Canon 5d to buy or not to buy

Who has this camera, is it worth the money? is dust more of a problem for this model that other canon models?
Any lovers or haters of this model out there care to answer? and please feel free to post any other comments that are important but i have overlooked in haste.

one last thing,
Ok what with all the rumours flying around and everyone trying to 2nd guess canons marketing team, i would like you all to post your thoughts to this,
if you had the money and you wanted a powerful camera such as the 5d, would you buy it right now or wait, i read something last week about a rumour canon were preparing a 3d?
5d is still quite expensive, should i hold off and pickup a cheap 350, they are very cheap at the moment, and wait for new generation of technology, or just suck it up and buy what proven to be an awesome camera.
Ok i have talked alot now, answers ona postcard please

The 5D was announced last October. Typically Canon has somewhere around 18 months between upgrades or new releases in the same class. The 5D is in somewhat of a class of its own that Canon has not had before so they could come early with an upgrade or they could delay. I personally think that it is the latter. In my opinion the 5D sits in the very high end of the prosumer cameras but really is a standout on its own. I could see them bringing in an upgrade if there were big issues with this camera but there really isn't. Oh sure you see the posts that say, "why doesn't it have weather sealing", "why doesn't it do this or that" but in reality this camera body delivers what it was intended to do. It gave DSLR owners the chance the experience the FF sensor without having to spring for the 1DsMKII.

I have the 5D along with a few other bodies. I do very frequent lens changes and I have not experienced the so-called dust phenomenon that you see posted every now and then. Yes, I get dust but I also get it on both of my 1 series bodies, my 30D. Sensor cleaning is very easy and quite painless. It is part of the process of working in the digital SLR world. We will probably see more of the self-cleaning sensors in coming models as was brought in with the XTi. I think that Canon will wait to see first how well it works and how well received it is. Remember when you are cleaning this you are not actually touching the sensor but a filter that resides over the actual sensor. In the very outside chance that you damage this, it is pretty cheap to replace.

You will probably hear how you have to buy nothing but L series lenses. It is true the the FF sensor will show a lens weaknesses more pronounced than a crop body. I have the cheapo Tamron 28-75 lens and it does just fine on this body. On any body, the better the optics, the easier it is to get great shots from the start. Don't be lulled into this. There are lots of very good quality lenses that will work just fine made by some of the third party manufacturers. If you can afford a compliment of L lenses that is great.

Just because there "might" be an upgrade on the horizon (and I seriously doubt this) is not reason to delay purchasing if you want the camera. The moment that a new body comes out does not make all of the previous releases redundant and useless. I know many a photographers that are still using the 10D or earlier and still putting out work beyond the quality of some that are using the 5D.

This is never an easy decision, particularly when you are about to spend the kind of money that the 5D is worth. Do your analysis and make a decision. If you always wait for the latest and greatest, you will always be waiting.

I'd go ahead and get it if I were you. It's an excellent camera, well worth the money. Yes, you will get dust, but it's not a deal-breaker...just clean the sensor off.

I'll be pulling the trigger on a 5d tomorrow, I'm not concerned about a new model coming out, even if one did it's not like that makes 5d incapable of producing amazing pictures.

Go for it. My first and only DSLR is the 5D and I couldn't be happier. I live in the dustiest spot in the USA, SW Utah, and "rocket" my camera once a week, no problem!

Good luck,
Win

It's a good camera and I doubt that anything they announce for the rest of this year will make this camera take any less quality pictures.
You can wait a few months and take advantage of a rebate but for a few hundred dollars, you would miss many photo oportunities.

Get it, you wont regret it.

Yes, it's worth it. Mind you I do't find, as I did when I added the 20D to the D60, that I'm always grabbing the 5D over the 20D - the 5D and 20D each have their own strengths which lead me to choose one or the other in any given situation.

I bought mine near the end of the Canon rebate program and haven't regretted it. The camera produces amazing images and dust has not been an issue.

Since Canon doesn't have any competition to the 5D (unlike the 350D), I don't think they'll be in a hurry to bring out a new model.

I saw that rumour about the 3D and (if it's true, which I doubt) the spec is awesome. However that spec is a little too good to be true and I suspect it's just the latest in a long line of hoaxes.

OK, the 5D. I bought one about two months ago and it's fantastic. I haven't had any real dust issues yet, it's better than the 20D in that respect, but I do expect dust as I use the 100-400L IS lens a lot and it hoovers up dust and deposits it in the body. I do try and keep lens changes in the field to a minimum though, generally carrying the 5D and 20D with different lenses on to save constant swapping.

The 20D is a great camera but the 5D is better, the full frame sensor allowing much better control of dof and the equally sized mirror giving a bright clear viewfinder. My first impression, using the 5D, was that I was using a 35mm camera as the brighter view and shorter dof gave me much better control. The dof preview is also much more usable, again because the brighter viewfinder stays relatively bright when stopped down.

Is it perfect? ermm no. The biggest bugbear for me is the viewfinder info isn't bright enough, I have to concentrate to read it and if my shutter speed is too fast for the light available, I don't always spot it straight away. Other than that my only niggles are the burst rate is too slow (3fps) which isn't fast enough for some of the action work I do, so I have to still use the 20D for that. Also it doesn't have built in flash, again not a major problem but sometimes I just want to put a touch of fill light into a shot and have to dig out a flashgun, rather than just pop the flash head up as on the 20D.

Is it worth the money? Hell, yes

I jumped and just bought the 5D. It was a smart move. I used it for the first session yesterday and I love it. Now I feel like have to spend some time getting used to the settings. I ended up using ISO 800 for the shots and amazed at how well the images look.

Definitely worth the money - but then, I bought the D30 when it first was introduced, and it was a 3.3 MP, rudimentary AF, $2999 camera when it was introduced, and I got great shots from that camera that I still use in my portfolio.

The 5D is 10 times the camera that the D30 was and paired with the right lenses, produces incredible output (whether is incredibly good or incredibly bad, though, depends on the skill and talent of the photographer).

Mark

I love mine...I've only had it for approx 3 weeks but I love it. Tremendous ease of use (at least compared to the MKIIN) coupled with the fantastic photos it gives (unless of course there's user error)...hands down, it's the best camera I've ever used. Though, I already have had probs with dust (way more than the MKIIN) and I am very careful with it (never change lenses in an open place or with the cam on)...but in the end, it's still worth it's $. Some say it's slow but I just couple it with faster lenses when I need speed and accept that it's going to be slower than I'm used to. Someone said in another thread that Canon always leaves something out of an upgrade, so that there'll be a NEED for the next model. I'm assuming speed/weather proofing/sensor cleaning are the future for the 5D MKII/MKIII. I've had the rebel xt as well and (to quote another user) "it's kagillions times the camera" I doubt you'd regret it if you bought it...you'll be too entranced by what it can do.

well there is no point in making something perfect is there, as long as canon are better than nikon i think they will hold off on new advances, you have to secure future sales and growth.
Right so everyone here is up for me spending alot of money, cool glad to know you are all on my side, thanks, A.

A camera is better than no camera. So buy now(for whatever fits you best), and take pictures and have fun.

What's another few weeks...wait...the 5D will always be there for you.