Canon EOS 5D 12.8 MP Digital SLR Camera - Black (Body Only)

This camera is simply great for the price you can acquire it at now via online markets like Paypal.

The megapixel count is still relevant and it is possibly the ONLY full frame professional camera that can be bought at prosumer prices.

The Canon 5D system also allows for the adapting of 3rd party lenses which, coupled with its full frame sensor, opens your options to an enormous selection of older - yet still excellent - manual focus lenses which can also be acquired at a nominal fee. I have been using this system with Olympus OM series lenses, which in my humble opinion, render light beautifully and are almost as sharp as M-series Leica lenses, and they make the entire system considerably more portable and less obtrusive than using the body with standard Canon lenses.

The larger sensor also accommodates low light photography far greater than standard cropped sensor DSLRs and most compact digital cameras - which I really enjoy. Imagine: shooting pictures at night! With this you can, and your pictures won't carry excessive noise at the higher ISOs. 1600 actually looks nice!

Check out some of my shots using this set up on my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/a​damhuggins/


Overall, this is the most versatile and high quality/performance body I can afford at the moment and it actually works out to be cheaper than my last cropped sensor DSLR.

Besides the costs, using the camera in this way has really brought the joy back into photography that I used to feel when I was shooting with my old manual Olympus OM series cameras and lenses, which I've lost since using most of the conventional cropped sensor DSLRs with all their automation and limitation.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I am.


-J. Adam Huggins
http://adamhuggins.net/

For some time I wanted to upgrade my DSLR to a full frame.
Canon 5d mark-1 was the best choice for me. It is by far the cheapest camera of this class and its performance is great. Though it lacks some technological advance (comparing to new crop-models and mark-2 5d) it wins you with great quality -- this a work horse for shooting the way you want and not the way your camera thinks.
What I love in it? Large viewfinder, great ISOs range, nice speed, large screen and comfortable interface. All you need to forget the camera when you take your photos -- whether you are shooting on auto or complete manual.
Finally the camera does not limit your creativity. This definitely an entry point to professional yet affordable photo-gear that just doesn't outdate.

I wanted to step up to a full frame camera but couldn't afford a new one. I went to Ebay to find a used one and saw the bidding wars were going high. I did an advanced search to find a buy it now that had just come on the market and found the one I bought at a reasonable price with no bidding war
.
It's been a great camera. Moving from a cropped sensor the first thing I noticed was that my lenses now show more information. I had to re-learn which lenses to learn. I also learned that I was not able to use all of my old Canon Rebel lenses because I had some that are designed just for the cropped sensor, so I had to buy a new macro lens.

The learning curve to this camera has been a challenge, but as I learn it I love that everything is pretty much at my finger tips. Once I know where the settings are, I don't have to dig through menus to change settings.
It's a well made and sturdy camera, I think that it's making me a better photographer because its not as automated as the Rebel that I used to have.
I just keep shooting a ton of pictures to learn more and more from it.

When 5d was introduced, it cost was around $3000. A lot less then 1ds mkII, but still quite expensive. But now the price have fallen to around $1200 (for a used unit, of course), and it's less then current high-end cropped bodies. Sure, it can't shoot 7-8 fps, but 3 fps is more than enough for 90% of situations, and the buffer can hold up to 17 RAW images. I also found autofocus to be very fast and accurate.
High iso capabilities are also amazing (and as with all older canon cameras it's about 1/3 ev more sensitive than indicated, e.g. iso1600 is really iso2000), iso 1600 images can be pushed to iso 6400 (2 stops) and still look nice with some careful post-processing.
12 megapixel resolution is adequate for all purposes (unless you make very-very large prints), and require less processing power than huge 21-mp files of eos5d mkII.
In my opinion, the main cons is camera's vulnerability to dust (on the sensor and in the viewfinder chamber), which can be quiet difficult to remove. It also doesn't feature any kind of liveview system and movie mode, but i don't miss these features much.
In summary - excellent choice (if you can find used body in good condition).

I do landscape photography. I needed a full frame camera. The Canon 5d MK II was too expensive for me so I decided on its forerunner: the Canon 5D - a heavy and very solid camera. The image quality is superb and it handles really well.

Although the LCD is a bit small, the settings display is only visible on the small LCD on top of camera and you cannot see the ISO on the inside viewfinder display, these are things to get used to easily. I still have a little problem with setting correct White Balance and/or K but will work this out.


There is one BIG PLUS for those who use lenses from the old film cameras: My old Sigma Macro gave me an ERROR display when used on my cropped sensor camera - I was told that it was broken and could not be repaired and I was reluctant to have to dispose of the lens. To my surprise and delight it works perfectly on the full frame Canon 5D.

All in all, I love this camera and I will get used to the differences. Although a few years old, make no mistake: this is a tough quality workhorse camera still used by many professionals. And.. you can get it used for a very decent price.