Canon 5D

May 2006

After using a digital SLR camera (Canon D60) for about 3.5 years, I decided to upgrade again to Canon 5D (after my budge got approved, of course).

Why do I want to upgrade to Canon 5D?

Full frame sensor (I missed my wide angle lenses)
Higeher image resolution at 12.8M pixels (4368 x 2912)
Better high ISO performance
Better camera body (better auto focus, better metering, etc.)
I have skipped a few generations (10D, 20D)

There are so many reviews available for Canon 5D (for example, Steve's Digicam, Imaging Resources, DP review, etc.). However, I still need to do some testing myself to see how the camera performs, how it fits to my shooting style, and what its limits are, but I don't care many details shown on those reviews (like GUI control buttons, etc.). I'll use my test results as a guideline for my future use of Canon 5D. The trip to Olympic National Park was my first trip using 5D and it has proved that 5D is really an excellent D-SLR camera.

Image Quality vs ISO setting

One of the advantages of D-SLR is that their large image sensor pixels deliver much cleaner images (better SNR) than those in small point-and-shoot digital cameras. The images from D60 already show the big difference (see my previous D60 testing comparison), and 5D clearly keeps the trend and improves even more especially for high ISO settings. Side-by-side comparison shows that 5D @ ISO=1600 is even better than D60 @ ISO=800 for all areas (highlight, mid-tone, and shadow). More detail ISO comparison is on this page.

The detailed images shown here are 1x crop without any post-processing. The size difference comes from the image sensors (3072x2048 vs. 4368x2912). Since there is a 1.6x factor in D60, I adjusted the focal length (38mm vs 60mm) so the images captured were about the same overall size.


D60 ISO 100 (f11, 1/250s) @ 38mm	5D ISO 100 (f11, 1/250s) @ 60mm

D60 ISO 800	5D ISO 800

Noise is usually worse in shadow areas for high ISO settings.


D60 ISO 100 (f11, 1/250s)	5D ISO 100 (f11, 1/250s)

D60 ISO 800	5D ISO 800

Some area with blue sky:


D60 ISO 100 (f11, 1/250s)	5D ISO 100 (f11, 1/250s)

D60 ISO 800	5D ISO 800

Image Resolution

Since there is a 1.6x factor in D60, I adjusted the focal length (38mm vs 60mm) so the image captured is about the same overall size. I think this is the best way to compare D60 and 5D for landscape photos (it will be different if we shoot birds/wildlife and take the 1.6 factor into account). The size difference from the image sensors (3072x2048 vs. 4368x2912) shows the advanatge of 5D in image resolution is really significant. 5D's images are clearly better even after I tried to upsample D60's images to the same size.


D60 ISO 100 (1x crop)	D60 ISO 100 upsampled	5D ISO 100 (1x crop)


D60 ISO 100 (1x crop)	D60 ISO 100 upsampled	5D ISO 100 (1x crop)

Strength and Weakness

What do I like about the 5D?

It's a SLR taking all Canon EF lenses (except those EF-S lenses).
Very very clean image quality and great details (as comfirmed by many many people already). It's clearly better than the images from D60 (which was already pretty good).
Full frame sensor makes 20mm a true wide angle lens again!
Illuminated LCD panel makes it easier to shoot at night.
The zoom in image review is much better than D60.
Much better auto focus (especially in low light conditions).

What do I not like about the 5D?

Nothing really so far ...
I may miss the 1.6x factor at my next airshow.
No built-in flash may be inconvenient sometimes.
I need bigger memory cards.
It also shows that my 28-135IS lens is not sharp enough around corners :-(

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