Review 2 of 28
Price Paid:
$2100.00
from Amazon.com Summary:
This was the DSLR that i had always had my eye on, but at the time made the step from film to digital, this camer was still in the 3,000 price range. so, at the time I went for the Rebel XTi that had just come out. The XTI was a very good camera for the money, but it still did not feel right to me. small in size, cropped sensor (smaller than 35mm film) and very small and dim veiwfinder.
I finally purchased the 5D went it came down to nearly 2000.00 It was like a breathe of fresh air. the camera is large, but not a monstrosity so it has a good substantial feel to it and yet does not kill your arms by carrying it around all day. The full frame sensor not only gives me great image quality but works very well in low light conditions. My lenses are now back to their intended sizes. It is a pleasure to have my wide angles again without having to purchase fisheye lens just to give me a wide angle. The viewfinder is large and easy to see through and this camera also has available different screens that can be placed in the viewfinder to make focusing even easier depending on your specific applications. i find that the screen that is in the camera is adequate for me, but i am considering trying another that is supposed to work even better when manually focusing often.
The controls are arranged in a logical and easy to use manner with many different user specified options available in the vast array of custom Functions settings. The only problem here as with all Canon cameras that I know of is the Mirror Lock-up option is also buried in the Custom functions. It would make more sense to have that option as a separate button that could be turned on and off without having to go into the menus.
The ISO range is 100-1600 but can be expanded to 50-3200. I have used 3200 and was very happy with the quality of the images. there was definetly noise but the noise was very fine and yet the images still retained alot of great tonal range and sharpness. There doe not seem to be much color noise in shadow areas which is very good. I would not hesitate to use ISO 3200 when i needed the extra speed. I have not used ISO 50 but I read something on Canons website that stated ISO 50 will not actually achieve any better image quality than ISO 100, but will actually hurt the dynamic Range in the light areas. So, basically ISO 50 would be for when you absolutley needed a slower shutter speed and there was no other option in achieviing it.
The Canon 5D does not have a built in flash, nor does it have a dust removal system built in. the body is very strong and built well but is not a "pro" body and does not have very good weather sealing. i guess some of these things that would be a drawback are there to help keep the cost down of this full frame sensor camera. Still and yet, a very good build with a shutter that is rated at 100,000 shots. This is a very good shutter indeed.
I would not recommend this camera for someone who is shooting Sports most of the time as the FPS is relatively slow (3FPS) It is however an excellent camera for Fine Art, Landscape, Portrait, Night photography, and I had pretty good success with it for a Dance Theater Performance shooting at 1600 and 3200 ISO. Strengths:
Good build and size, good price for a quality camera with a Full Frame Sensor, comfortable and easy to use, excellent image quality at practically all ISO, good low light performance Weaknesses:
No dust removal system built in (although i have not had much of a problem with dust and have not needed to clean the sensor yet) no built in flash. Similar Products Used:
Canon elan 7 film 35mm SLR, Canon Rebel Xti DSLR Customer Service:
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