Canon EOS 5D 12.8 MP Digital SLR Camera with EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens by Canon
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Digital camera reviews of Canon EOS 5D 12.8 MP Digital SLR Camera with EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens
Digital camera Review: A Nikon convert
Summary: 4 Stars
It was hard (and expensive) to go from Nikon to Canon, but worth it. I always felt my Nikon could be sharper. I went to Canon for the Lenses and I'm not disappointed, nor will you be. The D5 with the 24-105 L series lens is a beautiful setup, extremely versatile. This is not a compromise camera. Is it perfect, no, but a very, very good camera and lens.
Mainly I use this camera for photographing artwork. I use strobes, and sometimes available light or the 580ex flash. So the lens is plenty fast for my purposes. In fact I try not to go below 5.6 for sharpness. Be warned, if you use the widest zoom, don't fill the frame, there is definite fall off at the corners. The color rendition is beautiful, and nearly flawless right out of the camera, very little post processing is necessary. This was the most frustrating thing about Nikon. Sitting in front of Photoshop fixing bad photos simply sucks.
Then why a rating of 4 and not a 5? I would like to give it a 4.7, because it is not perfect, no camera is. I sometimes use a Hasselblad with a Phaseone digital back and that's not perfect($30,000 setup). The D5 with canon lenses is not a Hasselblad, but at a 10th the price, it is damn close. Did I want the 1ds mark iii? You bet. But for less than 1/3 the cost it is a much better value.
Things I like a lot:
Full frame, L series lenses, true wide angle, reasonable size body, good weight, buttons laid out well, easy menu, beautiful lens, great color, diopter adjust is great, high resolution for the price, good battery life, ergonomic, and a very reasonable price for a great camera.
Things that could be better:
Timer needs to be adjustable (Like a 2 second delay for tripod work), one or 2 buttons for custom settings (instead of the stupid print button). Easier white balance setup and control, confusing resolution descriptions, a pop up fill flash would be very useful in a pinch, time lapse control would be fun.
Things others find missing that I don't care about (but you might):
Not weatherproof, modest multiple capture speed, slow(ish) lens (F-4 isn't bad, and you can get very, very fast Canon lenses if you need them), weight of the lens, slight crop of the image in preview, no live viewing on the lcd, no fill flash, grainy at very high ISO (I found the camera quite impressive up to about 800).
Things that are unacceptable:
None.
A word about RAW. There are many resolution settings on this camera. From medium jpeg to Raw, and Raw with jpeg. This is mainly a studio camera for me, so burst mode is not something I use often. So I won't comment on the speed of capturing multiple images. Maybe if I do portrait work, I'll be glad it's there. But I use RAW with everything I shoot, you should too. As much as possible, anyway Yes the files are larger, but so what. A $40 extreme III card can hold hundreds of images. A 500gig hard drive can hold over 30,000! Here is the upside of raw. It gets better with age. Raw processing has improved from Photoshop cs1 to 2 to 3. Old raw files I have actually look better in the new versions. So if you keep your old raw photos untouched, you may actually get better photos in the years to come. RAW allows amazing adjustment. With jpeg or even tiff, you can't go back. They are what they are.
Summary: A camera cannot take good photographs, that is the photographer's job. That is why I like this camera so much, it gets out of my way easily, so I can do my part. This is a beautiful camera, with a beautiful lens at a GREAT price. Do buy a good UV filter to protect your lens, and a few CF cards and you are good to go.
Digital camera Review: A rewarding camera to use
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using this camera since December and carried it on a month-long trip abroad. I previously used two other Canon DSLRs, the Canon 10D and 350D. So far I have found the 5D a very rewarding camera to use. As others have suggested, it is a great camera for fine art photography, but maybe not so much for sports or journalism.
I read many reviews to compare the 5D the 40D. Because the 5D has come down so far in price, they are somewhat comparable. However, they are significantly different cameras with different strengths. What it came down to for me is that the 5D is full-frame, whereas the 40D is has more current-generation features such as dust reduction and faster shooting rate. I decided to go for the full-frame, for the reasons below.
I haven't used the 40D so I can't make a hands-on comparison. But here are the reasons why I like using the 5D compared with my previous DSLRs, the 10D and 350D:
+ The frame seen through the viewfinder is much larger. It is easier to compose the shot and see what's in focus.
+ Lenses work at their normal focal length, without a multiplier. This makes more professional lenses (Canon L lenses) practical to use. For example the 24-105 L included in the kit is an outstanding walkaround/travel lens on the 5D (useful range, stabilization, sharp, good color). There is no comparable Canon L lens for cropped-frame cameras with this effective range. (I used the EF-S 17-85 on the 350D for years and it is not as good; the EF-S 17-55 is not as wide or as long).
+ Greater control over depth of field. Cropped-frame sensors effectively increase the minimum depth of field of a lens. It is much easier to create an image with selective focus using the 5D. In other words, it is easier to pick a subject out of the background by blurring the background.
+ Excellent metering. All the other Canon cameras I have used over-expose (blow out) highlights in contrasty scenes. The 5D meters for the highlights, rarely blows them, and has plenty of shadow detail to recover if needed.
+ Amazing low noise performance. I can go up to ISO 800 without thinking about it; I can go to ISO 1600 and still use the results for most purposes.
+ Excellent low light autofocus and fast overall autofocus. Seems to be able to focus on pretty much anything. Of course, if you let the camera select a focus point and the depth of field is shallow (wide open for low light), then you may not get the result you want.
+ The RAW files respond really well to processing such as curves and fill light; they seem to have more slightly more dynamic range, and definitely less noise, than my previous cameras.
In addition, I find the 5D rewarding to use because it makes me think more about photography again. Specifically, I have to pay more attention to the combination of aperture, focus point, and depth of field, which didn't matter as much on cropped-frame cameras. This may be why some reviewers have found the 5D harder to use. I find it's teaching me more about photography.
One reviewer mentioned vignetting (dark corners). Many wide angle lenses exhibit some vignetting and the 24-105 L does too; you will find it described in any good review of the lens. Cropped-frame cameras hide the vignetting. It is also very easy to remove vignetting in a good image editor (such as Lightroom). In my opinion I'd rather get the full benefit of the lens (at its designed focal range and depth of field) in return for a few seconds spent moving a slider to compensate for vignetting.
Another reviewer mentioned needing the battery grip to hold this camera easily. I have big hands and I find the 5D easy to handle with a hand strap such as the one made by Sunpak. One end attaches to the right eyelet and the other screws to the tripod mount; the padded strap holds the camera securely to your hand.
Of course I had some concerns about buying this camera when it has been out for two years and may be replaced this year. But then someone pointed out: realistically, what is Canon going to improve on this camera and still keep the price point between a 40D and a 1D? I don't need more resolution. A few up-to-date features (dust reduction, auto ISO) would be nice but aren't essential. The 5D will continue to be a competitive camera at least through the lifetime of the current 40D.
Digital camera Review: Almost perfect
Summary: 5 Stars
Beeing a Nikon guy it was a big step for me to move on to Canon. I had a Nikon D70S which was a good camera for me for a long time.
The menu/navigation system was easy to adapt, so no problems there. And it didn't take long before I understood I had a much much better camera in my hands. Without going into details, the image quality is simply very very good. I love this camera.
A thing I hvae noticed is that while the D70S needed very accurate settings for both shutter time and F-numbers in order to take good pictures, the 5D gives good pictures for a wide range of shutter times and F-numbers. Sounds a bit strange, but that's my experience.
I took a lot of pictures late in the evening and using 1600 ISO, the quality was still very good. I have notices that people try ISO 1600 and above when it is good light conditions. Note! This will not tell you anything about how the camera is at high ISO values with little light. You need to have little light to check how good the high ISOs are. And 1600 ISO gave smooth images with this camera.
Battery time was good. I took about 600 images over 3 weeks before it turned flat.
Note! This camera don't have a internal blitz, which off course is because it is a pro camera, but still its good for you to know...
Well. There is 1 problem with this camera. The focus points. They are as other say, centered to near the middle, so very often I need to crop the image in other ways than I had intended, often giving lot of air above the object. Typically I want to focus on the face, giving a lot of blue sky above the head. This is actually very irritating. Also the navigation for focus points are idiotic - every time I want to change focus pint I need to click this tiny button in the corner, before using the keypad. This means that I must move the camera away from my eyes every time I want to change point. Argg... It is also very hard to find the right focus point.
Ahhh, and I just loved the full size CMOS. No more x 1.5 for me!!!
Almost perfect this camera!
Digital camera Review: Amazing!
Summary: 5 Stars
This camera is everything I thought it would be and MORE! I took it to Disneyland the week I bought it and took some pictures of the firework show and they turned out perfect! I upgraded from a Canon Powershot S2 IS, and while that's a great camera to learn on, the 5D allows you to I completely recommend this camera to anyone looking for a more professional camera that will allow them to use their full range of camera skills. I love love love this camera!Digital camera Review: Canon 40D
Summary: 5 Stars
Look no further if your looking for a DSLR in this range... Absolutely fantastic... I did my homework for 6 months and decided on this model... I went from a P&S camera to this... A little learning curve but what do you expect from a camera that delivers so much...
I could rant on but if your looking for a great DSLR, this is it...
I did however purchase the body only and picked another lens to go with it...Canon EOS 40D 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)
Excellent buy as well and I searched all the safe competitive sites... Amazon has the best price for this item...