EOS 5D mk III firmware upgrade!

Canon has unveiled plans for a new EOS 5D Mark III firmware designed to enhance shooting and improve video workflow.

The new firmware enables HDMI output functionality, ideal for professional videographers, as well as improved AF performance for photographers shooting with telephoto lenses.


Following feedback from cinema and TV production professionals, the new firmware includes ‘clean’ HDMI output, enhancing overall video editing and monitoring procedures. Videographers will be able to output high-definition uncompressed video data (YCbCr 4:2:2, 8 bit) without any embedded icons or symbols, from the EOS 5D Mark III to an external recorder using the camera’s HDMI terminal. The new functionality will enable easier editing of data with minimal image degradation for greater on-site workflow efficiency during production, as well as the option to record to the internal memory card at the same time.

The enhanced features also include outputting of time code over HDMI to an external recorder, as well as the ability to synchronise start and stop of video capture with the start and stop of recording to an external device*. The new firmware also enables real-time output to external monitors, ideally suited for on-set monitoring by the wider production team.

The new firmware also adds improved AF performance when capturing still images, opening up more advanced shooting possibilities for photographers. When using a lens and extender, resulting in a maximum f/8 aperture, the new firmware enables the camera to utilise the EOS 5D Mark III’s central dual cross-type focal points, currently only available up to an f/5.6 aperture. The new capabilities allow sports and nature photographers to use AF when getting closer to distant subjects, achieving precision detail when using telephoto lenses.

The firmware will be free to download from April 2013. 

* Functionality dependant on the specification of the external recording device.