MINI REVIEW/WRITE UP - The King of the Night Time world. The Dark Night. The Magic Box. All names I have heard for the Canon 5D digital SLR. Is it STILL the ultimate portrait/studio camera under $3k? At the time of its release in 2005 the Canon 5D was the most amazing digital camera in existence. Sure, there was Canon’s top dog, the 1ds but the 5D delivered better image quality, and better high ISO shooting for MUCH less cash. Less than HALF the price in a smaller body!

As soon as I saw some of the portrait work coming from this cream machine I knew that I had to buy one, and I did. 3 of them! Now many years later the 5D MK1 still produces top quality images even though the new MKII has arrived.

BRUTUS - (We will never forget him) - CANON 5D and 50 1.4

REWIND back to 2005. I was shooting in studio 3X per week and was shooting many nude portraits. The 5D appeared to be just what I needed for my dim, natural light shoots as well as strobes. Previous to the 5D I was shooting with an Olympus E1 and it did great with the strobes but I wanted a full frame monster that would give me the creamy delicious backgrounds I craved, plus be better in low light.

I bought only ONE lens with my 1st 5D, and that was a Canon 50 1.4 which made my 1st session a huge success. I shot a model in my dim studio with no flash of any kind. Just the 50 at 1.4 and the 5D, and me. Upon review of the shots I was floored. Stunned. In shock. Compared to my Oly E1, these files were about 300X better!!!

Remember, in 2005, this was as good as it could get and I was a happy camper.

During this shoot the models agent pulled out a Leica M7 and 35 cron. That was my 1st time ever seeing a Leica and after he let me hold it I was hooked on that M (why I now own an M8) - But back to the 5D...and the 1st shoot. It was a success and I then started using the 5D and 50 full time.

THAT MAGICAL ROLL OF TP!

I was so excited with the 5D I snapped off a bunch of shots around the house and one of the 1st shots was of a plain old roll of TP. I posted this shot, taken with the Canon 50 1.4, on a photo forum and that roll of TP excited others as well. Yes, that TP and 5D got people excited.

THE TP SHOT - CANON 50 1.4 AT 1.4 - 5D OF COURSE!

Yep, I was hooked on that Canon 5D. I was not too fond of the body though, having been a Nikon shooter before the 5D. I found the body style a bit clumsy, but it just took some getting used to.

I also started using the 5D for family, zoo, or whatever I could shoot with it. I bought a 70-300DO lens which I found FANTASTIC! It had a certain glow to it and the shots did need photoshop processing more than other lenses but it was small, light and had a great reach.

THE MONKS - 5D WITH CANON 70-300 DO LENS

I remember one night waking up from a deep sleep at 3am. I got up, picked up my 5D and soon realized I was sleepwalking and dreaming about the damn camera! My wife thought I was insane of course. But after that, I had the disease bad. It was not long before I went full steam.

I went to B&H online and ordered a Canon 85L 1.2 lens. (Amazing but BARBELL like weight/size) and was floored with the camera and lens combo. With the 85L, I could get super creamy backgrounds, but one thing bothered me. For $1500, this lens was HUGE, had a not so close focus distance and was dog slow to focus. It also missed focus quite a bit which I later found out was the 5D’s fault. BUT when it was on, it was WORLD CLASS. Yes, the Canon 85L is a beast, but a tame beast.

BRANDON WITH THE 85L MKI

SCUBA KYLE - CANON 5D WITH 85L MKII

I DID eventually sell the 5D due to it missing focus in 1/4 of my shots. It was bad enough that I always had to use the center focus point due to the outer AF sensors not really working to well for me. I noticed even using the center point the focus would be off quite a bit. It seemed slow and the new kid in town, the Nikon D200 was coming out with a bang.

I bought a D200 and LOVED the body design and speed but hated the high ISO of that camera. I was not alone as MANY complained about that Nikon as being horrible at ISO above 800. I quickly sold the D200 and picked up another 5D (now #2, and 2006) and shot more with it. I took it out to a fair and shot ISO 1600 in B&W for a night to see how it could handle it.

For some reason my 2nd 5D started giving me issues. I would get a ton of out of focus shots, and I was getting a bunch of dead pixels on my images at times. I also noticed that if i wanted the look I was after (that I KNEW this camera could produce) that these files needed a bunch of processing in photoshop.

Out of camera 5D files are very very plain in regards to color. They need to be livened up quite a bit in photoshop for me to really like them. When I did this, at times, they were the best looking images I have ever taken (at that time) but I was soon seduced by another DSLR at the time, the Nikon D2hs. SO, 5D#2..SOLD!

   

The Nikon D2hs, while being an all time favorite camera of mine came and went, and almost two years after I sold 5D #2, I buy 5D#3 with a 24L, 50L and 85L. I looked at all of my old 5D images and swore to myself that this was the best camera I have ever owned. But deep down I really disliked the body feel and size, disliked the weight, hated the shutter sound (yes, I am odd like that) and hated the issues I had previously. I also knew I never really bonded with it but being the camera addict that I am, I tried again. I was addicted to the fast lenses and full frame look more than the 5D body it seemed.

OLD MCSCRUB  - 5D AND 24L AT 1.4

So now that I explained how I ended up with three 5D’s, let me start by pointing out the things I love about the 5DMKI.

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT THE CANON 5D

1. You have to love the FULL FRAME 12MP sensor. At the time, this was world class, best you can get image quality. Today it still competes with the big boys. SOME SAY it is still the best in 35mm digital.
   

2. The lenses. Canon has some fine and FAST primes. The 24L was a favorite of mine. Close focus ability, 1.4 aperture, and a very sharp/contrasty lens. Others like the 85L, 50L, 135L, and 35L make the Canon system a VERY sweet camera system to own.
   

3. The High ISO IQ was, and still is EXCELLENT. Today in 2009 it is lacking a bit compared to the Nikon D3/D700 but still, the original 5D MK1 has great high ISO performance. MUCH better than my Leica M8 that cost me $4000.
   

SO, WHAT IS THERE NOT TO LIKE ABOUT THE 5D MK1?

1. Its big bulky body is not the most ergonomic camera body around. I much prefer the Nikon Series for DSLR shooting. The feel of the 5D is clumsy, always has been to me. I also did not care for the button mashing required for some actions.
   

2. DUST in the VF. This was a huge problem for many with the 5D. Look through the FF VF and see a gob of dust, everywhere. All 3 of my 5D cameras had this dust issue in the VF.
   

3. Many owners found their mirrors falling off in the camera! I did not have this issue but many did and it seemed like a pretty common occurrence.
   

4. My 5D experience had the AF missing or mis-focusing quite often. I had to use the center focus point only and if I got focus, the files produced were AMAZING. But many times it missed and I lost the shot.
   

5. Kind of slow to focus in dim light if it focused at all.
   

6. Shots really really need to be processed for best color/depth. I process all of my shots anyway so for me, this was a non issue.
   

7. The LCD screen while decent at the time is now a bit small and does not give an accurate depiction of what the image looks like on your computer screen. Not much of an issue to me.
   

WHAT IF I WANT A 5D TODAY? IS IT A GOOD OPTON?

YES! YES! YES! If you do not mind a big, fat body that sometimes will mis-focus and is a bit slow and has a dusty VF. When I think of the 5D I remember with a smile the images it can create but I frown a bit when I remember the body and weight of those L lenses! BUT if you want a GREAT studio camera. A GREAT portrait camera. A GREAT candid camera and you don’t mind the thick body and weight, I would HIGHLY recommend a 5D and 50 1.4 lens.

This was a great combo with great image quality but remember, for these shots to look their best, they need levels adjusted, colors boosted and careful post processing in photoshop or your favorite image editor. The 5D is still among the best of the best for quality of the image. With its FULL FRAME sensor and rich tonality and depth it competes with medium format film.

It is now 2009 (as I write this) and Canon has finally released the successor to the magical 5D, the 5D MK2. A 21MP monster that has seemed to fix all of the 5DMk1 shortcomings and added higher resolution and many overall improvements. If it were not for the size thing and weight of the lenses, I would own one in a heartbeat just on the fact that I know the 5D gives such great quality in its images. These days I like to travel light, but the Canon full frame 5D1 will always be one of the classics much like a D700 will be as well.

In a perfect world I would own my Leica M8, Nikon D700 and a Canon 5D MKII, but I can not justify or afford 3 camera systems so I will stick with my M8 (again, love the small size/weight/quality) - still, to those who own a 5D (I or II) I can say that I have seen some of the most beautiful shots I have ever seen come from these cameras. Again, it is like MEDIUM FORMAT in a DSLR body. I am hoping to get a hold of a MkII soon to give it a thorough testing. The 5D produces subtle soft tones, soft color, and very sharp/detailed files with a lot of resolution. If a 5D sensor was put into a D700 body..MAN OH MAN. I can wish can’t I?

WHAT ABOUT THE PLASTIC LOOK OF THE CANON SENSORS?

To many digital shooters, Canon is known for a “plastic” look with their Digital SLR cameras. Amateurs never see it, and those who only have shot with Canon never see it either. It is those of us who have shot with other brands that notice it. Canon cameras can produce files so clean, so smooth and so full of depth that they can at times appear fake, or plastic. Kind of like the difference between a movie shot on film and one shot on video. The Canon would be the VIDEO.

The files are smooth as silk at base ISO of 100, even when viewed at 100% on screen. All Canon CMOS cameras are like this and it was pretty bad with my old 10D, and I did see it on the 5D as well at times. Sometimes it bothered me, sometimes it did not. Most of the time my files were so nice I preferred that look for the shot I took. Shoot with a medium format digital back and you will see this same effect. Is that really a bad thing? No not really.

This 5D page is what I call a “write up” - I am not a reviewer (but then again, how does one qualify as a reviewer? Is there a reviewer college?), I just like to write about the good camera gear I have actually owned and used extensively. I have owned a TON of DSLR’s over the years, and have tens of thousands of images on my hard drives from all of these cameras. Since the 5D is so old, I did not feel I had to put up ISO samples or full size shots as everyone knows how great the image quality is from this NOW CLASSIC camera.

The 5DMKI is now discontinued but it will live on with the thousands of users still shooting with it and producing amazing images. 

BOTTOM LINE: The Canon 5D MkI is a winner and deals can be had on mint used bodies as people are dumping them for the MKII. Even with its shortcomings, it is a terrific camera.

COMING SOON...look for my 5D MKII write up. Probably in MARCH 09. Until then, enjoy this and my other camera pages within this site!

Also, the brand new 5DII can be hard to find in stock but you can always click here to go directly to the 5DII at the B&H website to check stock. If they say its in stock, its in, but usually only for a few hours! If you want it and see it IN STOCK you better snag it fast!