Canon EOS 5D
by Karen Nakamura

Overview and Personal Comments

In September of 2005, Canon announced their long awaited prosumer digital SLR, the Canon EOS 5D. Priced and speced in between the professional Canon EOS 1D series and the high-end consumer Canon EOS 20D, the 5D looks like it will be the camera for Nikon and Konica-Minolta to beat. It features a breathtaking full-frame CMOS sensor -- the first one to appear in a sub-$5000 camera -- and 12.8 megapixels. For many profesional photographers, this will be the only camera that they will need to buy. As such, it's main competition is Canon's own EOS 1D series. Has Canon cannibalized its own sales -- or worse, crippled the 5D so that it isn't a threat to its high-margin professional series? Read on. Using the text or images on this website without permission on an ebay auction or any other site is a violation of federal law.

THIS ARTICLE IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS. PLEASE CHECK IN REGULARLY FOR UPDATES.

The main difference between the EOS digital lines is that like the prosumer film camera the EOS 3, the digital 5D is very sturdily made but it does not have the weathersealing of the 1D series.

Only some of the connectors and none of dials are rubber gasketed on the 5D so I would rate its apparent weather-proofness as only 'very good'. I take my EOS-3 in the rain with impunity, so I would expect the same with the 5D. The EOS 1D series is fully waterproof, with a rubber seal around the main lens mount that is not present in the 5D.

In terms of size, the 5D is only slight larger and heavier than the 10D or the EOS-3. It's considerably lighter than the EOS 1D series, which can be gently considered to be a load of lead bricks. The 1D series is too heavy for this fieldworker to lug around, so I was waiting for the specs of the 5D with bated breath.

With the additional battery grip, the 5D will make an excellent studio and field camera. But SLRs such as the 5D or 10D are not my favorite choice for general street photography. They are a bit too large and heavy for me. I find I have trouble carrying it unobstrusively. My Leica M7 just straps to my hand and the lenses fit easily in a pocket. Your mileage may vary.

The Killer App or Crippled Beast?

On first glance, the 5D appears to be the "killer app" of the year. It's certainly a genre-busting camera with 12.8 megapixels in a full-frame sensor at $3300. But what has Canon "crippled" in the 5D to make sure it doesn't pose a threat to its lucrative EOS 1D franchise:

• Waterproofness/ruggedability - this is the obvious one. The 5D is nowhere near as sturdy as the indestructible 1D series. If you need to shoot in the rain forests of the amazon or while rock climbing K2 in the winter, it may not be for you. Still, it'll met the needs of 95% of photographers in 98% of circumstances.
• Frame rate - this is the next obvious one. The DIGIC II processor in the EOS 5D isn't that speedy so it can only put out a lethargic 3 frames per second, 17-frame burst. Compare this against the 5-8 fps burst mode of the smaller-sensored Nikon D2X. This will make the 5D less tempting to sports photographers and parappazi-style wedding photographers, who will be drawn to the EOS 1D Mark II, which has 8.5 fps.
• Battery-life - the little lithium-ion BP-511As in the 5D are shared with its 10D/20D prosumer cousins. They are rated for 800 shots in normal weather. However, I can state that this is the burst-rate which means you are shooting consecutively with the rear LCD off. If you are a documentary photographer and are shooting, reviewing frames, focusing but not shooting, etc., you can expect less than this. While the EOS 1D series huge NiMH battery can power it for several days, you can expect to have to change batteries in the 5D regularly during a daily shoot schedule.

The Tunnel Effect: My main complaint of the 10D, 20D, and other prosumer digitals SLRS including the 20D, Nikon D70, etc. is that the viewfinder magnification is low. On paper, for example, 10D has a 0.88x magnification finder, but this is using a 50mm lens which is a 80mm lens equivalent (1.6x focal length crop). Because of the crop factor, the actual equivalent magnification is only 0.55x. This is the cause of the "tunnel effect" when you look in the viewfinder of most DSLRs except the full-frame ones. The new 5D has a 0.71x magnification finder (full frame; 96% coverage) which is much better, but not as good as an EOS 1Ds Mark II.

Going from the gorgeous full-field viewfinder of a rangefinder such as the Leica M7 to the EOS 10D tunnel vision is difficult for me to get used to. If you want the shock of your life, look in the viewfinder of something like a Leicaflex SL or Leica R9, these SLRs have the best viewfinders of any SLR I've ever seen, bar none.

Lens Work

I have a couple of lenses in EF mount, a 24mm, 50mm, and 100mm primes and the 16-35mm and 28-70mm L lenses .

I had bought the 28-135mm USM IS zoom lenses because of the nature of the type of photography I'll be using the camera for -- more documentary than fine art. The 28-135 becomes a 45-216mm zoom when combined with the 10D's 1.6 crop factor. This is not quite wide enough on the bottom end for me.

So I ended up buying the EF 16-35mm f/2.8 and 28-70mm L lenses because I got great deals on both of them in like-new-used condition. I'll have a report on how I'm faring with them. I'm known for not being a huge fan of zoom lenses. The L lenses are supposed to be the best zooms in existence.

Battery Life: Canon says that with a fully charged BP-511A and a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens, you should get 800 shots per battery (in normal weather 20°C/68°F). In freezing weather (0°C), you should get half or about 400 shots. Using the battery grip with dual batteries, you should get approximately double this number.

I have a blog entry about the cheap replacement BP-511a batteries on ebay -- check it out before you buy them!

Accessories

The must-buy accessories for the 5D are:

• Vertical grip BG-E4: if you're shooting studio or weddings, this will help your wrist considerably when shooting in portrait mode. It adds to the bulk of the camera, but this ironically balances it better with heavier lenses. It also lets you use AA batteries in a pinch.
• Additional Li-Ion batteries: you can buy either Canon's overpriced BP-511 at $59.99 or you can buy 1800 mAH batteries on ebay for $10-20 each. Just do a search for BP-511. Make sure you buy from a reputable vendor and check the shipping-handling fees, some of them are quite exhorbitant.
• Memory card: 1GB CF cards are now less than $80 and 2GB cards can be found for $150 if you search hard enough. Rob Galbraith has a great listing of CF Card Performance on the 5D, definitely check it out. The fastest is almost twice as fast as the slowest. The microdrive eats up a bit more battery than the compact flash cards, but not that much more.
• Compact flash prices have dropped dramatically in the past year. Shop around. Especially with the 20D and Digital Rebel XT, it pays to have a very fast CF card, so get one with the best speed rating (e.g., 40x) that you can afford. I tend to avoid the "no-brand" cards and buy Lexar, Sandisk, and other maker brands.

Product Tiering

As of August, 2005 with the announcement of the 5D and 1D Mark IIN, the Canon Digital EOS product tiering now looks like this:

The spring 2005 releases of the 12.4 megapixel Nikon D2X does put some pressure on Canon. But with a 1.5x crop factor, the D2X isn't as much of a threat as it could be although the 8 fps burst rate makes it much more suitable to mixed photojournalism use than the 5D. In Japan, the Konica-Minolta alpha-7D digital is a serious threat, but its market acceptance has been slower in the United States.

	Canon EOS 5D	Canon EOS 20D	Nikon D2X	Nikon D200	Olympus E300	Pentax *ist DS
Pixels	12.8mp	8.2mp	12.4 mp	10.2mp	8.0mp	6.1mp
Frame Rate	3fps (17 burst)	5fps (9 burst)	5 fps (15 burst) HSC: 8fps	5fps (22/37 burst) 1800 shots per battery!	2.5fps (4 burst)	3fps (144 burst)
Memory	CF I/II	CF I/II	CF I/II	CF I/II	CF	SD
Weight (Body)	810g	685g	1070g	830g	624g	605g
Price	Body ~$3300	Body ~$1300	Body $4500	Body $1699	B+Lens ~$800	Body ~$800

Technical Details

Canon EOS System Compatible Flashes (professional models)

About Canon

Canon started out its life as Seiki Kohgaku Kenkyuujo (Precision Optical Research Company). Its first goal was to produce domestic inexpensive Leica clones, and it released the Kwanon, its first camera in 1934. Interestingly, they used Nikon lenses since Nikon was already established as an optical lens manufacturer and was not making any of its own camera bodies at that time. Canon soon gained the ability to make their own lenses and never looked back. Nikon also went on to produce some reasonably popular cameras of its own as well.

The name 'Canon' comes from the Buddhist deity Kwanon and early Canon cameras were actually spelled 'Kwanon' and the lenses were named 'Kyasapa' after another deity.

Side note: Canon is my favorite Japanese company along with Honda. I actually interned for Canon Japan (ok, Canon Sales Japan, a part of the Canon keiretsu) during a summer in college and loved my coworkers to death. They keep coming out with innovations that take your breath away.

On the Net

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