Dish the dirt on the 5D!

hello,
seriously considering a 5D purchase. I think I may have read dozens of reviews. I know its plus points and I have read about some bad points- vignetting etc.
so come on! good points aside what does it NOT do well? (if anything). Be honest.

cheers!

Rhys

the captain wrote in post #3988644
hello,
seriously considering a 5D purchase. I think I may have read dozens of reviews. I know its plus points and I have read about some bad points- vignetting etc.
so come on! good points aside what does it NOT do well? (if anything). Be honest.

cheers!

Rhys

It doesn't do well at high speed sports or nature shots at 3fps, but even that can capture a lot. Compared to crop sensors it loses some expanded range, but gains in the wide-angle department. Battery life could be longer (i.e. compared to 1D series cameras)....

KAC

It's a big move, but I'm glad I bought mine. The step up from my old 300D is massive.

The 3fps thing is kinda annoying when shooting sports, but if that's what you want then go for the 1d mkIII or a cheap mkII.

The biggest thing for me is dust. My sensor seems to get so damn dirty all the time. I'm always really carefull when changing lenses but it still gets filthy.

Just back from hols and was taking pics of surfers - even 400mm with a 1.6 crop camera was not enough. I find this also with my bird shots - the TC slows lenses down (including the 70-200 IS I prev owned)

I would (however) still love a 5D for my wide stuff, but any new purchase for me would have to involve some speed and at least a 1.3 crop.

You know what you need and you pays your money

Can't mount EF-S and cheap lenses look cheap on a 5D (on the image file).

the worst things are the 3fps and dust. The light fall off happens but not often. It's a great camera and imo, the IQ of the shots are head and shoulders above the competition. It was the only camera I've purchased that I didn't think "was this worth what it cost". Why did I sell it? Well, I'm still regretting that choice...

How would a 5D compare to a 20D for portraits? I don't need the 5fps speed and I think the improved image quality would be good.

I don't think that you would regret this purchase. The light fall-off, as noted above, is sometimes an issue but it is manageable. Dust can be an issue but you learn to change lenses very quickly and to do it in an environment that minimizes the opportunity for any to get in there. I have always cleaned my own sensors so this was not a big deal for me.

Having come from a 30D to a 5D I can tell you the IQ is better. Images on the 5D just pop out, excellent high ISO performance and some people say it has better dynamic range. Others say the DOF on the 5D is nicer, especially for portrait work. I don't use mine for portraits but having taken lots of landscapes the improvement in IQ is noticable for me.

Halliday wrote in post #3989920
How would a 5D compare to a 20D for portraits? I don't need the 5fps speed and I think the improved image quality would be good.

maybe 10-20x better.

KAC

I haven't seen much if any vignetting but it probably has as much to do with using really good glass though I do see a little with the 24 1.4 wise open but I saw that a little with the 24 1.4 FD on film to. As far as FPS I've never believed in the machine gun approach and have always felt that training your eye to see the decisive moment instead of trying to shoot your way through which allot of times will actually cause you to miss it is the better approach but that takes time and discipline.

The down sides for me would be
I would like a larger LCD
more accurate view finder (fuller)
a sensor cleaner

Those are minor and the pluses far out weigh the minuses.

airfrogusmc wrote in post #3989945
The down sides for me would be
I would like a larger LCD
more accurate view finder (fuller)
a sensor cleaner

Those are minor and the pluses far out weigh the minuses.
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the viewfinder on the 5D is excellent. The lcd could definitely be larger though.

I find that compared to the 30D (for portraits) the 5D is 60-70% better. I prefer the colors on the 5D to the xxD series. I also feel the DOF wise, the 5D is better...dof shallower on the same dof as a xxD....it excels in a studio environment.

Ssim is right though, you just learn to clean the dust...you have to with that camera.

the captain wrote in post #3988644
hello,
seriously considering a 5D purchase. I think I may have read dozens of reviews. I know its plus points and I have read about some bad points- vignetting etc.

Rhys

Vignetting?....vignett​ing is perfect for me for wedding...and vignetting can easily fix...

It's not good for action but the portrait/people -type photos are crystal clear. I haven't had any trouble with dust on my sensor. I have never regretted buying this camera.

I just shot a softball game a couple of weeks ago and I got some decent shots. I got some well timed action and I really don't do this sort of thing allot.

The view finder is better than allot of digital but not as good as the old F-1. You don't see as much of the edges as I'd like to see. It would be great if it were at the actual 99% mark.