Canon 5D MK I 'classic' - owners thread

macvisual said:
What makes the 5D/I a classic if the 5D/II is meant to be better..? Love to hear your thoughts on this please.
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There's no equivalent or rival to the 5DC in terms of a currently c. £600 full frame digital camera with acceptable performance (so ignoring the horrible old kodak bodies etc.)
Nothing comes close for good light out and out image quality in its price bracket.
It brought full frame digital photography to the fore after years of only Canon 1DS offerings, even outperforming the 1DS model out at the time at high ISO.

The 5D2 is great and will no doubt go down as another classic, but not on the same level as the mk1 as it has the D700 to rival it. The sacrifices like focus speed on the 5D2 are a lot more disappointing than the 5D1's considering their age.
 
leftcurl;

I shot this today, any better? I set iso to 800 and set colour temp to 1000, used a bean bag as support;

IMG_3713.jpg
 
tis much better yes. But that's because of the bean bag. The shutter speed is still way too slow to hand hold the camera at 1/10th. If you do the same shot and change to f/1.8 on your 50mm, your shutter speed will go up considerably. Although the depth of field will be very shallow.

keep 'em coming (y)
 
DoF can look shallow especially if there is something relatively close but a shot like this can work quite well at larger apertures as there's nothing up close.
 
I lie awake at night thinking about taking the plunge and buying one of these. Just about have the funds in place and just need to find the right body..

Scary times :D
 
I know what you mean - I was looking and looking (both at 5Ds for sale, and at my bank balance) and in the end bought one without thinking!

Never going back to cropped sensor - that viewfinder is just too good and the IQ is so much better than the 350D I upgraded from.

Too bad my EF-S lenses had to go!
 
i know i'm preaching to the converted here, but after second shooting at a wedding last weekend i am IN LOVE with my 5d! i had been using a 30d up till now after switching from sony and been working to build up my canon kit with a 5d being a major influence in my decision to go canon rather than nikon.

my expectations were pretty high before i recieved it but when i saw my images from the wedding i was blown away with them. my 30d produced images i was happy with but these are on a different level and needed far less processing than i would usually apply.

there definitely is a little bit of magic that comes with this camera. i'm eyeing up a second one for the future now, i haven't tried a 5d2 but the prospect of having 2 x 5d1's for the same money seems like the bargain of the century
 
macvisual said:
leftcurl;

I shot this today, any better? I set iso to 800 and set colour temp to 1000, used a bean bag as support;

IMG_3713.jpg
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Thats a nice speaker.

Yes much better. Most of the shots on my website are taken with my 5D classic, and I love the images it produces so have a look and see if you agree.
 
I have a 5D, I traded up from my Nikon D80 and I have to say I love it! I really like the advantages that you get with full frame over a crop sensor and I much prefer the lenses that you can use with the 5.

The current fleet of lenses is:
50mm 1.8 Mk1
24-70mm 2.8L
70-200mm 4L
17-40mm 4L

Plus a couple of old lenses:
M42 ASAHI Super-Takumar 55/2
and a rather expensive: Leica 80mm f/1.4 Summilux (I'm trying to convince myself it's an investment!!)
 
I have some Pentax / Super Takumar M42 lenses coming my way and I am looking to use them on the 5d, has anybody had much success with this?
 
dave_walton said:
I have some Pentax / Super Takumar M42 lenses coming my way and I am looking to use them on the 5d, has anybody had much success with this?
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i have a couple of old m42 lenses lying about, and the best of the bunch is the helios 58mm f2. it only cost me about £10 including the sony-m42 adaptor i needed at the time, and it was my first experience of using a fast prime. i loved the dof available but manually focussing through my sonys viewfinder was a pain in the proverbial. on the 5d it's a far easier job thankfully
 
theboyfold said:
I have a 5D, I traded up from my Nikon D80 and I have to say I love it! I really like the advantages that you get with full frame over a crop sensor....
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TBH I've hardly used my 5D and have been considering selling it. The body and lens combination is just too big and heavy compared to APS-C or MFT and I find the IQ difference to be negligible or perhaps even completely imaginary in normal sized prints and screen images viewed realistically. As the ISO rises the justification for FF gets a little easier, but only a little IMVHO. At the mo I'm underwhelmed by FF.
 
woof woof said:
TBH I've hardly used my 5D and have been considering selling it. The body and lens combination is just too big and heavy compared to APS-C or MFT and I find the IQ difference to be negligible or perhaps even completely imaginary in normal sized prints and screen images viewed realistically. As the ISO rises the justification for FF gets a little easier, but only a little IMVHO. At the mo I'm underwhelmed by FF.
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Horses for courses I guess. I just think that FF feels better, especially as I tend to enjoy using wider angle lenses rather than the longer stuff.

I'd agree on the size though, with a my 24-70/2.8 mounted on it's not the smallest kit in the world! However, my Blackrapid strap does make it quite comfy to carry
 
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Is it much better than the standard screen for manual focusing? Have you used it with an F4 lens at all?
 
fixedimage said:
Is it much better than the standard screen for manual focusing? Have you used it with an F4 lens at all?
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It is a lot better, but don't expect any miracles without a splitscreen. I'm using it most of the time with a manual f1.2 lens. Close up accurate focusing is possible, but the farther away your target is, the harder. The 5D viewfinder is only of ~0.7x magnification and that might be the main problem.
 
Aye, been thinking of switching to primes and was thinking of the Samyang range but worried about focusing.

There's a few sellers with split prism screens for the 5D on the bay, might try one of them.

At the moment my lenses are the 17-40 F4 and the 70-200 F4 so would be worried about darkening the viewfinder too much.
 
F4 is noticeably darker than F2, but still usable in normal light. I'm a bit too lazy to switch to the ee-a to check the normal screen though (;))
 
Cistron said:
It is a lot better, but don't expect any miracles without a splitscreen. I'm using it most of the time with a manual f1.2 lens. Close up accurate focusing is possible, but the farther away your target is, the harder. The 5D viewfinder is only of ~0.7x magnification and that might be the main problem.
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So a magnifying eyepiece might be of more help?
 
fixedimage said:
So a magnifying eyepiece might be of more help?
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You'll definitely need a different proper screen. A high quality magnifier might help, but will also decrease the relative brightness of the viewfinder.
 
Anyone know if there's a way to tell the age of a 5Dc from the serial number? I presume a lower serial = older body if comparing 2?
 
fixedimage said:
Anyone know if there's a way to tell the age of a 5Dc from the serial number? I presume a lower serial = older body if comparing 2?
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As far as I'm aware, if you look at the first number, it's:
s/n = Year
0xx = 2005
1xx = 2006
2xx = 2007
3xx = 2008
 
anyone know where we're up to with the DVD?
 
leftcurl said:
anyone know where we're up to with the DVD?
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Yes I'm waiting for it from DaveRed who has just come back from holiday to find it returned in the post via Royal Mail, I didn't get any notification of intent to deliver from them.
 
apologies Bren-escape... my bad!

here we go...

*** UPDATED LIST FOR THE DVD ***

DAVE WALTON
AKR
TAZ
BREN-ESCAPE
MUMRAR

Although DaveRed has had it since July, so fingers crossed :D
 
Starting to find a bit more time to play with my 5d and had a very enjoyable evening on the clifton suspension bridge

 
I had a play and so far it seems a great camera, and I haven't even tried the studio stuff yet!!

Here is the obligatory duck picture to prove it :)


QUACK!! by magsnorton, on Flickr

Oh, and yet the screen is rubbish!!
 
@Dave Walton - has you received the DVD from Dave Red yet? If you have just drop me a PM when you are done with it.

Thanks

Al
 
Anyone mind if I jump on the DVD wagon?

Ta.
 
Hi Guys please take my name off the DVD list as I have now put my 5Dc up for sale in the classifieds.

I still haven't received it from DaveRed so I will contact him to make sure he sends it onto the next person.
 
looks like i've made a bit of a hash of the DVD list!

I've just gone right back through the thread and made the list again in the correct order. It's been with DaveRed since July i think so i'll PM him to find out what's happening.

Here we go:

DAVERED (currently got it)
AKR
TAZ
BREN-ESCAPE
EIGHTH AVENUE
MUMRAR
MACVISUAL
CMJT_UK
JOHNN

Apologies for messing it up a bit - but that is the correct order now as they were requested.
 
Ouch, that must have been fun!
 
Dave Red - your inbox is full so can't PM you - are you done with the DVD?

Thanks

Al
 
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