a ton of video for clients but I do a lot of tutorials on youtube and virtual workshops so when I found out this had auto focus during video I was thrilled. Here we go…

(**caveat** I have literally had this camera in my hands for a few days and only have used it for maybe an hour so this is a fresh, right out of the box review so take it with a grain of salt)

So lets talk about overall exposure, color, aesthetics, etc.

P I NP I N

(I believe the fisheye shot was taken after I did the color temp shift as seen below)P I N

Oddly enough what I am seeing just looking back in an overall picture is that I like the Mark III images SOOC better – but since this isn’t scientific I could have moved a few inches so they light was better, etc. The difference is so minute that it isn’t a deciding factor.

A few people have mentioned the color is a little yellow/green. I don’t see it in these so much but I do see it in others (also, for comparisons these were all shot in Kelvin 7100k soooooo) so I did a little shift in the custom color temp menu…

P I N

Obviously I experimented a little and I think it might be different in different situations so I am not sure how I would handle that because I definitely don’t want to be fiddling with the color temp all the time….I know some of you may use a grey card which would obviously solve your problem but I am a Kelvin girl 🙂

P I N

Noise…it might be a tad noisier than my ID-X but not too noticeable. I wasn’t thrilled with the top left (IV) at only ISO 800 but I was also shooting a dark subject. Actually I think I may pause and do a test in the studio a little differently because I don’t feel like this really shows much.

P I N

 

To my naked eye the Mark III definitely comes in last at 800 ISO, the IV is next but pretty close to the 1D-X…Also take into account that the Mark III is the oldest camera I have and the least likely to have been cleaned recently whereas the 1D-X is older but has been cleaned in the last year (although needs another).

P I N

 

And now for a little video…I shot some of this at the field with my 200mm so that was not stable at all handheld at dusk but I wasn’t thinking about that lol – then I shot a little sample in my studio for some auto focus info and all…

 

 

Overall opinions…

Right now, the Mark III, brand new retails for $2499 on Amazon. The Mark IV debuts at $3499 also on Amazon for a difference of $1000. So is it worth the upgrade? My 2 cents…I definitely think it handles noise better than the Mark III and it has more features. The question is, will you use those new features enough to justify the new body? A few things to consider: The Mark IV has better “weather sealing”,  higher resolution (30.4 in IV and 22.3 in III), faster processor for dealing with large files and shooting 4k video, better autofocus (especially for video), burst rate only slightly better than III at 7 fps (whereas the 1D-X has a 14 fps), shoots 4K video and better HD quality/higher fps, touchscreen for the first time, and one particular feature I haven’t tried which is the Dual Pixel RAW – meaning you can shift your bokeh and focus-I can’t wait to try that!, and it has GPS and wifi (which I guess is good an bad?). It is interesting to note that this camera has the same release price as the Mark III did when it was released 🙂

If you are looking  to upgrade to one of the “big boys” the 1D-X retails for $4499 on Amazon but has been discontinued to make way for the 1D-X II which I have not tried; that 1D-X II retails for $5999 on Amazon. I do not own the 1D-X II so I will let you guys read the difference on those HERE if you so choose.

 

Here is one SOOC, one edited (Edited with 4 quick actions: Bold Beautiful Skies, Arise & Shine, Warm Spotlight, and SharpenNoise all from The Kansas Collection found here: http://kansaspitts.bigcartel.com/category/presets-actions), and a zoom crop of the same SOOC image:

 

Want to grab those actions and presets I talked about? Click below!

 

Let me also say this…if you want an ultra technical review of the Canon IV visit Ken Rockwell’s site (he has some great up close noise images as well): HERE