Canon EOS 5D Review - Part I

by Bob Atkins

The Canon 5D is really the first practical, affordable, generally useful full frame Digital SLR. Sure there is the Canon EOS 1Ds MkII, but it currently sells for $7200 while the 5D's street price is now just under $3000. Yes, there was the Kodak DCS Pro 14n, but the fact that it's no longer made tells you something about it. OK in a studio maybe, but not really a practical camera for general use.

The Canon 5D is, I think, something of a landmark camera and shows how much digital technology has advanced in only a few years. The first "affordable" DSLR of any kind was the Canon EOS D30, a 3MP APS-C sensor camera which originally sold for over $3000 in October 2000 (Original price 380,000 yen). Only 5 years later (October 2005) we have a 12.7 MP full frame camera selling for about the same price ($3000). I'm pretty sure that in another 5 years we will be seeing a 15MP full frame camera selling for under $1500. But the Canon 5D will be seen as the "full frame" breakthrough camera, just as the D30 is seen as the first really practical DSLR that ordinary people could afford. 5 years prior to the D30 all you could get was a 1.3MP DCS 3, and it would have cost you almost 2,000,000 yen (almost $20,000) or a 6MP DCS 1 selling for 3,600,000 yen (upwards of $30,000). I'm sure the rate of progress is slowing down now as the technology matures, but it certainly hasn't stopped!

What's in the box?

• Canon EOS 5D
• BP-511A Lithium-Ion battery
• CG-580 / CB-5L Battery charger
• Neck Strap with Eyepiece cover
• USB cable
• A/V cable
• Camera Manual
• Software Manual
• Software (Windows)
• • ZoomBrowser EX 5.5
  • RAW Image Task 2.2 (RAW conversion for ZoomBrowser)
  • CameraWindow 5.4 (transfer / camera settings application)
  • EOS Capture 1.5 (tethered capture)
  • Photo Record 2.2
  • WIA/TWAIN driver 5.5/5.7/5.8
  • PhotoStitch 3.1
  • Digital Photo Professional 2.0
• Software (Macintosh)
• • ImageBrowser 5.5
  • Digital Photo Professional 2.0
  • EOS Capture 1.5
  • PhotoStitch 3.1

Note that you do not get a memory card with the Canon 5D.

Specifications

For a full list of all the Canon EOS 5D specs, see the Canon 5D Specifications page

Here are some of the highlights and a comparison with the 20D:

• Full Frame Sensor - The Canon 5D has one, the 20D doesn't
• Pixel Count - The 5D is 12.8MP, the 20d is 8.2 MP
• Continuous shooting - The Canon 5D is 3fps for 60 JPEGS, the 20d is 5fps for 23 JPEGs
• Viewfinder - The 5d viewfinder is larger than that of the 20D, plus it has interchangable viewfinder screens
• Built in flash - The 20D has one, the 5D doesn't.
• Flash sync - The 20D is 1/250th, the 5D is 1/200th.
• Spot meter - The 5D has one (3.5%), the 20D doesn't - the best it has is a 9% partial metering "fat spot".
• ISO - Settings from ISO 100-1600. The Canon 5D has ISO adjustable in 1/3 stop steps, the 20D has ISO adjustable in 1 stop steps. The 5D can add ISO 50 and ISO 3200 settings, the 20D can only add ISO 3200.
• LCD monitor - the Canon 5D has a larger LCD then the 20D (2.5" vs. 1.8") with more pixels and a wider viewing angle.
• AF - the 5D has a newly developed 9-point auto focus system features 6 additional invisible Assist AF points located inside the spot-metering circle.
• Wireless - The Canon 5D can be used with a wireless adapter, the Wireless File Transmitter WFT-E1

External views

The Canon EOS 5D is much more like an upgraded EOS 20D than it is like a 1D Mk II N or 1Ds Mk II. That's not a bad thing, just that it looks very similar, has an almost identical control layout and is very similar in size and weight as well as using the same BP-511/512 battery (the 1D series bodies use the Ni-MH pack NP-E3). Like the EOS 20D it does not have Canon's pro level all weather sealing. The major external difference is that it doesn't have a built in flash. I'm not quite sure why they left it out. One reason the 1D series (and 1 Series) cameras don't have a built in flash is supposed to be that it would make it very difficult to provide all weather sealing around a pop-up flash - as well as the fact that no self respecting professional wants to be seen using one! I suppose the latter could apply to the Canon 5D, but since it isn't weather sealed anyway, a built in flash wouldn't make it much worse in that respect. There's also the issue of available space, since the prism required for full frame cameras is larger than that required by smaller frame cameras - though that never seems to have been much of a problem in film cameras like the EOS Elan series. Anyway, whatever the reason, Canon didn't put a pop-up flash in the Canon 5D.

The other obvious difference between the 20D and 5D is that the Canon EOS 5D has a significantly larger LCD (2.5" with 230,000 pixels on the Canon 5D, 1.8" with 118,000 pixels on the EOS 20D). This is nice, especially for aging photographers whose close-up vision isn't all that it used to be. With the EOS 20D I sometimes have to remember what the menus say (or hold the camera at arms length), whereas with the Canon 5D I can actually read what's on the screen. It also makes reviewing images and checking focus somewhat easier. The Canon 5D LCD also has a wider viewing angle than the EOS 20D LCD, in fact Canon specify it to be viewable over a 170 degree angle.

In Canon's own words, the Canon 5D is built on "a highly rigid magnesium alloy exterior (including the Battery Grip BG-E4), a solid stainless steel internal chassis, and a mirror box of high-strength engineering plastic".

Viewfinder

Looking through the viewfinder you see another difference between the Canon 5D and 20D. It's bigger. In fact it's very similar to the size of the viewfinder image that you get with EOS film bodies. The 9 AF points are arranged in a diamond pattern, though the pattern seems to cover the same area as it does in the 20D. In the 20D it covers a reasonable amount of the frame, while with the larger frame of the 5D the AF zones seem somewhat clustered about the center of the frame. The 5D AF system also has 6 AF "assist" points which can't be selected but which improve the accuracy of focus tracking when working with moving subjects. The Canon EOS 5D has 96% coverage, another contrast with the EOS 1D series bodies which have 100% coverage. The EOS 20D has 95%.

Three viewfinder screens are available for the Canon EOS 5D, The standard Ee-A screen, the Ee-S Super Precision Matte for easier manual focus and the Ee-D Precision Matte with grid. These different screen result in slightly different metering characteristics, which can be compensated for via Custom Function CFn-00 which should be set to "0" for the Ee-A, "1" for the Ed-D and "2" for the Ee-S. Canon recommend using lenses f2.8 or faster with the alternate screens.

Controls

The control layout will be very familiar to EOS 20D users, since it's virtually identical. The mode control dial is slightly different since the Canon 5D doesn't have positions for the program modes (sports, landscape etc). There is also a "C" (custom) mode which is user programmable. Via a menu option you can "register" all current camera settings for the "C" mode. This includes things like ISO, metering pattern, white balance, shooting mode and pretty much everything else including custom function settings.

On the back there's also a "print" button for printing directly from the camera (you can also do this from the 20D, but it doesn't have a dedicated button). Otherwise I think all the external controls on the Canon 5D are identical to those on the EOS 20D

Menu controlled Functions

Most of the menu controlled functions will again be very familiar to EOS 20D users since they are mostly the same. Below are the various menu options. Most of them are self explanatory. This is a composite image made up from 5 shots of the screen in order to show all the menu items.

One new item on the menu of the Canon 5D is the picture style modes which allow the user to adjust sharpness, contrast, saturation and color tone on the various preset and 3 additional custom "picture styles". These make it easier to control "straight out of the camera" images shot in JPEG mode, though of course they make no difference to RAW files which are designed for post-exposure processing and so contain all the original shooting data unmodified. There are 8 levels of sharpness (0 to 7) and 9 levels of contrast, saturation and color tone (0, +/-4)

The available styles are Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Neutral, Faithful, Monochrome, User 1, User 2 and User 3.

Custom Functions

Most of the custom functions are the same as found on the EOS 20D, though there are a few changes, for example the 5D has CFn-00 which adjusts the metering calibration to compensate for the use of alternative viewfinder screens and CFn-08 enables both an ISO 50 and ISO 3200 setting, while on the 20D it enables only ISO 3200.

[Continue to Canon EOS 5D Review - Part II ]

Where to Buy

We'd like to thank Adorama for lending us the equipment for this review, please consider making your purchases from them:

Purchasing through the following links helps to support photo.net.

FEATURED MERCHANT: ADORAMA
Product: Canon EOS-5D Digital SLR Camera Body, 12.8 Megapixels, Interchangeable Lens Camera - USA Warranty	Price: 1999.95

Related Reviews

Canon 20D vs. Canon 5D
Canon 20D review
Canon 30D preview
All Canon reviews