When comparing Canon EOS 5D Mark III vs Nikon D5, the Slant community recommends Nikon D5 for most people. In the question“What are the best full frame DSLR cameras?” Nikon D5 is ranked 2nd while Canon EOS 5D Mark III is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Nikon D5 is:
D5 has 153 AF points of which you can select 55. 99 AF points are cross-type (of which 35 are selectable). 15 AF points work with f/8 lenses (of which 9 are selectable). The autofocus works down to LV -4. Autofocus is amazingly fast at 14 frames per second with top of the class accuracy (in tests performed by Tony Northrup it was only second to 1DX Mark II in terms of how many shots were in focus having just 6% fewer of shots be in focus).
Specs
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Pros
Pro Good autofocus system
61-point autofocus system with 41 cross-type points that performs well in low light.
Pro Complete manual control for video
Shutter, aperture and ISO can be set manually for video.
Pro Excellent ergonomics
Pro Excellent build quality
Pro Advanced autofocus
D5 has 153 AF points of which you can select 55. 99 AF points are cross-type (of which 35 are selectable). 15 AF points work with f/8 lenses (of which 9 are selectable). The autofocus works down to LV -4.
Autofocus is amazingly fast at 14 frames per second with top of the class accuracy (in tests performed by Tony Northrup it was only second to 1DX Mark II in terms of how many shots were in focus having just 6% fewer of shots be in focus).
Pro Huge ISO range
D5 has a native ISO range of 100 to 102,400 which can be expanded from 50 to 3,280,000.
Pro Can automatically detect faces and focus on them
Pro Can shoot stills during video
Pro Durable
Pro Great high ISO imaging capabilities
Cons
Con The camera is showing its age
5D Mark III was released in 2012.
Con Dynamic range could be better
5D Mark III has 11.7 stops of dynamic range while competitors have around 14 stops. And shadow recovery is lacking as well limiting HDR photos further.
Con AF point coverage is restricting
Layout of AF points restricts to compose shots in a certain way.
Con Lacks continuous AF in movie mode
Con Lacks programmable Auto ISO
Con Can't set arbitrary exposure time
Con AF points don't illuminate in Servo mode
It can be difficult to see AF points in low light as they do not illuminate in Servo mode.
Con Autofocus subject tracking could be better
Con Image quality is surpassed by much cheaper cameras
Nikon puts D5's AF capabilities above everything else to the point where cameras that cost less than half the price (like Nikon's own D810) have clearer, sharper images with higher dynamic range and higher resolution.
Con Single-purpose
It's an extremely specialized camera. Unless you're doing photography that involves fast moving targets, the camera's capabilities will not justify the price.
Con Internal 4K video capture is limited to 3 minutes
Fortunately video can be sent over HDMI to an external recorder.
Con Dynamic range of base ISO could be better
According to tests performed by DxOMark, dynamic range of the D5 is at ~9.35 stops for base ISO (50 to 100). Lowest of any FF Nikon DSLR.
Con 4K video has a 1.3x crop
Con AF in video mode is lousy
Con Lacks built-in Wi-Fi
Con AF point coverage could be better
Con Low resolution for a flagship
The camera is 20MP, D810, for example is 36.3 MP.
Con Not all AF points can be manually selected
Out of the 153 AF points only 55 can be selected.