We are not alone. Plenty of people on the web have the same objective and they brought us exactly that: A wealth of comparisons, parallel tests and face-to-face reviews for the newest contenders for the title of “Most attractive enthusiast-targeting photo camera with a Full Frame sensor”.

• Low Light Comparison of the Canon 5D Mark II, 5D Mark III, and Nikon D800 from Joe Marine (via PetaPixel): It’s an impressive show of the Canon video performance (even calling the old 5D MkII in)
• DxOLabs does a number of reviews and comparisons aiming at the sensor quality (D800 & 5D MkIII): does not leave any doubt about the photo ability of the Nikon sensor (or should I say Sony sensor?).



• Nikon D800 vs. D3s and D7000 comparison by Cary Jordan: is obviously impressed by the D800 performance (as an excellent FX camera and as a very good DX/APS-C camera, too.)
• Canon EOS 5D Mk III Vs Nikon D800 at PhotoAnswers: is rather balanced but shows very nice D800 pictures.

It’s clear that the most recent launches by Canon and Nikon are fighting more or less each other on a market of experts and pros. So, in the recent days, I collected a number of comparisons between the Nikon D800 and the Canon EOS 5D MkIII to help you check this out by yourself:

• Video shootout: Nikon D800 vs. Canon 5D mkIII by Dan Chung
• Canon EOS 5D Mark III vs Nikon D800 noise at CameraLabs
• Bob Atkins: Pixel Matters – Canon EOS 5D MkIII vs Nikon D800
• Canon EOS 5D Mark III: primeras muestras y breve comparativa con la Nikon D800 (de QueSabesDe.com)
• CrisisLab: The F%^&ing Nikon D800 vs. Canon 5D mkIII Shootout with a YouTube video

Of course, these will stay in the pages specific to these two cameras.

Since a lot of information reached our ears already through a number of different leaks, it is now possible to make a few educated guesses and to attempt a comparison with the older Sony Alpha 700 (many of its owners are impatiently waiting for its successor(s)) and the direct competition in the Nikon and Canon ranges.

Legend: Green means “best in class”, Red means “worst in class”.

Let’s not forget that this comparison is still based upon rumors (which will or will not be confirmed in the coming hours).

Actually, the most important of his issues was with ISO sensitivity and general behavior of the Canon EOS 5D MkII in low light (including digital noise and AF). Despite that the Canon is still a very strong seller, the reduced sensor resolution of the Nikon D700 has been superbly exploited to provide maximum sensitivity and minimum noise. I cannot help but agree with Allister.

A visit to his post will also show a nice set of pictures made during a wedding in the Gosfield Hall in Essex (England) and showing his excellent documentary style.

Eiffel Tower, by night – Copyright (C) Yves Roumazeilles

Now, I would like to underline the quality of a full series of posts, published by Patrick Moll on Alpha Numérique, and dedicated to comparing as precisely as possible the various offers now on the market to develop and improve as much as possible the pictures that -sometimes- we must shoot using very high levels of ISO sensitivity (with the troubling levels of digital noise that come with big ISO levels).

The list of the software programs taken into account is quite respectable:

• Image Data Converter 3
• Lightroom 3 / Camera Raw 6
• DxO Optics Pro 6
• Aperture 3
• Bibble Pro 5
• Capture One Pro 5
• ACDSee Pro 3
• Silkypix 4
• Lightzone 3
• Raw Developer 1 (dcraw)

Not bad, eh!

Even if the comparisons done here are not only for Sony photo cameras, Patrick Moll applied its tests to a quite appreciable list of cameras too:

• A100
• A550
• A700
• A900
• A330 (not ready yet when I published this post)

Even if you are not reading French, I highly recommend checking these (most of the posts are made of image comparisons using the yellow buttons to select the software program results you want to see). Even if you are equipped with Pentax, Canon or Nikon gear, the lessons you will draw from this are applicable on all the photo camera brands, concerning strengths and weaknesses of each of these software tools.

To understand the review process and the methodology, I would recommend the reading of (here, all in French):

• Introduction
• Réduction du bruit et accentuation

With the tests, body by body, you will immediately recognize the excellent results of Lightroom 3/Camera Raw 6 (these two Adobe software programs share a single common RAW file management core). Just behind, comes DxO Optics Pro 6 which is a bit more violent (or more accentuation prone) and the (not famous enough) Bibble Pro 5.

From this point, you will always be able to get the best from the photos you were forced into shooting in poor lighting conditions which required big ISO figures.