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There are 6 different size/quality settings plus RAW. In addition you can save
images as both RAW and any one of the JPEG combinations simultaneously
Large/Fine: Approx. 4.6MB (4368 x 2912 pixels)
Large/Normal: Approx. 2.3MB (4368 x 2912 pixels
Medium/Fine: Approx. 2.7MB (3168 x 2112 pixels)
Medium/Normal: Approx. 1.4MB (3168 x 2112 pixels)
Small/Fine: Approx. 2.0MB (2496 x 1664 pixels)
Small/Normal: Approx. 1.0MB (2496 x 1664 pixels)
RAW: Approx. 12.9MB (4368 x 2912 pixels)
Exact file sizes depend on the subject, ISO speed, Picture Style, etc
Metering modes
In addition to the standard metering modes found on the EOS 20D (35-zone
evaluative, partial and center weighted), the EOS 5D also adds a 3.5% spot
metering mode. The partial mode on the 5D is also slightly tighter than that of
the 20D (8% vs. 9%). The area of the spot meter is marked on the viewfinder
screen by a circle as shown below.
Sensor Noise and ISO settings
The amount of sensor noise is something that's always of interest with any new
digital camera. The EOS 5D has a native range of ISO 100 to ISO 1600 in 1/3 stop
steps, plus it can be expended via a custom function setting to add ISO 50
(L) and ISO 3200 (H). When setting ISO, the current value is displayed both
on the top LCD and in the viewfinder, so as long as you remember which button to
push you can set ISO without taking your eye from the viewfinder! ISO is not
displayed in the viewfinder during normal operation, only while its value is
being set.
Below are noise samples (100% crops) from a series of images of a grey card
shot with both an EOS 20D and EOS 5D. They are all direct crops from large/fine
JPEGs shot using the camera's default parameters and with no post-exposure
processing. What you see is what I got!
Are there differences in noise? Yes, I'm sure there are. Are they significant?
No, not really. Essentially the noise levels of the EOS 5D and 20D are the same,
or at least very similar. Both are very good up to ISO 800, noise starts to
appear at ISO 1600 and it's fairly pronounced at ISO 3200, though image quality
is still quite usable even at ISO 3200, probably better than film pushed to the
same speed.
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range is always a little tricky to measure but my impression from
shooting high contrast subjects and deliberate overexposure is that if there are
difference in dynamic range between the EOS 5D and and EOS 20D, they are small
enough to be of no consequence (or use!). It is worth noting though that the "L"
setting in the expended ISO range (equivalent to ISO 50) does reduce dynamic
range somewhat (maybe by a stop or so) at the highlight end or the range.
This is no doubt why Canon make it a custom function selectable choice rather
than a standard ISO setting. When using ISO 50 you have to be aware of this and
expose accordingly. While I have not personally tested the dynamic range of the
1D series bodies, the general consensus seems to be that their dynamic range is
also similar to the EOS 20D, so dynamic range seems to be a function of sensor
technology, and is pretty much the same for all the current Canon EOS DSLRs.
Flash Sync
The flash sync on the EOS 5D is 1/200s, which is 1/3 stop slower than the
1/250s sync found on the EOS 20D, 1Ds MK II and ID Mk II N. Whether this 1/3 stop
difference is of any consequence is a matter of debate. I don't think it's going
to be a big deal for 99% of users. Those wanting much faster sync in a Canon
digital body have to go back to the original 4MP EOS 1D, which had a 1/500s sync
speed. Of course all the current Canon EOS DSLRs support high speed sync mode
with compatible speedlites which gives sync at any speed (but the faster the
shutter speed, the lower the effective power of the flash becomes).
Shutter
The EOS 5D shutter is rated for 100,000 cycles. Not as many as the 1D series
bodies, but more than the Digital Rebels. Compared to the sound of the EOS 20D
shutter/mirror noise, it sounds a little quieter and less harsh. Here is a .WAV
file comparing the shutter sounds. First is a burst of shots from the EOS 5D
followed by a burst of shots from the EOS 20D.
Shutter Sounds. I didn't measure shutter release lag
time, but Canon specify it as 0.075s (75ms), which is very fast. The camera
"wakeup" time is specified as 0.2s (200ms), again very fast and almost not
noticeable. The camera seems to have "instant on".
Exposure
I found that the EOS 5D I tested consistently gave slightly lighter images
than the comparison 20D. The difference was usually around 1/3 stop and didn't
depend too much on subject or metering pattern. Of course with only one sample of
each camera I can't say if all EOS 5Ds and all EOS 20Ds will compare similarly,
but for what it's worth, the ones used in these tests did.
Overall exposure accuracy using evaluative metering was good. Of course as
with any DSLR you have to make sure that you don't clip highlights when shooting
scenes of high contrast with bright areas. The 5D has the same histogram display
as the 5D for checking overall exposure and clipped highlights will flash
black/white if the review image is set to display information. However in
addition to this, the EOS 5D can display individual histograms for the red, green
and blue channels, making it easier to detect clipping in just one channel.
White Balance
The EOS 5D shows the typical pattern of Canon auto white balance behavior.
It's very good outdoors and not bad indoors under fluorescent lighting, but it's
very warm under tungsten lighting. Here are crops from images taken of a grey
card illuminated by a standard 75W tungsten household light bulb.
As you can see, the image shot with auto white balance has a strong red/yellow
bias. With "Tungsten" white balance selected there's still a small red/yellow
bias, but it's much less. Both Canon digital Rebels, the 10D and 20D all show
similar performance with a strong red/yellow bias under tungsten light in auto
white balance mode. It has been suggested that this is deliberate (and I think it
must be) because people expect indoor shots under tungsten light to look very
warm. Even the 1D series bodies show this effect though, and you'd expect maybe
professionals would prefer a more neutral white balance, even under tungsten
light.
The available white balance options are:
Auto
Daylight
Shade
Cloudy
Tungsten
Fluorescent
Flash
Custom
Kelvin temperature (2800K to 10000K)
Both white balance correction (+/- 9 levels) and white balance auto bracketing
(+/- 3 levels) are available via menu functions.
Continuous Shooting
Below are the 1st and 12th shots in a continuous sequence. The time difference
between the shots is 3.59 seconds, which means the average time between shots is
0.326s. This is equivalent to 3.06 frames per seconds. Pretty close to the Canon
specified 3 frames/second!
Canon specify the buffer size as 60 images in large/fine/JPEG and
17 images in RAW. With a fairly slow CF card (Kingston 1GB CF) at ISO 100
shooting at 1/125 with the lens in manual focus mode shooting a uniform target I
found that I could shoot 18 RAW images before the buffer filled up. In fine/JPEG
mode I got 132 frames! Of course JPEG files of uniform targets are much smaller
than those of images with detail in them so this would represents and unrealistic
condition. Shooting in more normal conditions using ISO 400 and a "typical" scene
with a "typical" amount of detail I got 68 frames in fine/JPEG mode and 17 frames
in RAW. With a faster card you might expect to do a little better with JPEGs, but
probably not much. Once the buffer fills up the camera pauses and then shoots at
a much slower rate. Using a CF card rated at 60x (X Digital Media) the rate in
RAW mode slowed down to 1 frame every 2.6 seconds. With the slower rated Kingston
card the rate dropped to 1 frame every 3.2 seconds. With the X Digital Media Card
shooting JPEGs, once the buffer was full the camera shot 3fps rate bursts of
2 frames at 2.15 second intervals.
Here are a couple of sound files in .WAV format.
1 -
RAW shooting. This is the
sound of shooting in RAW mode using the slower Kingston CF card. The transition
when the buffer fills isn't hard to spot!
2 -
JPEG shooting. This is the
sound of shooting JPEG using the faster X Digital Media CF card. Again the point
at which the buffer fills is very obvious.
I didn't record all the time spent shooting while the buffer
filled. These files are just meant illustrate the difference between the 3fps
frame rate while the buffer is filling and the behavior after the buffer fills.
Faster cards would certainly somewhat lower the time between shots after the
buffer filled.
Full Frame vs. APS-C
I was initially going to include a section in this review that
dealt with this topic in detail, but I soon realized that to do it properly, it
would take up more space than the rest of the review combined! So I decided to
write about this separately later, and in more detail. Suffice it to say for the
purposes of this EOS 5D review, that as long as you are using good quality
optics, the EOS 5D is capable of yielding images which are superior in quality to
those which you can get from an APS-C sensor camera such as the EOS 20D. One
exception to this is if you are limited by available focal length and need to
crop the 5D image, as, for example, a nature photographer might need to do if
their longest lens wasn't long enough and they couldn't get closer to a subject.
Under those circumstances the higher pixel density of the 20D can yield better
results.
The image below shows crops from the center of two test shots,
one using a 5D and the other using a 20D, upsized using bicubic interpolation to
yield the same final image size. The lens used was a 50mm f1.8, set to f8. The
distance to the target was different for the two shots in order to equalize the
linear field of view (i.e. fill the frame with the whole target set). As you can
see the 5D image has higher sharpness and resolution.
Sample Images
Here's a link here to the Canon page which has
full size high resolution
EOS 5D images. They vary in size from about 6MP to 12MB, so you'll really
need a high speed connection (or a lot of spare time) if you want to
download them!
Conclusions
As I said at the beginning of this review, the 5d is more of a
big brother to the EOS 20D than the little brother of the 1Ds Mk II or 1D MkII N.
The 1Ds Mk II has everything - a 16.7MP full frame sensor, full weather sealing,
4fps continuous shooting, a built in vertical grip, a high capacity battery, the
ability to use both CF and SD cards etc. However it will cost you $7200. The 1D
MkII N has "only" an 8.2MP 1.3x sensor, but it has full weather sealing, a built
in vertical grip, CF and SD card capability, high capacity battery and it can
shoot at 8.5 fps for 48 frames (high resolution JPEGs, 22 RAW frames). However
the price is somewhat lower at just under $4000. The EOS 5D has a 12.8MP full
frame sensor (less than the 1Ds but more than the 1D) , 3fps, no weather sealing,
only takes CF cards, has a smaller battery and no built in grip - but the price
is just under $3000.
The Canon 1Ds Mark II is the clear choice for the professional
photographer who must have the very highest possible image quality is the most
rugged possible body. However you have to be pretty serious to spend $7200 on a
digital camera body. The 1D MkII N is the clear choice for the professional
sports and action shooter or photojournalist who regularly has to work outdoors
in all weather and who really needs a lightning fast frame rate. However it does
have a 1.3x sensor which means that you can't get a super-wide-angle and it is
"only" 8MP. It's not the camera you would probably pick for studio or landscape
work.
The EOS 5D is a good compromise for a sizable number of
photographers who want high image quality combined with the ability to shoot
wide-angle without resorting to EF-S lenses (in fact you don't have the option
since EF-S lenses won't mount on the 5D) and who would like the advantages of
full frame (e.g. smaller DOF). If you don't need super high frame rates and don't
need to regularly shoot outdoors in pouring rain, at around $4200 less than it's
nearest full frame competitor (the EOS 1Ds Mk II), it's a very attractive camera.
Under most shooting circumstances and with good lenses it can yield higher
quality images than the EOS 20D and it's undeniably a nicer camera to use with
the larger viewfinder, clearer LCD screen and additional firmware functions such
as the style modes and RGB histogram. However there are a few circumstances under
which it is possible for the EOS 20D to outperform the EOS 5D, such as when the
5D image must be cropped because of the lack of a long enough lens. The obvious
solution for this dilemma is of course is to buy both an EOS 20D
and an EOS 5D! It's still about $3000 cheaper than a 1Ds Mk II.
Where to Buy
Purchasing through the following links helps to support photo.net.
We'd also like to thank Adorama for lending us the equipment for this review,
please consider making your purchases from them:
I just wanted to note one other thing in relation to your final comments about which camera to buy: in less than two months, Canon will in all likelihood have announced the 20D's successor, which will move the yardsticks. It won't be the 5D's equal, of course; Canon's marketing department isn't totally stupid. But for some people who might find the 20D inadequate, its successor could be good enough that they can save some money by buying it instead of stepping up to the 5D.
So for anyone who reads the review and is still sitting on the fence, hang on until February if you can before making your decision.
I have been enjoying my 5D and so far, I can't see myself "upgrading" to a new DSRL for some time to come. There are two main improvements (IMO) that I'd like to see and which I have suggested to Canon already:
1) The addition of a dedicated/user programmable FEL button.
2) the ability to ACTIVATE AF with the joystick.
I used FEL on my 10D quite often and I do wonder why Canon did away with a custom button on the 20D and 5D.
As for the AF activation: now I use the "joystick" for selecting the AF points (I like that feature, doesn't replace the ECF on my EOS3 but, it's very fast to use). However, the speed gained in using the dial for selecting the AF points is lost by having to first activate AF with either the shutter button or the AE (*) button. This is more of an issue for those who, like me, have programmed AF activation onto the AE button and the AEL onto the shutter button. However, what's the point of having customization if one selection impairs another?
Sometimes I wonder what the engineers are thinking...
ANd, yes...THE LAST thing I want is a dedicated DIRECT-PRINT button!
A great practical review, as usual.
I, too, use a 20D and cannot really justify the $2,000 cost to upgrade to a 5D, as much as I'd like to own one...
Right now, I shoot amost exclusively JPEG, although I'm beginning to experiment with RAW. Some reviewers have noted a significant difference in the quality of the JPEG images between the 20D and the 5D, having to do with the complexity of the in-camera algorithms used to create the JPEGs from the RAW image data. Is this something that you've noticed? You've commented that use shoot mostly JPEG; what settings do you use on the 20D?
Cant compare a 20D/10-22 with a 5D/17-40 because I don't have a 17-40.
However I'm taking a bunch of comparison images with other lenses under various condition of focal length, target distance, aperture etc. and I will be writting an article discussing the general issue of Full frame vs. APS-C and lens quality in both theoretical and practical terms.
Of course it's never going to answer all questions about all combinations and permutations of lenses and bodies.
The bottom line is that 12MP FF will give better image quality than 8MP (or 10/12MP) APS-C, given the right lens. Of course it's the "given the right lens" part that creates uncertainty and confusion.
Even then, assuming, say, the 5D/17-40 did turn out to be better than the 20D/10-22, would the difference be worth $2000? Or $1500? or $1000? That's a much tougher question to answer.
Traded my 20D for the 5D because I wanted the better viewfinder, I wanted my favourite lenses back to their proper focal length, and I wanted to use shallow depth of field again.
I really liked the 20D, but I am very glad I traded - I find the autofocus and image quality noticeably better (18 x 12 prints with 135/2.0 and 35/2.0 prime lenses).
Having said that, I would still recommend the 20D for anyone using long lenses (e.g. wildlife, sports, etc.).
I found a comparison a few weeks ago between a FF camera (I think 5D) 17-40 and a 10-22 on 20D. The 17-40 was just barely better, but so little better as to be essentially insignificant. My guess is that it would be completely unnoticeable on anything smaller than a 20x30.
Not the test I was thinking of, but a little Googling found Bill Castleman's comparison between the 16-35 on a 1Ds2 and 10-22:
I was hoping to see an anaylsis of whether the "equal" noise in the 5D and the 20 was the result of more aggressive noise reduction at higher ISO in the 20 and therefore the pictures from the larger "pixels" were sharper or whether the noise reduction was the same and the bigger "pixels" really didn't make a difference. Unfortunately, pictures of grey cards don't tell the whole story. I suppose that pixel peeping doesn't tell the story either and someone who makes reasonably large prints from both would be the test. Thanks for the review. Jim
I have picked up my 5D a few weeks ago, and I am still keeping my 10D and 20D.
During the transaction, my dealer told me that I should be careful with the 5D because it is not weatherproof, and I should also use only "L" lenses on the 5D. So now I have a camera that the lens is weather proof, but the body is not. He said if weather proof is a concern, I should use the 10D or 20D instead.
The EF-S lens cannot be used on any of the 5D, 10D and 20D.
So now I am very confused. What exactly do you mean in your review that a camera or lens is weather proof. Does it mean that I can shoot in the rain without any kind of shield or protection? Or it is only okay if I got it wet? Can you explain more about Cannon's definition on "weatherproof", please?
Sandy...I don't think your dealer knows what he is talking about. You can use whatever EF lens you like on the 5D, though if it is not of good quality the high resolution and full-frame size of the sensor will tend to make it more obvious that the camera is not able to perform to its full potential. That said, a Canon 50/1.4 or 85/1.8 or Sigma 150mm macro will all take great pictures on the camera even though they are not "L" lenses.
Regarding waterproofing, the 10D is no more waterproof than the 5D, perhaps even less so as the 5D has no popup flash. That said, I wouldn't worry about having it out in a sprinkle or even a brief shower, though I would wipe it off and let it dry if it did get wet.
"Weatherproof" means it will last longer in the rain than it would if it wasn't weatherproof. I don't think there are any actual specifications. People shoot with 20Ds in light rain and most of them don't self destruct (either the people or the cameras).
It's never a great idea to shoot in pouring rain with any camera, but if you have to, an EOS-1 Series body with a gasket sealed "L" Seies lens will keep working considerably longer than a Digital Rebel with an EF-S 18-55.
Since even the fully sealed EOS-1 series bodies and pro lenses won't work underwater, there's clearly some limit as far as their rain resistance goes.
"A great practical review..."-- Jay Nathanson, January 3, 2006
with all respect to bob, i don't really see how a review that features not one picture taken with the camera under scrutiny can be considered "practical". let me go even further and disclose how depressing all the emphasis on specifications is--i'll go so far as to suggest it's worse than discussing the beauty of a woman on the basis of her bra dimensions: a cynic would be tempted to infer some crazy parallel between...
on a positive note, the full frame spec is to be applauded.
'The EF-S lens cannot be used on any of the 5D, 10D and 20D.'
Actually Sandy this is not true, the EF-S lenses work fine on the 20D...and were actually designed with it and the digital Rebel/350 in mind. The EF-S lens will NOT work on your 5D.
With respect to weatherproofness with the 5D, I imagine that it would not be any worse than the 20D since they are almost identical in construction and layout. I own the 20D and have had it out in light rain with no problems other than annoying water drops on the front of my lens element:)
Although I do own the 20D already, I plan on keeping it and buying the 5D as my second body. I think those two cameras would compliment each other well as the controls are identical. I can't wait to have a 2.5" LCD and the viewfinder is soooo much bigger than on the 20D.
Sandy, not to be rude...but why are you dropping $3300 on a new camera when you already have a 10d AND a 20d and don't plan on selling those?? I don't intend to insult you, but it seems like you have too much money on your hands when you are asking these sorts of questions AFTER you made the purchase. Hope you enjoy the camera though, have fun with it.
"...Since I'm neither a good enough photographer, nor do I have good enough lenses, to fully do justice to the EOS 5D, I'll just place a link here to the Canon page which has full size EOS 5D images...
I could have posted "not so great" full sized images shot be me using "consumer" lenses, but I'm not sure what that would accomplish other then using bandwidth. I don't think they'd tell you a lot about the camera.
Of course I did take a bunch of shots with the camera, but you'll also notice that I said "..Full Frame vs. APS-C -
I was initially going to include a section in this review that dealt with this topic in detail, but I soon realized that to do it properly, it would take up more space than the rest of the review combined! So I decided to write about this separately later, and in more detail..."
I jumped from the 10D to the 5D. I process my images with Photoshop CS. While the 5D provides much better detail, it's raw conversion software really sucks. With the 10D I was able to simply save my raw files to photoshop and there do the raw tweaking of each file I wanted to keep.
With the 5D you cannot do that. You need to process each raw image with Canon's software-very slow, cumbersome, and time consuming- and my computer works with 4 gigs of ram. If I knew that about the 5D I never would have bought it. Maybe I'm not getting something about Canon's 5D software but I don't think so. They screwed up a good thing by denying me the ability to process my raw files in Photoshop.
Bob: With 10D raw files sent to Photoshop CS it's Canon's software that enables me to do the tweaking to convert from raw to tiff images and with the conversion I still have the original raw file next to the tiff file for comparison. I found this a great feature of the 10D. I'll get CS2 as an upgrade but I don't think Adobe raw will be as easy, intuitive and convenient as the 10D program. I'll let you know. By the way, your reviews are always the best.
"With 10D raw files sent to Photoshop CS it's Canon's software that enables me to do the tweaking to convert from raw to tiff images and with the conversion I still have the original raw file next to the tiff file for comparison". I find that you can do exactly that with Canon's DPP software as well, which comes bundled with the 5D.
Inge: I must be missing something. Please explain. I think maybe Bob Atkins and I have overlooked something. I'm not being a wiseguy. If I can transfer raw files to a Photoshop file, open the raw file and tweak exposure and white balance with Canon's software I will be quite pleased.
You can't as far as I know. You have to do the conversions first (Using DPP or whatever other RAW conversion utility you have), then import the resulting files (8 bit JPEG or 8/16 bit TIFF) into PhotoShop for further processing.
No big deal if you're dealing with a few images, but I suppose if you're dealing with 1000s of shots at a time it could be.
But as I said, it's really a PhotoShop issue, not an EOS 5D issue. Canon give you a pretty good RAW convereter (DPP) with the EOS 5D. Adobe could give (or sell) a patch for CS owners if they wanted to. They just don't want to. All software makers stay in business by selling you upgrades.
Have you tried using latest (and free) Adobe DNG Converter? You should be able to convert 5d CR2 files to DNG files and then open DNG files in Photoshop CS using ACR 2.x. The DNG converter can be run on a directory with many files and sub-directories, so you can do "batch" conversion to DNG and then open DNG files in older Photoshop CS.
It should work and you can postpone your Photoshop upgrade (although it is really worth upgrading - Bridge and new ACR are really great for workflow work).
Unlike dpreview, in which you often have to read through 50 pages of meaningless technical specs to get to any real 'meat' on a particular review, Bob tries to tell us what we need to know in a practical fashion. Good job.
One serious rebuttal I have to make to some of the remarks above is regarding lens quality in relation to the size of the sensor. If I read through the responses, there seems to be a rather frightening trend to conclude the 5D requires better optics than the 10D, or 10D Mk II (20D). This, for lack of a better term, is dumb. The larger the sensor area, the *less* demanding the camera is one the lens, vignetting and other trivial issues aside. Let's go back to the days of film (remember that stuff?), and the common knowledge that the larger the film format the less demands there were on the lens. Why it's assumed the laws of optics have suddenly become inverted defies me.
The majority of lenses in Canon's line-up, if not all in the L-series, were designed to perform with a full, 35mm, image circle. Not be cropped with APS sensors. I've used the 10D, 1Ds Mk II, and 20D, and continue to be disgusted at what the APS sensor format does to lenses that previously were thought to be world class. Then again I don't know why anybody would prefer a sub format digital sensor over a full frame dSLR, unless you're a bird photographer or something.
Moire?? with some hesitation.. I am no expert. I am orientating and found a test here.. http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/content/Canon-EOS-5D-Digital-Camera-Review/Testing--Performance.htm
I added some remarks about visible moire with the Resolution / Sharpness testfile, under the name of fotox. They must not be seen as conclusions, only things I noticed based on the test as presented on this site. I am curious about other opinions, specially of those who tested...(i never read about a moire issue with the 5d)
Canon should bring a new model for a nature photographer with 1.6 FOV but image quality should be comparable to 1Ds MK II and 8 FPS, but reasonably priced. something similar or better to Nikon D2X.
One reason why the 5D might "require" better lenses is that some cheap lenses show a rapid falloff in image quality towards the corners of a full frame, but are pretty good at a position equivalent to the corners of an APS-C frame.
I've been doing some tests along these lines and I'll publish the results in due course, but you can find lenses like this. Fortunately most lenses aren't and even decent consumer lenses can give better results on a 5D than a 20D. You don't need "L" series primes to see the improved image quality of the 5D, but you'd be well advised to avoid the sub $100 plastic lens mount low end consumer lenses!
One thing the 5D does show up is vignetting when a lens is shot wide open, but that can more or less be compensated for in PhotoShop or similar programs with little quality loss.
Noise? I realy recommend Daniel Bayer's images:
http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=533031
The Images are talking more then works. Regards Axel
Having owned several Canon digital model I can say without hesitation that the Canon 5D is the best digital camera I have ever had. The color balance, resolution and focus capability are amazing.
Just a few questions (unanswered yet) from someone who still shoots with EOS-3 and ISO 100 slide film, but is considering the change to digital:
1. When they say "no weather resistance" in EOS-5D, what does this actually mean? Does this mean "no resistance" like in Rebel G (button and dial holes lead straight to the electronics; the camera quickly stops working under rain) or "no resistance" like in EOS 3 (gaskets under buttonholes, shuter speed dial construction doesn't let water in; camera actually works for hours under rain)?
2. Does the camera (and battery) work at -20 Celsius?
3. If I use it very infrequently, how often do I have to pull the camera out of the bag and charge the battery to keep it ready for shooting at all times?
4. If I take an image with a ten minutes exposure at ISO 100, will it have unacceptable grain and hot pixels?
It's not that we don't know that larger size is better, of course that is the case. But most lenses were designed for film which has no bayer filter, antialiasing filter, and microlenses which cause problems with some lenses designed for film.
Some examples from Nikon-land: some of the very best lenses designed for film produce inferior results than new zooms designed for digital. The new lenses cause no purple fringing etc. on a D200 while virtually all of the old film primes have it at wide apertures.
Now, when the manufacturers start making proper digital friendly optics we can all enjoy whatever sensor sizes we want.
Well, it could be a very nice camera indeed, but the price is completely "out of focus". Besides, a full frame size sensor needs undoubtely, prime lenses in order to take full advantage of it and in some cases, these lenses are even more expensive than the body itself. Probably te prices will come down for these full frame sized sensors cameras, but I think that there are very good alternatives for the 5D, as for instance the Nikon D200
Prices are coming down for the Canon 5D. As of today, one can order a new one for just under $2600. Where will the price be by next fall, just a year after it came out?
In spite of the fact that Canon left me hanging with an FD system in the 1980s, I just might be going that way again.
Bought an EOS 5D two months ago. Just great for reportage, especially in low light situations. Work with a 17/40. Both excellent. NEVERTHELESS... My purpose buying it was to do architecture (50% of my assignements) with the 24 TSE I already had on a EOS 1N RS, amazing lens. I find myself now with amazing distortions (ellypses) and the Canon Pro Services recently told me it was the "inconvenience" of full frame captors. But Canon doesn't communicate at all on problems with this particular lens and generally says it efficient in all situations. I'll have to bring (perhaps even legally) that case to their marketting dpt as 3000 euros is quiet an investement, even for a professional. Camera is just great, but for the TSE system..
after PS perspective correction for wide angle distortion
Jean-Baptiste, the only distortion I see is wide angle distortion. Wouldn't running it through perspective correction on Photoshop be more rational than expecting every shot (at whatever focal length) to be spot on? Or perhaps you missed the tilt-shift. There should be no significant difference between results on the Canon 1N RS and on the Canon 5D, since they are both in standard 24mm x 36mm format. Nor would I expect the 96% viewfinder coverage to cause an error of this magnitude. My guess is that you lined up on the left vertical and didn't see that the right side was not lined up.
In any case, the flaw in your shot cannot be blamed on the camera.
, January 02, 2006; 05:46 P.M. 
