Did digital just get easier for wedding photographers?

[fotografz]

Jeeze, Canon digital just keeps putting more and more distance on the competition.

 

EOS D5, 12.8 meg FULL FRAME !!!! 2.5" LCD that's viewable from an 170 degree angle,

magnesium alloy body, huge buffer (17 RAW or 60 jpegs), shutter tested to 100,000

exposures, new AF system. about the size of a 20D. Plus lots more.

 

No more "brick" to carry around for 8 hours !!!! All the resolution you need for wedding

work, and then some. Lenses that are the focal length they're suppose to be. YES!!!!!

 

Sold the 1DMKII and ordered this pup in it's place. About $3,000.<div></div>

[paul_sokal___dallas__tx]

Yeah, but it's a Canon. Yuch :-)

[Jerry_]

Go figure: $3,000 vs. $800. Both bodies are full-frame. One is 'new' and saves on buying film. One is 'used' [i.e., a Nikon F5 body] and can get fine results with Fuji NPH film.

 

 

 

Does one really need to spend $3,000 to get good results?

[thomas_sullivan]

heh....you are such a hardware hound ;o)

 

...but the fact that you take such good pics, you're forgiven. You know you have to do a full review on it now...........right!?

[mattalofs]

When I sold off my 10D 6 months ago and reverted back to film I said, "I'll buy another digital when it's 11mb and full frame in a compact body." Well, here it is.

 

I'll be very interested to see user reports. I'm particularly interested in the viewfinder. Will I be able to see the whole thing with glasses on? Will it be bright enough for manual focus?

 

I'm also intrigued by the size of the individual photo sites on this camera; they are big! It should have good dynamic range and excellent high iso performance, right?

 

I can't afford it at the moment, but it's nice to know that Canon seems to be heading in the right direction with digital.

[thomas_sullivan]

yeah, it would be interesting to see a few comments from you on whether or not this new cam converts B&W (post editting, that is) better than a 20D lets say. I love digital for color, cant be matched, but I am longing for a better final B&W from them. Takes a lot of post processing to get them where I'm happy with the results

 

when do you get this new cam anyhow?

[stacy]

I just read this on B&H:

 

"Color reproduction is extremely natural and details are incredibly precise, especially with gradations in the highlight areas. Such processing efficiency also keeps power consumption minimal. "

 

With full frame, 12.8 mb, and improved performance with highlights...I don't know- sounds perfect! I'll have to save up until October :) YAY!

[larry schaefer - chicago,]

When did this happen?

[larry schaefer - chicago,]

Wait! Wait! Is this full frame with the existing line of Canon lenses?

[mikestryinagain]

I believe this happened on Monday. Dp review has a nice short hands-on. There are a couple of things that are inticing, full frame "the focal length is the focal length", a custom camera setting on the mode dial, RGB histogram, changable focus screens, very sensistive AF, etc. Marc, cant wait to hear your evaluation.

[jaimie blue]

Having been a Nikon user, but being extremely open minded to Cannon and excited about digital, my first experience with Cannon is the 1d and I have never hated a camera more in my life. Yes it is a brick. Too bad Nikon cannot equal Cannon in digital. Maybe the co. I work for would consider checking these out.

[steve_gibbs1]

****ATTENTION GEARHEADS****it's the digital age.

 

Your BRAND NEW camera will be obsolete in 5....4...3...2....

 

Really, I think Canon pushes the hype thing with introducing 5 or 6 cameras

in 8 months or a year. It's like they are sending out BETAs.

[john_morris4]

I want to take one apart and put the guts in a Leica M.

[ellis_vener_photography]

And the upgrade chase begins anew.<P>I understand from robgalbraith.com that there is

a problem with shutter lag time in the 5D. Otherwise looks like a fine backup camera for a

1Ds shooter. When will Canon upgrade their wide angle lenses?<P>

 

 

<I>Too bad Nikon cannot equal Canon in digital.</I><P>You should try a Nikon D2X

sometime. <P>

[steve_levine]

Six grand will buy a lot of film.

[Spearhead]

<i>I understand from robgalbraith.com that there is a problem with shutter lag time in the 5D</i><p>

 

It's faster than a D100, D70, Digital Rebel, similar to the 20D, and slower than the more expensive non-full frame cameras. I don't see how that qualifies as a "problem." It's not targeted at the sports/reportage market.

[ben_rubinstein___mancheste]

Sold my 1Ds two days before it was announced (I believed the rumours and was panicking!) I had the 5D on order two weeks before it was announced at my local store.

 

Main reasons for side grading: less weight, less weight, less weight and better noise.

 

The added start up speed, better battery times (and smaller!), the decent screen, bigger buffer for RAW, dial for shooting modes, ETTL II and higher iso's are all added goodies that I will appreciate fully.

 

I have a wedding on Sunday that I've borrowed my old 10D back for, after that I'm undergoing surgery and will be out of photography until late November so I don't mind the wait. I had forgotten what it was like to carry a camera and lens that didn't bow your neck!

 

I'm also thinking about replacing my 24-70L with the 24-105L for the IS and smaller size/weight, I've bought a 85 1.8 for when I need shallow DOF and for portraiture.

 

Marc, you're a beta tester for Adobe Raw arn't you? When do you think the 5D will be supported? Having a great camera and not being able to post process the files (DPP doesn't count!) would be a bit silly..

[mattalofs]

"Six grand will buy a lot of film"

 

I shoot film, but six grand is buying less film and processing every year. Prices have gone up on the new fuji pro films, and I expect that will only continue. Meanwhile, I can't find anyone that can develop color film without scratching it within an inch of its life for anything less than $15.00 a roll, and at that I have to mail it off. If all the photography I did was for money, I could handle this, but since I shoot a lot of film for fun, this is getting expensive. At slightly more than $20 a roll for film and processing, $6000 stops looking like a lot of money.

 

I love film, and I'm going to hang on to it as long as I can, but I suspect the days are coming that the only film I shoot will be b&w that I develop myself.

[jbq]

I love the suggestion of getting an F5 when Mark was complaining about the 1D being a brick. Especially the "cheaper" part to someone who's going to have to replace all their lenses.

 

Oh yeah, you can get an F6 or a 1V for cheaper than a 5D, but notice that they're heavier! Should you want to be able to have a low-speed color and a high-speed B&W film, or a daylight and a tungsten-balanced film, you suddenly need 2 F6s or 2 1Vs, which comes out to be as expensive as a 5D.

 

My argument is as unrealistic as the other one. It sounds like $4000 for a non-full-frame brick was still a good price for Mark to be able to use a digital body, and suggesting a film body is probably irrelevant. And yes, I should have considered the F100 and EOS3 instead.

 

As for some of the other comments: if it's better and within budget, why not upgrade? Look at cars: people continue using them even after the model year isn't sold, after the entire line was upgraded or even discontinued. And yet when a good opportunity strikes you may be buying a new car even though your current one works "just fine" Find me a car with 12 MP instead of 8 (I meant cylinders, obviously), better handling, for less than I paid for my current one, and I'll upgrade in the blink of an eye. Keep the camera as long as no upgrade is worth its cost, upgrade when the time comes.

 

So what if Canon has a mammoth R&D and is able to pull out a new DSLR every 6 months or so? With 5 current models they're actually catching up with Nikon, and Nikon manages to undercut Canon at the entry level and to provide a much more credible lens offering at that level. Nikon also seriously beats Canon when it comes to dense DSLR sensors, if you need to crop heavily the D2X beats anything that Canon currently offers.

 

With only a 0.71% magnification you'd already expect the viewfinder to be pretty bright (2/3 of a stop compared to a 0.9%). For manual focusing with fast lenses it appears that the Ee-S screen will make manual focusing easier (only with f/2.8 lenses or faster, and it will be darker if I read that correctly).

 

I'm excited about the size of the pixels. They're as big as the ones on the 1DII, and if the noise characteristics are as good as they were on the 1DII I expect an improvement of a full stop over my 10D, with the additional availability of ISO 50.

 

I'm looking forward to getting my 5D.

[fotografz]

This is the wedding forum. This camera seems well suited for that task. 12.7 meg gives

you enough resolution for severe crops if necessary, or good formals at full frame. I like

the 1DsMKII and will keep it, but I suspect the 5D will see more action than the 1DsMKII

because of the weight issue. 35/1.4 is a 35/1.4 on this camera, so no more lens factors.

 

As to obsolescence, that was relevant to digital cameras when they somewhat fell short of

needs. It seems this one won't (we'll see). So if you upgrade later it's you doing it for

subjective reasons rather than practical ones.

 

Film cameras? Sure, still have and use mine. They're not going anywhere. Bodies are

cheap. Already have the lenses. That's where to put the money ... lenses.

[ben_rubinstein___mancheste]

Now if only they would make a FF camera at about the same megapixels, but with added DR in the highlights so a properly exposed photo of the bride won't still blow parts of the dress, that will probably be my next upgrade after the 5D but unfortunatly with the way the digital industry seems to be heading (more megapixels instead of better quality), it is probably some way off.

[bruce_rubenstein___nyc]

Several years ago I was assisting a commercial photogrpaher. He said that when your film and processing runs more than $10,000 a year than you're a professional photographer. At $10k a year, which isn't at all hard to do for a full time shooter, digital pays for itself pretty fast. With a camera like the 5D you can use it until it just falls apart, because its picture making ccapability isn't going to be obsoleted before it does.

[aaron l]

Oh, you only think $3k is the cost? If this is your first camera, you'll have to upgrade you computer, storage and everything else to handle the images. As a backup to a $8k camera, not too bad, for the combine cost of an economy car that won't take you to the wedding! One interesting thing about the full-frame debate - do most wedding photographers find they need more wide angle or more tele when shooting weddings? Needing something wider suggests FF is a good choice, otherwise not.

[stacy]

I am lucky and have a birthday coming in October- I'm going to start emailing my husband subtle hints- maybe every week until he figures it out on his own :)<div></div>

[chris m., central florida]

I got to play with the 5D at the FPP trade show last week. As a strict Nikon shooter - I'm impressed with the camera. Quiet, great LCD display, a very nice improvement in rendering highlights instead of blowing them out, no noticeable shutter lag, and very natural color rendition. It's also extremely comfortable to hold (Canon earned the name "brick" for a reason). I'm a bit jealous - but not too much. The D200 is on the way. I keep hearing the tune, "Some day, over the rainbow..."

 

I found the 5D just a bit disapponting in the 3FPS image capture speed (not a big deal for weddings) and I still wonder why Canon left the information display out of the viewfinder. Yeah, you can say you won't use it all you want... but I have really come to value keeping my eye on my Nikon viewfinder waiting for the critical moment and seeing my settings. It helps.

 

BTW, the initial street price should be right around $3,300-$3,500 last I heard. If it drops below $3K, that's a killer camera for the price as far as I'm concerned. Just don't get too caught up in the argument that the 5D will make you a better photographer. Someone out there with a Minolta Autocord or a 10D is just itching to show you up.

 

The big frontiers for camera manufacturers are more accurate flash exposure, greater dynamic range, and standardization/enhanced automation of color management and white balance. Exciting times ahead - plenty of room for growth. Canon has a winner with this one if there aren't too many bugs to work out.

 

Now lets wait and see what the Nikon D200 has to offer. I love competitive wars like this. We all benefit when these companies fight for our dollars.