Canon EOS 5D Mark III Digital Camera Review

Sharpness

The Canon 5D Mark III is an interesting case study in the use of in-camera post-processing. We have to commend the Canon camera for featuring solid sharpness, with very little compulsory enhancement done to the images in the camera. It doesn't necessarily produce a subjectively better image, but if you have to shoot in JPEG the images will stand up to significantly more adjustment after the fact, as they're a more faithful rendition of the actual scene.

In our testing we saw that the center of the frame was capable of resolving detail (measured at MTF50) at a frequency of up to 1600 lw/ph. While we've certainly seen other cameras that have been able to surpass that, it's usually with a measure of oversharpening, with contrast artificially enhanced. The Mark III avoids that, but still puts up a respectable score, albeit one that can be improved with some careful post-processing where you want to bring out fine details with more contrast.

More on how we test sharpness.