Canon EOS 5D Digital SLR.....

Specifications

12.8 megapixel

35.8 x 23.9mm CMOS sensor (same area as 35mm film)

3 fps 60 Jpeg image burst

9-point AF with 6 Assist AF points

2.5" LCD

Picture Style image processing

DIGIC II image processor

Records RAW/JPEG images

Compact magnesium alloy body

Build and handling

The EOS 5D feels solid and purposeful, with most of the body made of cast magnesium and grips are covered in a soft textured rubber material. Build quality wise, there are a few weak points which stand out, including the battery compartment door, compact flash door and, surprisingly, the base of the camera, which are all made of plastic.

Weight is distributed fairly evenly throughout the body which gives a well-balanced feel. This, coupled with the deep finger grip and soft rubber coating, makes the camera very easy to hold. I could quite happily use the camera all day without my hands feeling too worse for wear.

Display screens and viewfinder

I was really looking forward to experiencing the viewfinder on the EOS 5D. Being a full frame camera (which means that the sensor is the same size as 35mm film) I was expecting a nice bright, big viewfinder.

The viewfinder is pleasantly big, especially compared to many APS-C digital SLRs, and it is certainly brighter than most.

The positioning of the autofocus points across the viewfinder could be better. All the points are clustered around the centre-weighted metering circle in the middle. The furthest points horizontally from the centre only just reach where the 'rule-of-thirds' area of the frame is, which may limit easy composition for many.

The 2.5inch LCD screen is clear and bright, but I have seen better. Useful additions have been made to the amount of exposure information displayed, including an RGB histogram mode. This is handy when shooting in challenging lighting conditions where it may be possible to burn-out one colour channel independent of the others. For example, when taking sunset images the red channel will be over-exposed before green and blue. A standard luminance histogram would not give you this information.

Menu and controls

Users of previous EOS SLRs will feel right at home with the control layout on the EOS 5D, in fact, if you owned an EOS 20D you will have no trouble adjusting as the controls are virtually identical in layout and operation.

The camera menu system is arranged as one long list which can be scrolled through quickly using the rear jog dial. Different areas of the menu are colour coded, red, blue and orange so you know roughly where you are when scrolling through the menu.

Just like on the EOS 20D, there are two ways to select autofocus points: A small joystick style controller on the rear near the viewfinder, by holding the AF selector button and rotating the dial on the rear. I would love the direct control of the joystick controller if it wasn't so fiddly to use. Cycling through the autofocus points with the dial quickly became my favoured method because of this.

Battery

Power for the EOS 5D is supplied by the same BP-511A battery that has been used throughout the range of digital EOS cameras ever since the EOS D30 which was announced in spring 2000.

This is good news as supplies of the batteries are already well established, plus if you were thinking of upgrading from an earlier model you may already have a supply of spares to get you going. 

Lens system

Canon's range of EF lenses is one of the most comprehensive available. With over 60 compatible lenses to choose from, you are bound to find a lens that meets your requirements.

However, because of the 35mm sized sensor in the EOS 5D, the camera is not compatible with any of Canon's EF-S lenses, which are designed for their 1.6x crop sensor cameras.

This is not a problem as their are plenty of wide-angle optics currently available in the standard EF system, unless you already own a selection of EF-S lenses.

As Canon continue to release more full-frame models in the future, the resale value of these EF-S lenses will plummet, making them a poor investment. 

Flash system

There is no built-in flash on the EOS 5D. Instead if you require a flash for fill-in, or if light levels drop too much, you will need to use an external flashgun.

Prices range from £113 for the diminutive 220EX speedlite, to £289 for the powerful 580EX. Please take a look at the ePHOTOzine shop to check the latest prices. 

Memory card

The EOS 5D uses a CompactFlash memory card which fits into the slot on the side. The following are write speeds for various quality settings using a Sandisk Extreme III card.

Quality setting Time taken to write to card

12.8 megapixel RAW 4.9secs

12.8 megapixel Jpeg fine 2.6secs

12.8 megapixel Jpeg normal 1.8secs

I also timed the delay between shots for this camera in the single shot mode.

Quality setting Shot-to-shot delay

12.8 megapixel RAW 0.36secs

12.8 megapixel Jpeg fine 0.36secs

12.8 megapixel Jpeg normal 0.36secs

The large buffer in the EOS 5D does a great job of soaking up the information gathered, which is illustrated by the identical shot-to-shot times across all three quality settings. The time taken to get the image written to the card is also good, although I found that when shooting RAW there is a three to four second delay before the image is displayed on-screen. I found this frustrating as many other cameras currently available don't suffer from delays like this.

Shooting

The evaluative metering system coped very well with this difficult scene, although reducing the exposure by two-thirds of a stop helps to retain details in the highlights.

Image quality

All images for this review were taken at maximum resolution using the fine Jpeg compression setting, and using either an EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens or an EF 50mm f/1.8 MkII. There are several different compression levels and resolution settings including RAW to choose from allowing you to select the setting most appropriate for your needs.