Canon 5D: The REAL Beginning of the End?

[RayPA]

I was reading up on the Canon 5D late last night. The full-size 35mm sensor is here. As I read the reviews and the spec. sheets I began calculating in my head what I could sell to buy one (a late night flight of fancy).

Plain and simple: Does the full-frame 35mm sensor make a difference? Is it a strong enough lure to pull you away from film. Please "discuss amongst yourself," out loud, of course. 🙂


🙂

 

[dcsang]

It won't pull me away from film just yet.
I bought one just yesterday - but this is because it's easier for me to shoot with it for weddings/events more so than "it's better than film" per se.

There are two different camps.. but really... I still have my Leica M3, and IIIc and Hexar AF to keep me happy with my film (mostly B&W). Film and digital can co-exist as long as you can justify it and afford it. 🙂

Dave

 

[RayPA]

Oops! I didn't know I put this in th Polls Forum, but it might make a good poll. 🙂



🙂

 

[GeneW]

I bought one just yesterday

You bought a Canon 5D yesterday!!?? Colour me green!

The good news about a 35mm-size sensor (mysteriously called Full Frame) is that wide angle lenses are wide angle lenses. The bad news, from what I've read, is that older wide angle lenses have a great deal of image falloff at the edges because the light doesn't fall on the sensor at 90-degrees.

The image quality of the FF sensor is said to challenge medium format.

Let us know what you think, Dave.

Gene

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I think it's the ending of the beginning of the real.

When you begin / the beguine ... 😉

.......

Seriously, Ray. I don't know. I don't think it would pull me away from film. Just like Medium Format doesn't pull me away from 35mm format. Some have very strong convictions about formats, even about focal lengths. About B&W vs. color-- some don't shoot anything but color, or anything but B&W. Some don't shoot anything but wide angle. Some don't shoot anything but available light, others nothing but with fill-flash.

An affordable full-frame will be very very very welcome. It won't pull me away from film. It may make me shoot digital more.

 

[dcsang]

You bought a Canon 5D yesterday!!?? Colour me green!

The good news about a 35mm-size sensor (mysteriously called Full Frame) is that wide angle lenses are wide angle lenses. The bad news, from what I've read, is that older wide angle lenses have a great deal of image falloff at the edges because the light doesn't fall on the sensor at 90-degrees.

The image quality of the FF sensor is said to challenge medium format.

Let us know what you think, Dave.

Gene

Gene,

You'll note that I've got my blad up for sale..

Now.. that doesn' t mean that the blad isn't a good.. nay.. great camera.. but I have put only 3 rolls through it in one year 🙁 - that's because all the couples I've shot over the past 2 years .. no one really wants larger than 8x10 .. maybe an 11x14 occasionally.. but that's about it. I can "get away" with the 20D's resolution for that.. and now with the 5D.. I can have no problem at all.. in that respect. I could, probably, go up to 16x20 if need be.

Will it match the type of "glow" that I got from that Zeiss lens? nope.. not at all.. but with the 85mm 1.2 lens... it comes awfully close to being extremely beautiful 🙂

Dave

 

[Flyfisher Tom]

An affordable full-frame will be very very very welcome. It won't pull me away from film. It may make me shoot digital more.

Exactly, there is still some price settling to be done. Once it hits the $2000 mark, I think it will be pretty hard to say no to a digital SLR for color work.

Further, once they take the 5D full-frame technology and fit it into a M-mount body, with correspondingly smaller camera body size, I would be hard pressed to even keep my film bodies (most of which are M-mount RFs). About the only remaining strength at that time, will be the battery independence of my Leicas.

 

[back alley]

if i was trying to make money with my camera, as in weddings etc., then i would have a good digital camera.

but, seeing as how i am an arTisT, i will stick with film...😉

 

[Nick R.]

It's an SLR which means you can stick the lens a mile away from the sensor to have a steeper projection. This may be fine for SLR's which are normally a lot bigger than RF's but until the angle problem is solved Leica-like cameras can only exist as either less than full frame digi's or film.

 

[ch1]

I think a full frame sensor is liberating for all.

First off, most commercial photogs have already migrated to digital for their work (be they PJ's, wedding, etc etc)

So they now get they (i.e. the older ones with established kits) now get to use the full features of their lenses.

And it also means that we will no longer have to endure FID threads. The choice will simply be preference.

I am an amateur photog - I will probably buy a full-frame sensor SLR (when Nikon produces one) to take advantage of all my lenses - but I still LIKE film.

Imagine that - choice based on what you enjoy.

Oh yes, film will get to be more of a "specialist" item - that's why we have "art stores". They live by stocking all that esoteric stuff!

 

[rover]

I am thinking hard on the 30D. I simply won't spend the money for the 5D and if I really wanted it to, the Rebel XT will do well for me. I need something for faster shooting, chasing my son as he does more, and something easier for me to get images on my computer. Perhaps the best compromise is to buy the XT and get a film scanner too for my B&W film stuff.

 

[John Camp]

I don't know how much difference the 5D makes, or the Nikon D200, for that matter (the D200 body-only is $1700 at B&H.) Most people using film didn't shoot SLRs anyway -- they shot film point 'n shoots; and are migrating to digital point n' shoots. One reason that film isn't sinking completely isn't so much that "art" users still shoot it, is that not all people with film point n' shoots have gone out and bought digital yet. Film will be in much more serious trouble when you can no longer get it processed at Walmart. Single-use cameras are still fairly important for film, I think; cell-phone cams could dent that; we'll see. My personal feeling is that film will last quite a while.

JC

 

[peter_n]

[snip]Plain and simple: Does the full-frame 35mm sensor make a difference? Is it a strong enough lure to pull you away from film. Please "discuss amongst yourself," out loud, of course. 🙂

Not at all. I'm already digital. The combination of the look of film and a film scanner does it for me. Personally, I have no interest in this 5D, in the Epson RF or the forthcoming digital Leica M either. What I'd really like is another M7... 😉

 

[T_om]

I have two 5D's.

Dave Sang and I are fellow members of the DWF as is Sean Reid. We use them for weddings primarily.

The 5D is the digital camera I was waiting on. It finally met, and exceeded, medium format quality in a very light, easy to handle and inexpensive camera. And that is correct, I used the term "inexpensive". It is cheap for what it produces.

No 35mm form-based digital camera, with the exception of the 1Ds Mk II can produced the output quality of a 5D file. None. And the 1Ds Mk II is NOT "inexpensive". The 5D is.

If you have been holding back from digital because of a perceived lack of quality in the output, wait no longer. If the files from the 5D cannot make you happy, no camera can make you happy.

Tom

 

[T_om]

I am thinking hard on the 30D. I simply won't spend the money for the 5D and if I really wanted it to, the Rebel XT will do well for me. I need something for faster shooting, chasing my son as he does more, and something easier for me to get images on my computer. Perhaps the best compromise is to buy the XT and get a film scanner too for my B&W film stuff.

The 30D is some nice camera. For your use, forget film and a scanner.

Get the 30D and the new EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM lens an be happy for a long time to come.

Tom

 

[ZeissFan]

I don't want or need the "benefits" of digital.

 

[T_om]

...I am an amateur photog - I will probably buy a full-frame sensor SLR (when Nikon produces one) to take advantage of all my lenses - but I still LIKE film.

Imagine that - choice based on what you enjoy.

That is the way to make choices, based upon what works for you and not what someone says you should be using.

Tom

 

[T_om]

I don't want or need the "benefits" of digital.

Then shoot "film".

Tom

 

[dazedgonebye]

I'd love to have a 5D.
I'm scanning a 6x7 neg from my $50 koni-omega right now because I can't lay out that kind of money for a hobby. Film gets me there cheaper...only because I do not shoot professional volumes or under professional time constraints.
I have to admit, it's been fun shooting film again, just for the challenge and novelty.

 

[Bertram2]

Plain and simple: Does the full-frame 35mm sensor make a difference? Is it a strong enough lure to pull you away from film.
🙂

No, it doesn''t. Actually the oldfilm lenses do not work properly with that sensor, you would neea new type of (wide) lenses to get the full potential out of this chip.
The limited dynamic range is still there compared to film, it still tend to blown out highlights and closed shadows in bright outdoorlight, the vinyl look is not as bad as the smaller chips show it but it still looks digital and it does not achieve the more natural look of the Leica DMR back. And of course the B&W pics aren't comparable to silver film.
This camera is clearly better than the 20d, but still not good enuff . At least for me. And it is as much as a new MP !! ;-)

Regards,
Bertram