Canon EOS 5D Digital SLR Camera Review
By Alex Burack
Reviewed.com Editorial Staff
Published on September 05, 2007
Constructed around a 12.8-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor – equal in size to a 35mm film frame – and carrying a modest $3,299 price tag is the Canon EOS 5D. Canon’s second foray into full-frame DSLR design comes at less than half the price of its near $8,000 progenitor, the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II. The 5D’s current status among top performing DSLRs – nearly two years after its release – speaks to the quality of its imaging components, though the camera’s more-flawed exterior indicates how Canon was able to control the price. With limited speed and questionable build quality, the 5D carries some sizeable shortcomings. Canon, however, is banking on image quality to validate its design and justify the price.
Full-frame DSLRs play comfortably off 35mm film photography, maintaining consistent focal lengths, depth-of-field, and lens perspectives with the once-prevalent medium. Frequent wide-angle shooters should note the 1x magnification full-frame cameras afford: a 20mm lens applied to a full-frame DSLR will carry an actual 20mm focal length, while the same 20mm lens applied to a cropped sensor DSLR – say Canon’s 30D – results in a more magnified view (30mm on the 30D). This makes the 5D ideal for shooting architecture and landscapes and opens up the short end of the EF lens line. Alternatively, this same logic can be applied to support the benefits of cropped sensors for telephoto shooting.
The trade-off is that full-frame DSLRs are more susceptible to vignetting and corner softness when anything other than top-shelf optics are applied. 5D shooters on a budget, beware!
We put the Canon EOS 5D to the test, evaluating its performance and image quality. Indeed, the camera’s 35.8 x 23.9mm CMOS sensor carries some significant quality advantages. The large pixels populating the expansive imager help the 5D render images with high dynamic range and low noise throughout its sensitivity range. With more than 12 million of them, images from the 5D are sharp, crisp, and packed with detail. With this resolution, users can easily make 16x20-inch prints without compromise.
Information off the EOS 5D’s sensor is filtered through the camera’s DIGIC II image processor, which deserves most of the credit for the camera’s remarkable color accuracy and neutral saturation levels. The processor also directly influences speed, which didn’t play out as favorably for the 5D.
Sports and action photographers may want to forego the temptation of a full-frame DSLR – at least for the time being. At full resolution, the EOS 5D can capture successive shots at just about 3 frames per second, lagging well behind models that cost less than half its list price. Fortunately, Canon incorporated a large buffer that holds 60 consecutive JPEG/Large or 17 RAW files. Sports photographers looking into the Canon system would be better served by the EOS 40D, which shoots twice as fast as its more expensive sibling.
You probably wouldn’t find a Canon DSLR nestled in Cartier-Bresson’s camera bag, even if he were still alive. And it has nothing to do with the sluggish burst rate. The 5D’s external design and control layout appeared antiquated upon its release. Canon opted for a consumer-oriented mode dial on the top of the 5D rather than the more efficient Nikon D200 layout, which replaces the dial with ISO, image size, and white balance options, settings hands-on photographers use frequently.
The Canon 5D’s power button is placed on the lower portion of the back of the camera. This is a much clumsier layout than DSLRs that form the power control around the shutter release, since it requires two hands to turn the camera on and snap an image. 5D users will have to leave the camera on, constantly draining the battery, or risk missing that “decisive moment.”
The EOS 5D is one of Canon’s first DSLRs to employ its new Picture Style parameters, intended to streamline shooting across multiple EOS bodies. Canon plays up this addition in its marketing materials, though we found it performed best in its Neutral setting, which turns all controlled parameters off. There is a Faithful setting, which acts similarly to the Neutral mode but is optimized for shooting under photographic tungsten lamps. The Standard (default) setting doesn’t do the camera justice. It jacks up the sharpening, contrast, and saturation and ends up sacrificing tonal information. For best results, we recommend turning them all off and post-processing the images later.
Canon spins the 5D’s questionable design as “small and lightweight,” which may appeal to casual shooters with a lot of money to drop on a camera; however, the professional contingency viewed it as a significant flaw. The EOS 5D’s magnesium alloy shell feels only moderately more robust than lower-level DSLRs in the line. At $1,799, Nikon’s D200 is in another class in terms of durability and weatherproofing. For those thinking the Canon EOS 5D is a smaller 1Ds Mark II, in terms of build, it’s a closer relative to the slightly smaller 30D.
At $3,299, there are an equal number of people who would argue that the Canon EOS 5D is a steal as would suggest it’s overpriced. Canon has created an interesting niche camera without a defined niche market. The 5D clearly exhibits flaws in its external design, autofocus system, and durability. However, it offers industry-leading image quality in any sub-$5,000 camera. If you don’t need the speed and have the cash to spend, the 5D’s image quality and full-frame perspective justifies every penny.For a more in-depth review, visit the Canon EOS 5D Review at our partner DigitalCameraInfo.com
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