kevin m
Veteran
I have the same 3-lens combo with the 85/1.8, too, but I rarely use the 85. I shoot with a photographer who has the 135/2 and I 'steal' it every time we work together. That thing is so sweet, I'm willing to carry an extra filter size to use it. 
Spyro
Well-known
Unlikely to be shocked, I had the 35L and happily sold it. It is good for bokeh junkies and people who rely on AF but it also has very annoying CA, manual and hyperfocal focusing was a pain in the butt because the focusing ring has a very short throw and has no infinity stop and even though it is plastic-disgustin it is also the biggest 35mm lens I've ever seen. I'd take Canon's Ee-S focusing screen and a nice minolta, leica R or ideally rollei zeiss anyday.
PatrickT
New Rangefinder User
I'm not sure if you're a part of the Fredmiranda.com forums, but used 5D's show up there frequently with reasonable asking prices. Great place to buy and sell digital stuff. That's where I got mine!
Rayt
Nonplayer Character
The advantage of the 5D mk2 is that you can use mirror up live view to focus and shoot with any lens including ones that otherwise would hit the mirror in other full frame cameras.
gavinlg
Veteran
Fair enough, though it should be noted that mine has no real CA to be seen at any f-stop, all modern AF lenses don't stop on infinity - they go slightly past it - this is actually a feature to do with cooling and heating of the lens where the infinity mark in the focus will change. And yes it's big, but it's probably the best 35mm lens for SLRs in existence.
I have a minolta 28mm and 50mm adapted to the EF mount. Both my 35L and old 50L blow them away optically. The 28mm minolta especially was a big let down performer.
arseniii
Well-known
Just do what feels right for you... If you ask me to sell my RF gear for a 5D I will show you a finger! In ideal world you would have both around...
emraphoto
Veteran
try a 5d out. i would guess you will be mighty surprised for just how great of a camera it is despite it's age. the only quibble i could come up with is all the affordable, manual focus primes floating about need some sort of work around. can be done but not as smooth as sticking a 24 f2.8 on a d300.
kossi008
Photon Counter
Just don't opt for anything that will make you sell your RF lenses.
I own a 5D (Mk I) and can highly recommend it. I have a digital phase every winter when the light is low (I'm living on the 51st parallel), but then come spring, I'm back to film and RF.
So if I ever gave in to the impulse to sell my RF stuff to buy more EF primes, I'd be a very unhappy man come spring...
I own a 5D (Mk I) and can highly recommend it. I have a digital phase every winter when the light is low (I'm living on the 51st parallel), but then come spring, I'm back to film and RF.
So if I ever gave in to the impulse to sell my RF stuff to buy more EF primes, I'd be a very unhappy man come spring...
bigalbest@mac.com
Member
Depends on what you're doing. I just sold all of my Canon gear (5D, 24-70, 70-200, 85 1.2, 50 1.4 etc) and bought a Hasselblad 500cm with 100mm, and a Leica M6 with Nokton 40mm 1.4. I couldn't be happier. Then again my choice for digital is now a H3DII. If you need something for low light there is no substitute for the newer 35mm dslr's but for anything else they just don't hold up. My opinion.
TheOptimist
Newbie
I recently go a used 5d mkI because I just didn't like my 40d .... and maaaaan that is an awesome piece to work with! I put in an old Contax RTS focusing screen and now it's even better for MF lenses than my 40d with KatzEye Screen and LiveView
Buy the 5d and spend the extra cash on good old Contax Zeiss lenses :angel:
cheers tom
Buy the 5d and spend the extra cash on good old Contax Zeiss lenses :angel:
cheers tom
emraphoto
Veteran
just bought a 50mm f1.7 planar today. i am filing the aperture pin at this moment.
emraphoto
Veteran
Gid
Well-known
Another vote for the original 5D. Had mine for just over two years and it is a very nice camera. I haven't had any problems with dust, but I don't change lenses that often and when I do I take the battery out. As has already been said try one and if you don't like it you'll probably not lose much on resale.
Good luck.
Good luck.
photophorous
Registered User
This is a little off topic, but since you mentioned it...
Zeiss lenses have a special signature to them, no doubt about that, but I tried some out using an adapter on my 450D and wasn't too impressed over all. I tested the CZ 50/1.4 Planar and 28/2.8 Distagon against a Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 at about f/5.6 on up (I was thinking about landscape photography). The Distagon wasn't even close, especially in the corners. The Planar was close, but the Tamron was still sharper, had better contrast, and had warmer color. That was a bit of a surprise.
Paul
shadowfox
Darkroom printing lives
If I were to get a full-frame though, I'd go for a Canon 1Ds MkI that can share the split-prism focusing screen with my EOS 1N, that way I can use my Leica R lens on it.
Confused?
Confused?
Fraser
Well-known
5d mk11 all the way you will never regret it.
Frank Petronio
Well-known
I'll just be the voice of doom and gloom and remind you that the 5D has lukewarm focusing and metering compared to the equivalently priced Nikon D300 APS-sensor camera. You get what you pay for, and with a Nikon you get a professional build quality versus a prosumer camera. Given that the D300 finder is pretty darn good for its size, I consider it a viable option to a 5D. But that's just a skeptical partisan talking ;-)
For that matter, I found the Pany G1 EVF to be as nice or better than the Full-Frame finders I've tried. Image quality is pretty good and they sell for peanuts.
For that matter, I found the Pany G1 EVF to be as nice or better than the Full-Frame finders I've tried. Image quality is pretty good and they sell for peanuts.
gavinlg
Veteran
The mistake that people make with the 5d AF system is stressing it too much. It's all about the center focussing point. Don't even bother with the outer ones unless you're in bright light with a USM lens. If you use the center AF point well, the AF is actually really quick and accurate. That being said, the cam51 system in the d300 is better for accuracy.
I also have to say, I've had 2 5d's over a period of about 3-4 years with a d300 in-between, and the 5d's have been dropped, rained on, chucked in a bag with a whole lot of other crap, halfway around the world and they have never given me a problem. It's even dented in 2 places from a shoulder high fall on to concrete. The d300 I had did this weird thing when it refused to focus about 1 out of every 50 times I'd take it out of the bag and turned on. Nothing would make it better either, it just fixed itself when it felt like it. The rubber grip stuff on the bottom near the tripod mount half fell off as well.
My personal experiences would point to the 5d being an extremely reliable workhorse.
sidenote: If you want predictable metering, turn the meter to 'center weighted' and it never does anything unexpected - basically it'll meter just like an fm2 or any rangefinder.
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Fraser
Well-known
I use a 5dmk11 along with a couple of 1dmk111 and there is nothing between them when it comes to autofocus, the 5ds are fantastic cameras that feel almost like film cameras when you are using them.
kevin m
Veteran
What "fdigital" said.
I have shot an outdoor wedding in a downpour with a plastic bag over my head, water dripping from the end of my lens, and the 5D didn't miss a beat. And the center focus spot is, actually, not much different than a rangefinder patch in use. It's not the camera for all-weather sports photography, but if you're a sports photographer, you probably already know that.
I have shot an outdoor wedding in a downpour with a plastic bag over my head, water dripping from the end of my lens, and the 5D didn't miss a beat. And the center focus spot is, actually, not much different than a rangefinder patch in use. It's not the camera for all-weather sports photography, but if you're a sports photographer, you probably already know that.