Decent camera, but if you've got the cash, go for 1dx

Overall, this is a very good camera. I like it a lot.

There are several things that I've noticed and did not like:

1. Auto iso works great in daylight/bright indors, but in difficult conditions (at night, badly lit indors) it plainly sucks. And there's no way to, for example, set minimal acceptable shutter speed or get a consistent picture quality with it under those conditions. I tried it at first and now I rarely use it
2. You cannot create usable pictures at extended iso.
3. The auto focus is fast, I admit that, but often it focuses not where I'd like it to focus. I assume that they included the face recognition system in canon 1dx to fix that problem. This bug renders most of the 61 auto focus points of this camera useless; I make pictures by selecting a region where I'd like for the picture to be focused. This is a time waster

Canon 5D (original, not Mark 2) - a forgotten gem!

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/

Full frame experience on a budget - awesome camera

Full frame experience on a budget. Pros: full Frame, very high IQ, very good high ISO performance, solid. Cons: a bit bulky, screen quality for review is low (where the age of the product shows), no auto-ISO

Affordable full frame

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.

Great camera

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
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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.