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Shooter's Report
By Shawn Barnett

One company has radically changed the digital camera marketplace in only five years of participation. Starting with their consumer EOS D30 in 2000, Canon quickly went pro in late September 2001, a month that was overshadowed by distracting events only days earlier. Since then Canon has shipped nine more SLRs in five years, both pro and consumer grade, and launched a new digital-specific lens line aimed at the consumer line of cameras. Today's current lineup of five shipping SLRs is the most comprehensive in the business. Taking up the middle position is the new EOS 5D, a full-frame SLR with the easy-going personality and solid build of the EOS 20D, plus what could be called the holy grail of digital SLRs: a full frame sensor, previously only available at the top of Canon's pro line. It has a 12.7 megapixel sensor with an 8.2 micrometer pixel size that Canon considers optimum for low noise images; it's the same pixel pitch as the smaller sensor on the EOS 1D Mark II.

Canon is calling the 5D "The world's first premium DSLR."

The title fits.

Categories
Each of Canon's five SLRs has served to define the category they occupy. The Rebel XT is the current consumer benchmark camera, with 8 megapixels, a tight, small package, and excellent image quality for under $1,000. The EOS 20D/30D is the next step up, with similar image size and quality statistics to its little sibling, along with a more rugged body, faster frame rate, greater buffer depth, and features that are attractive to both beginners and professionals. Its body-only price is currently between $1,200 and $1,400, attracting more affluent and dedicated photographers, and offering excellent value despite the higher price tag (given that the D30 debuted in 2000 with 3.1 megapixels at $2,500, the 30D is a comparative bargain).

The gap between the 20D/30D and the two current pro cameras, the 1Ds Mark II and the 1D Mark II N is significant, as are some of the specs. Without going deeply into detail, the 1Ds Mark II is a full-frame 16.7 megapixel camera that many say rivals medium format film. This three-and-a-half pound photographic tool goes for around $8,000. Weighing about the same, the not-quite-full-frame 1D Mark II N sports only 8.2 megapixels (less than half), but was built for speed, with the ability to zip off 60 full frame images at 8.5 frames per second. It is intended for action and news photographers, and is available for around $4,500.

That $4,500 price point represents a $3,000 gap that Canon saw as an opportunity. We at Imaging Resource watched with fascination through most of 2005 as the Canon 20D actually outsold the Rebel XT among our readers. This suggests that digital SLR buyers are willing to pay more for greater quality and control.

But I don't think price point and market readiness was the only encouragement Canon had to build the 5D. It was also the lenses. Canon's existing line of over 50 EF lenses probably saw a decline in consumer sales when the EF-S line emerged and addressed the unique needs of Digital Rebel and 20D customers better than the 35mm-tuned line of lenses, and it was time to bring the semi-pros back into the market for Canon's extensive line of expensive L-glass. The new EOS 5D does that. Its full frame sensor by definition cannot work with EF-S lenses, with their smaller image circle design; and they will not fit on the 5D or 1D bodies. That said, we've found in working with it that the 5D places demands on lenses that even some L-series lenses have a hard time meeting in the corners of the frame.

Look and feel
Regardless why it was built, the Canon 5D's very design cues tell of its place between the 20D and 1D lines. From the front, it looks like a 1D without a big battery pack beneath. From the back it's a 20D with a bigger rear LCD. The big bulge at the top resembles the 1D line as more than a genetic implication; it is bigger to house the bigger 35mm-sized pentaprism beneath and it also lacks a pop-up flash like the pro cameras (this is probably also due to space constraints). The camera draws one feature in particular from a little further down the consumer line that the 20D does not share (but the new 30D has): the Print/Share button found on the Digital Rebel XT and on nearly every Canon camera introduced since Fall 2004 (more on this later). For the lucky few who eventually own both a 20D/30D and 5D, both will be familiar enough to shoot without much thought about controls, but a few key aspects of each will make shooting with either noticeably different.

Grip
Where the grip on the 20D/30D is good mechanically, with a textured and rubberized surface that encourages a firm, steady grip, the 5D's grip is better tuned to the human hand. The 5D grip is just more comfortable while still encouraging a firm hold. There's a smooth notch borrowed from the 1D line beneath the shutter bulge where the middle finger rests, but it's wider and more comfortable than that grip as well, more like the similar indent found on the EOS Digital Rebel (but absent from the sickly grip on the Rebel XT). This is Canon's best grip to date.

Weight
The 2 pound Canon 5D is about four and a half ounces heavier than the 20D/30D. The grip really does help mitigate the extra weight, but there's no doubt the 5D is a considerable commitment to carry around. It weighs less than the big pro models, but not much, particularly when you add the big BG-E4 battery pack / vertical grip.

Expanse
Hold the 20D/30D to your eye, and you see most of the frame, though as an eyeglass wearer, I think it could have a slightly higher eyepoint. The same is true of the EOS 5D, but what you see covers a considerably greater area. Though I wish it had the higher eyepoint of the 1Ds Mark II, there's no complaining about having such a big image to frame shots. (A note from Dave: With my eyeglass prescription, I find I have to press my lenses pretty firmly against the eyecup on the 5D to see the full viewfinder frame.)

The same nine-point AF cluster from the 20D occupies the center of the screen, but it appears to have remained the same size as the 20D, covering less of the overall image area. While we're used to having those far left and right sensors out near the edge of the APS-C sensor, on the full-frame 5D they only make it halfway to the edge from the center, significantly changing their utility. Switching between the 20D and 5D is made more difficult to the photographer accustomed to using his outer AF points for emphasizing eyes in head-and-shoulders portraits, for example. According to Canon's White Paper on the 5D, the outermost points are in the same position as the outermost AF points on the full frame EOS 1Ds Mark II, so here's a place where the pros will find the 5D more familiar than 20D owners.

While on the subject of AF points, the 5D has six supplemental sensors in addition to the nine selectable points. Residing in the central circle in the center of the frame, they are designed to enhance subject tracking in AI SERVO AF mode. In this mode, the camera can track a moving object as it approaches or moves away from the camera. Other EOS cameras have this feature, but the 5D's 15 total AF points enhance this ability. Though you cannot select the 6 AF points, they automatically activate in AI SERVO AF mode, and when motion is detected in AI Focus AF mode (which switches between One Shot and AI SERVO mode when motion is detected). Like its professional brethren in the EOS 1D line, the 5D reports which AF points were used at the time of capture in histogram playback mode, and the six supplemental points appear if they are used. This feature is missing altogether in the EOS 20D (but exists in the new 30D, albeit without the additional 6AF points). The screenshot above right shows the AF points as small red dots against the flat grey subject.

Speed
Since the 5D captures and moves more pixels than the 20D, it does have a slower frame rate, and presumably because the mirror is so much bigger, the vertical blackout time is longer than every other current SLR except the Digital Rebel XT, at 145 milliseconds. (Vertical blackout time is how long it takes the mirror to return the full view through the viewfinder. Shorter times mean you have more time to observe your subject and frame for follow-up shots.) The 20D with its smaller mirror is 115 milliseconds, and the 1Ds Mark II, with the same full-frame mirror but a more powerful actuator, is 87 milliseconds. The 1D Mark II boasts an impressive 45 millisecond viewfinder blackout time, which really is a noticeable difference. The 5D's 145 ms is not a nuisance by any means, but it is noticeably slower than the 20D, even as the shutter speed goes up to 1/8000. Add that to the three frame per second frame rate, and the 5D emerges as a better portrait and art photography tool than an action camera, with a slight advantage going to the 20D.

AF speed seems as fast as any other EOS camera, varying depending on the lens used.

Display
There's no question that a bigger LCD is better. I don't think 20D owners should fret about their 1.8 inch display, but it is nice to check focus and framing on the Canon EOS 5D's 2.5 inch LCD. The greater viewing angle of the improved LCD is immediately apparent when you first tilt the 20D at different angles, then do the same with the 5D. Especially when viewing from above or below the camera, the 20D quickly washes out, while the 5D's LCD remains crisp, bright, and clear over a 170 degree arc, whether horizontal or vertical.

Shooting
All of the above adds up to a familiar experience for the 20D owner, but it also requires him to think and shoot very differently. 35mm lenses that you currently rely on for the 20D  or Digital Rebel take on a totally different character.

My 28-135mm IS lens is a pretty good example, serving as an excellent image stabilized 45-216mm (equivalent) lens when mounted on the 20D or Rebel XT. That's a decent telephoto range that, while not quite wide enough, is very good for spanning most normal shooting conditions, from portraits to group shots. When I mount it on the 5D I find I'm disappointed. Though I've always preferred 24mm as the ideal wide angle reach, having the 28mm back is excellent; however, I find myself having to get up and move around a lot more to make up for the loss of that 216mm crop. Until you get to focal lengths as short 24mm and wider, I find the more interesting pictures are made with a tighter crop, so I end up cropping most of my 5D shots on the computer, regardless of the lens I choose.

Optical quality is also challenged with a larger sensor. Using just the central, "sweet spot" of the image circle, the 20D makes a lens like my 28-135 IS seem terrific, especially in terms of chromatic aberration, but the 5D reveals the flaws in the corners of this relatively inexpensive lens.

There's also an intangible quality to images from the 5D that I've not been able to quantify. I can't be sure if its the L glass I've tried with it, like the astonishing 24-70mm f/2.8 L, or if there really is something different about shooting with a full frame sensor. It might just be that larger canvas. Or the bigger viewfinder. It could also be those big 8.4 micron pixels that just seem to love light. I do miss the pop-up flash I've grown accustomed to, even on the Nikon D200, but the best news is that you can shoot indoors at ISO 800 without noticeable noise.

Foibles
I do find the longer vertical blackout time to be distracting. Any extension of the time that I can't see my subject doesn't help, especially when the subject is a living thing. Anticipation and synchrony with a subject are harder to achieve if they are blocked from view for too long.

The 3 frames per second limit is understandable on the 5D, given the greater number of pixels it has to move and store, as well as the larger mirror, but I'm left wondering why they added the six extra AF sensors to enhance subject tracking when this isn't a camera that is tuned for action photography. Canon has often introduced superior features in cameras as they become possible, even if they don't seem to fit into the pecking order, but the recent release of the 30D does not include these additional sensors, so the anomaly remains.

More improvements
The Canon EOS 5D has a pretty good set of other features that earn it the name "Premium." The new 100,000 cycle shutter mechanism is a nice addition. Canon doesn't specify the shutter life on the 20D/30D, but it's apparently well short of 100,000 cycles. The longer cycle life leaves me less concerned about burning up the shutter with long motor-drive sequences. Two optional focusing screens are also available for the 5D, a feature that has heretofore been confined to the EOS 1D series. One screen adds a grid, and the other allows for finer focus, intended for lenses of f/2.8 or greater. Upon changing a screen, you do need to set a Custom Function to tell the camera which screen you're using, since the metering characteristics change somewhat with each.

Folders are no longer limited to 100 per, meaning you can now have up to 9,999 images per folder name. In general, that will mean that you can have one big folder for each shoot if you like, without having to manually copy images out of multiple folders for one shoot.

A three color histogram display is another useful option not on the 20D (but now included on the 30D), allowing you to see whether a particular scene might not be properly color balanced.

Gone are the Scene modes normally found on every Canon camera from the 20D down the line, leaving the mode dial rather empty of icons. This is a pro camera. Surprisingly, though, the Green Zone mode remains for those who just want to point and shoot.

Turning on the Expanded ISO custom function gives you access to ISO 50 and ISO 3200, which opens up extremely fine resolution shots and longer exposure times when you want them, or else very low light photography.

A new PictBridge interface allows photographers to print an important tool I think many have been missing from the film days: a contact sheet. Appearing with a simulated film background, the sheets can be printed directly from the camera without a computer if you're using a late model Pixma printer (Fall 2005 or later).

Steps forward
I'm having a hard time pinpointing the obvious customer for the EOS 5D. For most serious photographers, the 20D and 30D will continue to serve very well. Those with an extensive collection of Canon L glass will dive for the 5D like a runner to home plate. Many 20D owners buying a 5D will probably keep the 20D for action shots, since the tighter crop and faster frame rate lends itself to many types of action photography, upgrading any one of their L-glass lenses to a high quality telephoto when necessary.

Canon was wise to make this camera more like the 20D than a 1D camera in function, making it a logical upgrade for a wide range of photographers who would have sought full frame L glass lenses in the first place.

Full frame sensors are the next step, so getting there sooner might make sense. But if you need a little higher speed and don't care to deal with larger file sizes (the 5D's JPEG's are about 4MB each), you might not want to step up to the 5D. It changes how you shoot, it changes the measurement of all your lenses back to true 35mm focal lengths, and frankly shooting both just might be a bit too confusing. At the same time, the optical demands of the full-frame sensor aren't to be ignored either: Lenses that look just fine on the 20D/30D can end up looking horrible with the 5D's expanded image circle.

At around or above $3,000, the 5D is still quite a chunk of cash, but it's less than half the price of the only other full frame (35mm-sized) sensor on the market, the 1Ds Mark II, and it's easier to bring along.

The 5D is the ultimate "doctor/lawyer" camera, something these folks will buy just because they want the best. When I see rich guys toting an arm-stretching 1Ds Mark II and the latest L-glass, my heart goes out to them. Seriously, I'm not a class-warfare kind of guy; so my advice is: unless you're cranking off between 200 and 1,000 shots a day as a reporter or pro photographer, or making serious cash on a lower volume, you're doing more for your biceps and back muscles than your photography when toting one of these professional 1D behemoths.

Those seeking the best will do better with the 5D, which delivers the prestige and status without all the extra weight and complexity. Portrait photographers not already invested in 1D bodies will also appreciate the lighter weight and easier controls as well.

Bottom line, like anything else Premium: You probably don't need it, but you sure as heck want it if you can get it. The Canon 5D's like that.

Another perspective
The bulk of the Imaging Resource audience for SLR reviews is composed of folks like us: Very serious amateurs who nonetheless shoot mainly for our own personal pleasure, not having to earn a living with our photography. The bulk of our readers also aren't fine-art photographers, so matters of cost and convenience easily trump subtle nuances of tonality when it comes time to pull out the checkbook. Our own background and the majority of reader interest dictates that we adopt the viewpoint of that sort of user in most of our writing.

But we're very aware that there are other viewpoints out there that deserve to be voiced and served. To help address the viewpoints of fine art and commercial/documentary photography, we've teamed with Sean Reid, a documentary photographer with 20 years in the trenches, who also served a stint as a black & white exhibition printer. As we've shared above, a 5D doesn't seem to make a lot of sense for photographers like ourselves, since we can match most of its capabilities at lower cost and in a more compact package with a 30D and an appropriate kit of lenses. For photographers like Sean though, the EOS-5D makes a world of sense, as the full-frame format and the 5D's unique "drawing" characteristics make it a bargain at it's current selling price.

You can read Sean's own very in-depth analysis in his guest review of the EOS-5D, linked here as page 13 of this review. We feel that Sean's professional/fine-art perspective on the 5D provides a valuable balance to our own advanced-amateur one, letting us serve both ends of the photographic spectrum fully, without compromising our advice to either.

Design

Following the general design and control layout of other Canon EOS digital SLRs, the EOS 5D will be immediately familiar to photographers already accustomed to other EOS cameras, whether film or digital. At 32.1 ounces (909 grams) with battery and memory card (but minus the lens), the 5D is pretty hefty model, though not much more so than the popular EOS-20D sub-frame model, and quite a bit less so than members of the "professional" EOS-1D series. Body dimensions of the 5D are 6.0 x 4.4 x 3.0 inches (152 x 113 x 75 millimeters), just slightly larger than preceding sub-frame models.

The front of the camera features a Canon EF lens mount, indicated by the presence of the red dot (standard EF, rather than EF-S) alignment mark on the inside of the lens mount. There's also the lens release button, a depth of field preview button (on the lower left of the lens mount as viewed from the rear), and the self timer lamp. Nestled in the inside bottom of the handgrip, but just about visible in this picture, is the port through which the DC coupler cord emerges, when using the dummy battery connector with the AC adapter.

The top of the camera features the Shutter button, Mode dial and a small status display panel that reports most of the camera's settings. An LCD Illuminator button next to the status display panel backlights the display with an orange glow for better viewing in dim shooting conditions. Also on top are the Main dial and several control buttons (AF Mode / White Balance, Drive Mode / ISO Speed, and Metering Mode / Flash Exposure Compensation). The top of the camera also contains a hot shoe for mounting an external flash unit. The hot shoe has the usual trigger terminal in the center, as well as four other contacts for interfacing to Canon EX Speedlight flash units, and a hole for a locking pin to prevent rotation of the speedlight. Fixed neck strap eyelets are visible on both sides of the top panel as well.

The top-panel data readout conveys a wealth of information about the current status of the camera and its settings. Here's an illustration showing all possible segments and icons and their interpretation:

On the right side of the camera, toward the rear of the handgrip, is a large door which slides back and out to reveal the CompactFlash slot (which supports Type-I and Type-II cards, including the Hitachi MicroDrive). Inside the compartment, underneath the CompactFlash slot is a small gray eject button for removing the card.

The opposite side of the camera features two hinged rubber flaps covering the digital (USB), Video Out, PC flash sync, and N3 remote control terminals. This picture also shows the Depth of Field Preview button (bottom) a little more clearly.

The rear panel of the EOS 5D is home to the bulk of the camera's controls, as well as the large, bright LCD screen. Beneath the LCD monitor's lower right corner is the main power on/off switch, with an additional setting that turns on the Quick Control dial. Just left of the optical viewfinder is the camera's Print button. Lining the left side of the LCD monitor are four buttons: Menu, Info, Jump, and Playback. Underneath the LCD screen is the Delete button, and to the right of the screen is the large Quick Control dial, in the center of which is the Set button. The Set button in the center of the Quick Control Dial acts as a menu selection button. At the lower right of the Quick Control Dial is the Access lamp, which indicates when the memory card is being written to. Located next to the top right corner of the LCD monitor is an eight-way "joystick"-style multi-controller that also functions as a button when pressed directly inward, used for selecting AF points, adjusting white balance, scrolling around enlarged playback displays, or moving the cropping frame in direct printing. On the top right corner of the optical viewfinder is the diopter adjustment knob, recessed slightly to prevent accidental changes, and featuring a ridged surface to give grip. Finally, the top right corner of the rear panel features the AE/FE (Auto Exposure/Flash Exposure) Lock / Index / Reduce and AF Point / Enlarge buttons.

The very flat bottom of the camera reveals the metal tripod mount, as well as the cover for the BP-511 Lithium Ion and a separate CR2016 button battery chamber. The main battery compartment cover is removable, as needed when installing the optional vertical battery grip (BG-ED2) on the camera. A small latch lever at the outside edge of the battery chamber cover unlocks it so that it may be opened. The battery compartment cover is far enough from the tripod socket that you should be able to swap batteries without removing the camera from your tripod mount. The large surface area of the camera's bottom provides a stable mounting surface for use with a tripod, even with fairly large lenses attached.

Viewfinder

The 5D's optical viewfinder is excellent, providing a wealth of information and great accuracy. Because the 5D features nine AF points, the viewfinder shows nine focus point boxes arrayed in a diamond pattern. (Six additional AF points can be activated through the Custom menu, and appear in the spot metering area.) Lining the bottom of the display is a strip of information reporting everything from aperture and shutter speed to flash status and the maximum number of burst shots available. While I don't have a formal test for it, the "eyepoint" of the viewfinder seemed fairly high, making it usable with eyeglasses, although I had to press the lenses of my glasses up against the eyecup to see the full viewfinder area. (The full-frame viewfinder does seem to have a lower eyepoint than the viewfinders on Canon's sub-frame cameras like the EOS-20D and the Digital Rebel series.) (Illustration courtesy Canon USA, Inc.)

It's important to note in discussing the 5D's viewfinder system that the rear-panel LCD display is not usable as a viewfinder. Instead, the optical viewfinder uses a mirror to intercept the image on the way to the shutter and the sensor. Thus, when the camera isn't actively taking a picture, the light from the lens is directed only to the optical viewfinder, and so isn't available to the sensor to drive a live viewfinder display on the LCD. With the exception of the Olympus E-10 and E-20 (which used a beam-splitter prism instead of a mirror, at some cost in light sensitivity) or the new Olympus E-330 (which uses a partially silvered mirror in its Porro optics and a separate dedicated CCD for its electronic viewfinder), all digital SLRs operate in this fashion.

While not strictly a viewfinder function, the capture-mode Info display shown on the rear-panel LCD screen also deserves mention here. The optical viewfinder carries quite a bit of information about camera status as shown above, but there's even more available on the rear panel, just by pressing the Info button. Rather than the exposure settings shown in the optical viewfinder, this display shows date/time, autoexposure bracketing amount, white balance bracketing amount, processing parameter setting, image review status, image review time, color temperature setting (if selected), ISO speed, auto rotate status, auto power off time, flash exposure compensation amount, and megabytes of remaining memory card capacity. Between this screen, the optical viewfinder display, and the LCD data readout on the camera's top, the 5D provides a lot of information.

Optics

The Canon EOS 5D accepts Canon's standard EF lenses, but is not compatible with the newer EF-S lenses, designed for cameras with smaller sensors. Key features of the Canon EF lenses are the exceptionally fast, silent "ultrasonic" focusing mechanism (a coreless motor built into the lens body itself) found on some models, and the exceptional range of optically stabilized models that permit hand-holding way beyond light levels that would normally require the use of a tripod. Unlike most digital SLRs, the sensor in the EOS 5D is about the same size as a 35mm film frame. This means that the "effective" focal length of your lenses will actually be the same as their normal values on 35mm cameras. Great news for anyone who already has a nice collection of Canon EF lenses, particularly if they favor a really wide-angle photography.

As we noted earlier though, the full-frame digital sensor imposes much more stringent requirements on lens quality than do the smaller APS-C sized sensors used in the EOS-20D and Digital Rebel cameras. Most lenses have a harder time producing crisp, distortion-free images near the edges of their image circles than they do near the center of the frame. This means that digital SLRs with sub-frame sensors use only the "sweet spot" in the center of the frame when they're paired with a lens designed for full-frame coverage, resulting in better image quality than might normally be associated with the lens. The Canon 5D has no such luxury though, as its high resolution digital sensor goes right out to the edges of the 35mm frame. The large physical size and high resolution of the 5D's digital sensor combine to create a real torture test for lenses. If a lens has the slightest tendency towards softness, chromatic aberration or distortion in the corners of the 35mm frame, the 5D's sensor is going to make the optics' shortcomings glaringly obvious. It's worth repeating: The Canon EOS-5D is not the camera to buy if you don't also have the budget necessary to acquire absolutely first-rate lenses.

The 5D has an autofocus system with nine main sensors, arrayed in a diamond pattern in the center of the frame. You can manually select which of these you want the camera to pay attention to (handy for off-center subjects), or you can let the camera decide. When it's operating in automatic AF mode, it will use the sensor corresponding to the part of the subject closest to the camera. The 5D's AF system operates in One Shot, AI Focus, or AI Servo AF modes. One Shot mode simply sets focus for each individual shot, while AI Servo AF tracks the subject as it moves. Through the Custom settings menu, you can expand the 5D's AF point selection area for AI Servo AF mode, and add six invisible AF points within the spot metering circle. Essentially, you'll have seven AF points tracking a moving subject instead of only one, which is very useful for erratic movements. AI Focus AF automatically flips between One Shot and AI Servo AF modes, depending on the subject. The 5D also offers what Canon terms "Predictive AF," which basically calculates the rate at which a subject is approaching or receding from the camera, and then accurately focuses based on the subject's predicted position. (A feature that sports photographers will no doubt appreciate.) Manual focus is also available with any Canon EF lenses, simply by sliding the AF/MF switch on the lens barrel.

Full-frame vs APS-C: How big a difference?

We mentioned above that the full-frame sensor of the 5D (or for that matter of the 1Ds Mark II) is much more demanding of lenses used with it. This should be very much a factor in deciding between a high-performance sub-frame camera (like the Canon EOS-30D or Nikon D200) and a full-frame model like the Canon 5D. While you can certainly use any lens with a full-frame image circle on the 5D, it's going to be merciless in showing off the faults of lesser optics, particularly in the corners of the frame. If you really care about image quality (and you probably do, or you wouldn't be considering spending the amount of money a 5D commands), buying a 5D will also amount to a commitment to buying and using only the best (and therefore most expensive) lenses with it. In the Canon line, this means "L" glass, and in fact Canon themselves recommend only L-series lenses for use with their full-frame d-SLRs, the 5D included. If you plan on owning more than one or two lenses, the cost of the glass to support the 5D's capabilities will ultimately far outstrip the cost of the camera.

Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L on 20D (Click to view full results)

Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L on 5D (Click to view full results)

To see what we're talking about here, the images at right are links to interactive lens-sharpness viewers, as seen on our sister site, SLRgear.com. Clicking on either image will launch an interactive viewer in a separate window. Based on data from hundreds of test shots in our lab, the 3-D graphs plot lens blur across the frame, at a range of focal lengths and apertures. - You can adjust the focal length and aperture with sliders on the viewers, to see how the sharpness varies with different settings. Both viewers show the same lens (the excellent Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L), the only difference being the camera they're being used on. The viewer on top shows results measured on an EOS-20D body, the viewer on the bottom shows the results with an EOS-5D.

This is a truly excellent lens by any measure, but on the 20D it's simply outstanding, delivering extremely sharp images across the full image area from 24-50mm, finally softening a bit its maximum focal length of 70mm. While still very good, results on the 5D aren't nearly as good in the corners of the frame, particularly at 24 and 70mm. Now keep in mind that this is a lens that's currently (early 2006) retailing for around $1,200. Typical $300-500 zooms are going to look much, much worse.

There's also the matter of bulk when considering lenses for a full-frame d-SLR. The 24-72mm f/2.8 L optic we've just been discussing is a huge, heavy hunk of glass. The reduced image circle of cameras like the 30D and Rebel series allows lenses to be made much smaller for similar optical characteristics. Canon themselves have been steadily rolling out more and more EF-S lenses over the last couple of years, and it seems very likely that they'll continue to do so. Third-party makers are also jumping on the reduced image-circle bandwagon, with Sigma being particularly aggressive in this area. - And a smaller image circle doesn't necessarily imply low-quality glass either: Canon's little 10-20mm super-wide angle EF-S lens is absolutely top-notch in its performance.

Of course, there are other advantages of the larger image sensor, namely higher resolution without paying a noise penalty for smaller sensor pixels in the process. The larger sensor also has a 1:1 crop factor, so if you currently own a number of wide-angle lenses, they'll continue to take in their full field of view on the 5D body. (Not to belabor the point though, but you could also purchase a 30D and the Canon 10-20mm EF-S super-wide zoom, for considerably less than the cost of the 5D body alone.)

Exposure

Like the rest of the EOS line of digital SLRs, the 5D provides as little or as much exposure control as you could want. Standard exposure modes include the usual Program AE (shiftable), Aperture-Priority, Shutter-Priority, and full Manual modes, as well as Bulb and Custom modes. The full Auto mode takes over all camera functions, turning the 5D into a very simple point and shoot camera, albeit a very capable one. Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority modes work much the same as on any other camera, allowing you to adjust one exposure variable while the camera selects the other for the best exposure. A Custom menu setting enables a "safety shift" option, which automatically adjusts the primary variable (aperture or shutter speed) in Av or Tv modes, if the setting you've selected won't permit a good exposure under the current lighting conditions. This could come into play if you were shooting in shutter-priority mode to achieve a motion-blur effect, but the light suddenly got brighter, pushing the required aperture value beyond what the lens could provide. In this situation, the camera would automatically boost the shutter speed the minimum amount needed to achieve a good exposure. Program mode keeps both variables under automatic control, though you can "shift" the exposure bias toward faster or slower shutter speeds or larger or smaller lens apertures by turning the Main dial. As you'd expect, Manual mode gives you control over both aperture and shutter speed simultaneously. The Bulb exposure mode continues the full manual exposure control, but allows the shutter to remain open as long as 999 seconds. Finally, Custom mode simply accesses a set of presaved camera settings, saved through the Register Camera Settings option of the record menu.

While the 5D doesn't offer the traditional preset Scene modes seen so frequently on other digital cameras, it does feature a Picture Style menu option, that accesses a series of preset shooting parameters. You can choose between Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Neutral, Faithful, and Monochrome modes, or save up to three sets of custom settings (with predetermined sharpness, contrast, color saturation, and color tone settings). Most of these are pretty self-explanatory, but the Faithful option deserves some further explanation. In Faithful mode, the camera automatically corrects color on subjects photographed under a color temperature of 5,200K. (A slightly warmer color balance than that of "standard" daylight.) In this mode then, the color balance will be referenced (more or less) to daylight, preserving the color cast of the scene illumination. (Very handy for preserving light color in shots captured at dawn or sunset, or under colored artificial lighting.) Under the Monochrome option you have access to sharpness and contrast adjustments, but Filter and Toning effect options are added. In this mode, Filter Effects offers yellow, orange, red, and green enhancements, similar to putting a colored filter over a lens when shooting black and white film. The Toning Effect lets you tone an image sepia, blue, purple, or green.

Commonplace on Canon's high-end EOS SLRs is an ISO expansion option, which increases the 5D's maximum ISO speed to 3,200 and drops the minimum speed to 50. Alternatively, you can adjust the ISO from 100 to 1,600 in one-third-stop increments, or select an Auto setting. For adjusting the exposure, the 5D's Exposure Compensation setting increases or decreases overall exposure from +/-2 EV in either one-half or one-third EV increments. The default step size is 1/2 EV, but you can set an increment of 1/3 EV via the camera's Custom menu. (Frankly, I've always found that one-third EV compensation is just about ideal for digital cameras. One-half EV steps are just too broad to set critical highlight exposures accurately.) Automatic exposure bracketing on the EOS 5D lets you set the total exposure variation (across three shots) at anywhere from +/- 1/2 or 1/3 EV all the way up to +/- 2 EV. The nice part is that the automatic variation is centered around whatever level of manual exposure compensation you have dialed in. Thus, you could set positive compensation of 0.7EV, and then have the camera give you a variation of +/- 2/3 EV around that point. Whatever EV step size is set through Custom menu also sets the bracketing step size.

I really like the amount of information the 5D gives you about its exposure, not only in terms of the settings it's using, but in the form of feedback on how pictures you've captured turned out. In capture mode, pressing the "Info" button shows the very detailed display shown at right, listing the current status of essentially all the image-related settings.

In Playback mode, you can select an "Info" display mode when viewing captured images on the rear-panel LCD screen, which produces the display shown at right. Notable here is that you not only can see all the exposure parameters, but you get excellent feedback on the tonal range of the image itself. One form of feedback is the histogram display at upper right, which shows how the tonal values are distributed within the image. Histogram displays are useful for directly seeing how the overall exposure turned out in an image, but I've found them to be of limited usefulness for making critical judgments about highlight exposure.

Digital cameras need to be exposed more or less like slide film, in that you need to zealously protect your highlight detail. Once you've hit the limit of what the sensor can handle, the image "clips" and all detail is lost in the highlight areas. The problem is that it's quite common for critical highlights to occupy only a very small percentage of the overall image area. Because they correspond to such a small percentage of the total image pixels, the peak at 100 percent brightness can be very hard to distinguish in the histogram display. To handle such situations, the 5D blinks any pixels that are 100 percent white on its screen, alternating them between black and white. This makes localized overexposure problems leap out at you, making it very easy to control the critical highlight exposure precisely. (The sample image shown in the display above right is a pathological example, chosen to show how the feature works. In practice, you'd probably never overexpose an image that badly.)


A particularly nice feature of the Canon 5D's histogram display is the option to show separate red, green, and blue histograms, as shown at right. This can give you further insight into what's going on with an image's exposure, and is particularly helpful with strongly colored subjects, where you may be able to see saturation of an individual color channel that might not be discernible in the brightness-only histogram. The separate RGB curves can also help in judging overall color balance.


Besides the above-mentioned exposure information and feedback, the 5D's playback options include a thumbnail index display, normal full-frame viewing of captured images, and a zoomed view, as shown at right. There's also a "jump" mode, activated via the Jump button on the rear panel of the camera. Jump mode lets you very quickly move through images stored on the memory card, jumping 10 shots at a time. The EOS 5D's image playback can be zoomed in very small steps anywhere from 2-10x. Once you've zoomed in at any level, you can scroll the zoomed window all around the image area, using the rear-panel multi-controller joystick.

Another feature deserving comment is the Canon 5D's separation of the autoexposure and autofocus lock functions. In consumer-level digital cameras, half-pressing the Shutter button locks exposure and focus simultaneously. You can use this to deal with an off-center subject by pointing the camera at the subject, locking exposure and focus, and then reframing the picture before finally snapping the shutter. The only problem is that you sometimes need to perform a more radical recomposition of the subject in order to determine the proper exposure. For instance, you may want to zoom in on the subject, grab an exposure setting, and then zoom back out before taking the picture. Situations like that require locking the exposure independently of the focusing, and the 5D provides for just such eventualities by way of a separate AE lock button on the back of the camera, right under your right thumb. (The "*" button.) A very handy feature indeed, for those times you need it.

The EOS 5D offers a full range of White Balance settings, including six presets, an Auto setting, Custom setting, and Kelvin temperature setting. The six presets include Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, and Flash. The Custom setting bases color balance on a previous exposure, meaning you can snap an image of a gray card and base the color temperature on that image. The Kelvin temperature setting lets you get even more specific, and offers a range of temperatures from 2,800 to 10,000 degrees Kelvin.

One of the 5D's more unique features is its two-dimensional White Balance Shift/Bracket control. Conventional white balance "tweak" adjustments are generally limited to adding blue or red, or perhaps just shifting a color temperature setting that's calibrated in units of degrees Kelvin. The problem is that controls of this sort treat color as if were a one-dimensional entity, when it's really three-dimensional in nature. I've often been frustrated when trying to adjust a camera's color balance, for instance wanting to shift it toward green, when the camera offers options of only blue or red.

On the 5D, Canon offers a two dimensional adjustment for tweaking white balance, as shown above right. The current color balance is represented by a white cursor floating in a grid representing color space. Moving the cursor up or down results in a shift toward green or magenta respectively, while moving it left or right produces a shift toward yellow or blue. Each adjustment step in the yellow/blue direction corresponds to five mireds worth of color conversion filter, and green/magenta steps are of a similar magnitude, although the green/magenta axis doesn't translate to the color-temperature shift units of mireds.

At first glance, you'd think that a two-dimensional color adjustment tool still wouldn't cover a three-dimensional color space, Canon's approach actually does just that. To understand the control, it's important to remember that color (hue and saturation, as opposed to brightness) in an RGB image is determined by the relative amounts of red, green, and blue present, not necessarily by the absolute values of each color channel. The 5D's color shift display lets you control the green channel with either positive (green) or negative (magenta) adjustments, and the blue channel with either positive (blue) or negative (yellow) adjustments. By adjusting two of the three color channels up or down, the relative amounts of all three channels can be controlled. I suspect that the actual operation on the file is more complex than we've been discussing, but one way of looking at it would be to consider the red channel to be fixed and the blue and green channels to be adjustable against the constant red level. Canon's color adjustment tool thus lets you dial in any white balance shift you'd like to make, even though it's only a two-axis control.

"But wait, there's more!" (To steal a line from TV infomercials.) The Bracketing aspect of the White Balance/Bracketing control comes into play when you turn the Quick Control Dial right. This expands the single cursor dot into a horizontal row of three dots, with slightly variable spacing. These represent the successive color values that will be used for a set of three shots that bracket the white balance. You can thus set whatever basic color balance you want, and then bracket with more or less red, or more or less blue, depending on where you are in the color space. Not enough? Turning the quick dial back left switches the set of three dots from a horizontal to a vertical array, letting you bracket with more or less green/magenta, rather than red or blue.

About the only possible remaining option would be the ability to rotate the set of three dots to arbitrary angles, but I guess the Canon engineers had to stop somewhere. Regardless, the EOS 5D's white balance adjustment control goes far beyond anything we've seen on any non-Canon digital cameras, regardless of price point. (The same color control first appeared on the Canon EOS-20D and is also found on the new EOS-30D.)

Low Light Capability & Image Noise Performance
The EOS 5D offers a Bulb exposure setting for very long exposures (B on the Mode dial). Normally, exposure times are limited to a maximum of 30 seconds in Aperture- or Shutter-Priority modes, but in Manual mode, you can expose for as long as 999 seconds by selecting Bulb mode and holding down the Shutter button for as long as you want the shutter to remain open. Obviously, 999-second exposures aren't a practical reality, as sensor noise will totally swamp the signal long before that point is reached, but the 5D does seem quite able to take very long exposures with very little image noise resulting.

A full discussion of image sensor noise is beyond the scope of this review, but the simple story is that the most obvious and objectionable noise you'll see in long digital camera exposures is so-called "fixed pattern" noise, caused by variations in "dark current" between sensor pixels. "Dark current" is just what it sounds like. Current (a signal) appears even when the sensor isn't being exposed to light. When you look at a long time exposure shot with a digital camera, you'll often see very bright pixels, where minor manufacturing defects have resulted in unusually high "dark current" levels. Often called "hot pixels," these flecks of color are very distracting visually.

The normal way to deal with hot pixels is to take an exposure with the camera's shutter closed, immediately after shooting the subject. If this "dark frame" is exposed for the same time as the subject was, you can largely eliminate the hot pixel problem by subtracting the dark frame information from the actual exposure. In practice, this works fairly well, but has the disadvantage that you have to wait for the dark frame exposure to be taken, requiring an appreciable amount of time in the case of long time exposures. (If you shot a one-minute exposure for the photo itself, you'll have to wait another minute for the dark frame exposure to be made.)

While most other high-end digital cameras on the market use a dark frame subtraction method to deal with image noise, previous d-SLRs using Canon's CMOS sensor technology apparently did something quite different, as there was very little delay between the end of the primary exposure and the writing of the image file to the memory card. There was clearly no "dark frame" exposure involved. I suspect that this advanced noise reduction processing was another consequence of the "active pixel" CMOS technology Canon developed internally. Having active circuitry associated with each pixel in the sensor array allows lots of fancy processing that would be impossible otherwise, and it looks like Canon's noise reduction system takes advantage of this.

In the EOS-5D though, while apparently still using the sophisticated on-chip noise reduction processing we first saw in the 10D, Canon has also included an option for conventional dark-frame subtraction as well. Accessed via Custom Function 02, the "Long exposure noise reduction" seems to operate just the same as dark-frame subtraction on other cameras we've seen it on. The difference with the 5D though, is that there's precious little image noise to be subtracted out, at least at exposure times of 30 seconds or less, where I did essentially all my low-light shooting. I can imagine the dark-frame subtraction option being useful for astronomers doing 5-minute exposures with the 5D, but it will add little to most users' image quality. (I did try a pair of 10-minute exposures with the 5D, one with long-exposure noise reduction turned on, the other with it off, and there was definitely a noticeable improvement with it enabled. It's sure a long time to wait for the camera to come back to you though, when you're waiting for a 10-minute dark-frame exposure to complete!)

Flash

The EOS 5D does not offer a built-in flash, but instead features a top-mounted hot-shoe and a PC sync terminal. The 5D uses E-TTL II control for compatible external flashes (according to Canon this includes the earlier 550EX flash, as well as the current 580EX), a new standard that promises better, more balanced exposures. Custom Function 14 turns this mode off and returns to an average metering system.

Another nice touch is the Flash Exposure Lock button, which fires the flash under manual control before the actual exposure, to determine the proper exposure setting. This struck me as very handy, akin to the more conventional autoexposure lock function for handling difficult ambient lighting conditions. A Flash Exposure Compensation feature controls the flash exposure +/- 2 stops in 1/2 or 1/3-stop increments.

Several of the more impressive features of the Canon flash system depend on the dedicated 550EX or 580EX speedlight. Among these are true FP (focal plane) flash sync, flash exposure bracketing with external flash units, flash modeling, and E-TTL II exposure control. FP sync requires a flash unit to provide uniform light output for a relatively long period of time, long enough for the focal plane shutter curtain to fully traverse the "film" plane. On the 5D, this requires a flash duration of 1/200-second. Uniform, long-duration flash pulses like this permit use of shutter speeds as high as the 1/8,000-second maximum that the 5D is capable of. This can be invaluable when you want to exclude ambient light from the exposure. (FP sync mode is referred to as "high speed" mode on the Canon 550 and 580 flash units.)

Here's the rundown on Canon Speedlights and their compatibility with the 5D:

You'll note the references to "E-TTL remote" capabilities in the table above. Canon's Speedlight system permits TTL flash metering with multiple remote units, and even allows you to set differential power ratios between the slaved units, over a six-stop flash exposure range.

The "Flash Modeling" feature of the 550/580EX speedlights is quite useful. With a F550/580EX connected to the 5D, pressing the camera's Depth of Field Preview button causes the speedlight to fire at 70 flashes per second for about a second. This creates the illusion of a constant light source for your eyes, letting you preview the lighting on your subject when the flash fires. VERY handy, and likely to save lots of shoot/check/reshoot time!

As alluded to above, the "X-sync" speed of the 5D is 1/200-second. (This is the maximum shutter speed that can be used on the 5D when working with a non-dedicated, FP-capable speedlight.) When used with higher-powered studio strobe systems, Canon recommends a maximum shutter speed of 1/125-second or slower, to accommodate the variable time/intensity profile of such units.

Another benefit of the dedicated Canon speedlights is that they carry powerful autofocus assist illuminators. As an example, the AF assist beam on the 550EX is rated as good to about 50 feet. (Note that the ST-E2 wireless sync transmitter can also be used for AF assist during non-flash photography, a handy trick.)

20D with E-TTL II

Digital Rebel without E-TTL II

Continuous Shooting Mode and Self-Timer
The 5D's Continuous Shooting mode is rated by Canon at about three frames per second, for a maximum of 60 large/fine files or 17 RAW ones. As usual though, note that actual frame rates and the maximum number of images in the series will depend on shutter speed, file size, and the amount of space available on the memory card.

The camera's Drive setting also accesses a Self-Timer mode, which opens the shutter 10 seconds after the Shutter button is pressed, giving you time to dash around in front of the camera.

Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests

When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a lag time or delay before the shutter actually fires. This corresponds to the time required for the autofocus and autoexposure mechanisms time to do their work, and can amount to a fairly long delay in some situations. Since this number is rarely reported on (and even more rarely reported accurately), and can significantly affect the picture taking experience, I routinely measure both shutter delay and shot to shot cycle times for all cameras I test, using a test system I designed and built for the purpose. (Crystal-controlled, with a resolution of 0.001 second.) Here are the numbers I collected for the Canon EOS 5D:

For a camera with such a high-resolution image sensor, the Canon EOS-5D is surprisingly sprightly. Its 3 frame/second continuous-mode speed is good if not exciting, but it can maintain that rate for anywhere from 25-60 large/fine JPEG frames (depending strongly on subject content and ISO speed), or 17 RAW-mode shots. With a fast memory card, the buffer clears quite quickly as well, taking as little as 23 seconds to write a full set of 17 RAW files. Note in the foregoing though, the observation about subject content and ISO: We found the JPEG buffer capacity of the 5D was much lower at ISO 1600 than at ISO 100, as well as with complex images with lots of fine detail, vs simple, softer-focused ones. This is purely a function of how well the camera can compress files into the JPEG format. Images with more noise or more fine detail compress less well than ones with less high-frequency content. The Canon EOS-5D did pretty well in terms of shutter lag, being able to determine focus with the 100mm f/2.8 Canon macro lens in just 0.149 second. (AF speed is of course highly dependent on the lens being used, and the amount of travel required of the optics to move from the previous focus point.) Prefocused, the camera delivered a very fast 78 millisecond shutter lag, impressive in light of the large mirror it needs to move out of the way before the shot can be captured. We don't test for it explicitly, but the viewfinder blackout in continuous mode did seem to be a bit on the long side, enough so that we found it a little distracting.

Operation & User Interface

The 5D's user interface is very similar to that of a traditional 35mm SLR film camera, and very similar to that on the EOS-30D and 20D models (with just a few changes that enhance operation somewhat). Current users of Canon EOS SLRs should immediately feel at home. I generally comment on whether or not a camera's controls permit single-handed operation, but in the case of pro-level cameras like the 5D, this is much less of a consideration, since the cameras' bulk and typical shooting scenarios generally demand the use of two hands anyway. I really appreciated the fact that the basic exposure controls are adjustable through the external camera control buttons and dials, greatly reducing your dependence on the rear-panel LCD menu system. The ability to program the Set button for quick changes of menu items such as image review, image quality, and picture style even further reduces reliance on the LCD menu. When you do venture into the menu system, all of the camera's playback and setup options are available in all shooting modes. Overall, I found the 5D's user interface very straightforward and efficient.


Power Switch: Located below the lower right corner of the LCD monitor, this switch turns the camera on or off; switching it to its third position activates the large Quick Dial above and to the right of it for more functions than just navigating the menus.


Mode Dial: Positioned on the left side of the camera's top panel, this dial sets the exposure mode. Exposure modes include Full Automatic, Program AE, Shutter Speed Priority AE, Aperture Priority AE, Manual, Bulb, and Custom modes.


Shutter Button: Located on top of the right hand grip, this button fires the shutter when fully pressed, and sets focus and exposure when halfway pressed in Automatic exposure mode. Halfway pressing this button also puts the camera into an "active" mode, which allows the rear-panel quick control dial to adjust exposure compensation. (You don't need to keep the shutter button half-pressed while working the quick control dial, but you do need to have pressed it within the preceding six seconds.) Pressing the shutter button in any state other than direct printing (for example, when in a menu or reviewing an image) will return the camera almost immediately to readiness for image capture.


Lens Release Button: Located on the front of the camera this semi-circular button located just to the left of the lens mount (as viewed from the back) unlocks the lens from the mount when pressed. The lens can then be removed by rotating it about 45 degrees right to disengage the bayonet mounting flanges.


Depth of Field Preview Button: Positioned on the side of the lens mount housing, just beneath the lens release button, this button lets you preview the depth of field by stopping down the lens aperture to the current setting. (Like most modern SLRs, the 5D normally focuses and meters with the lens wide open, stopping down to the selected aperture just as the picture is being taken.) When an external flash is connected, this button also fires a rapid series of flashes for one second, so that you can check shadows, light balance, and other effects, allowing the flash to be used as a modeling light. (This feature requires use of a Canon dedicated speedlight that supports this capability, such as the model 550EX, or the new 580EX.)


Main Dial: Resting on top of the camera on the right side (as viewed from the back), this ridged wheel adjusts some of the camera's basic settings. When used in conjunction with the appropriate control buttons on the camera's top, the Main dial controls the autofocus mode, metering mode or drive mode. In Aperture-Priority and Shutter-Priority modes, this dial sets the lens aperture or shutter speed. In Manual mode, the dial sets the shutter speed. In Program AE mode, this dial lets the user select from a small range of equivalent exposure settings.


Metering Mode / Flash Exposure Compensation Button: Just off from the top right corner of the small LCD display panel on top of the camera is the shiny black Metering Mode / Flash Exposure Compensation Button. Pressing this button while rotating the Quick Control Dial sets the flash exposure compensation from -2 to +2 in one-third EV increments, for both the built-in flash and any Speedlight EX external flash unit. (Flash exposure compensation cannot be used in Full-Auto mode.) Through the Custom Function menu, you can change the flash exposure compensation adjustment step size to one-half EV increments. Pressing this button while turning the Main dial cycles between the three metering modes: Evaluative, Partial, and Center-Weighted Averaging.


Drive / ISO Speed Button: Located to the left of the Metering Mode / Flash Exposure Compensation button, this button controls the camera's drive mode when pressed while turning the Main dial, cycling through Single Shooting, Continuous Shooting, and Self-Timer drive modes. When pressed while turning the Quick Control dial, this adjusts the ISO setting 100 to 1,600 equivalents in 1/3-stop increments. The 50 and 3,200 settings are only available when the ISO offerings have been expanded through the Custom Functions menu.


AF Mode / White Balance Button: To the left of the Drive / ISO button, this button controls the autofocus and white balance modes. Pressing the button while turning the Main dial sets the autofocus mode to One Shot, AI Focus, or AI Servo. (One Shot is for still subjects, while AI Servo is better for moving subjects, since it causes the camera to focus continuously. AI Focus automatically switches between the two modes.) Pressing this button while turning the Quick Control dial sets the white balance to Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy / Twilight / Sunset, Tungsten, White Fluorescent, Flash, Custom (manual), or Kelvin mode, to match a variety of light sources. The Kelvin temperature setting is adjusted through the settings menu, with values from 2,800 to 10,000 Kelvin in 100K increments. Both functions are only available in the Creative Shooting Zone.

LCD Illuminator Button: Diagonally up and to the left of the AF Mode / White Balance button, this button illuminates the status display window with an orange backlight for six seconds.


Diopter Adjustment Dial: Located outside the top right corner of the viewfinder eyepiece, this dial adjusts the optical viewfinder's focus to accommodate eyeglass wearers, across an unusually wide range of -3 to +1 diopter. (Just barely short of accommodating my own 20:180 vision.) If this much adjustment isn't enough, one of Canon's ten different optional dioptric adjustment lenses can be purchased


Print Button: Just above the top left corner of the LCD monitor, this button enables direct printing to compatible printers.

Menu Button: Topping a column of buttons along the left side of the LCD monitor, this button accesses the 5D's LCD-based operating menu in all modes. Pressing the Menu button a second time cancels the menu display.


Info Button: Just below the Menu button, this button displays the current exposure settings on the LCD screen when pressed. In Playback mode, pressing this button switches between three different formats for the playback display. The options are Single Image Display (with Basic Info), which shows the image number, shutter speed and aperture; Shooting Information, which brings up an information screen that reports the detailed exposure settings that the picture was taken with, and also displays a small histogram which shows the number of pixels having each possible brightness value; and Single Image Display (no Shooting Info) which shows just the image with no overlay. The Info button works regardless of whether you are viewing a single image, multi-image index display, or are using the playback zoom, but the histogram view isn't available when you're zoomed in on an image.


Jump Button: Directly below the Info button, this button allows you to jump 10 frames forward or backward when viewing images in Playback mode. Once pressed, a jump bar appears in the LCD screen, and jumping is controlled by turning the Quick Control Dial forwards or backwards. The Jump button also jumps to the next group in the menu, indicated by color codes on the right side of the display.


Play Button: The final button on the left side of the back panel, this button puts the camera into Playback mode, regardless of the Mode dial setting. (Turning the Quick Control dial in this mode scrolls rapidly through captured images.) Playback mode can be canceled by hitting the Play button again, or by touching the Shutter button. (The 5D is a "shooting priority" camera. It's always ready to shoot a picture, regardless of its current mode. Simply pressing the Shutter button returns it immediately to capture mode.)


Erase Button: Resting beneath the lower right corner of the LCD monitor, this button accesses the Erase menu, which allows you to erase the current image or all images on the card (except for write-protected ones). There is also an option to cancel. The Erase function works in Playback mode and the quick review mode only.


Quick Control Dial: To the right of the LCD monitor on the camera's back panel, this dial selects various camera settings and menu options when turned while pressing a control button or while in an LCD menu screen. When shooting in the Program AE, shutter- or aperture-priority modes, turning the dial within 6 seconds of halfway pressing the Shutter button sets the exposure compensation (from -2 to +2 in one-third or one-half EV increments). In Playback mode, this dial scrolls through captured images on the CompactFlash card. It also navigates the index display and scrolls around within an enlarged image. In Manual mode, the dial sets the aperture.

Set Button (see image above): Located in the center of the Quick Control dial, this button confirms menu selections and camera settings when using the LCD menu system. Through the Custom Function menu, this button can be programmed to control the image quality, parameters, or image playback in conjunction with the Quick Control dial. (The default is for it to have no function in record mode.)


Multi-Controller: Located directly above the Quick Control Dial, this joystick can be moved eight ways, or pressed directly inward, and is used to control AF Point selection and white balance correction, to pan around images when the playback zoom is in use, or to select the area to be trimmed when printing directly from the camera. It also comes into play when using the White Balance Compensation feature.


AE / FE Button: In the top right corner of the rear panel and marked with an asterisk, this button locks the exposure until the Shutter button is pressed. When pressed while the flash is activated, this button locks the flash exposure, which signals the camera to fire a small pre-flash to measure the exposure before locking it. (This decoupling of exposure lock from autofocusing is a very useful "pro" feature seldom seen on lower-end cameras.) Through the Custom menu, you can program this button to lock exposure and focus together, or only one of the variables.

AF Point Selector Button (See image above): Just beside the AE / FE button, this button allows you to choose the focus area manually or automatically in Program AE, Shutter-Priority AE, Aperture-Priority AE, or Manual Exposure modes. Pressing the button and using the Multi-Controller allows you to select either an automatic setting (by pressing in on the Multi-Controller while deflecting it toward the position of the currently selected AF point), or your choice of nine manually-selected focus areas (up, up/left, left, down/left, down, down/right, right, up/right, or the center point - the latter of which is selected by pushing inwards on the Multi-Controller). If you want, you can also use the Main Control Dial to step sequentially through the AF points, instead of the more direct-acting Multi-Controller. When the automatic setting is chosen, all nine AF points illuminate in the viewfinder. The automatic setting lets the camera select the active focus point(s) at the time of exposure, based on the position of the subject within the frame, and its proximity to the nine focusing points (shown as nine small boxes arranged in a diamond pattern in the viewfinder). Whenever you press this button, your current choice of focusing area is reflected in the top-panel LCD data readout by the position of a dash (or series of dashes) in the LCD data readout, as well as in the form of a red-illuminated box in the viewfinder.

Camera Modes and Menus

Full Automatic Mode: Indicated on the Mode dial by a green rectangular outline, this mode puts the camera in charge of all exposure decisions with the exception of image quality. Autofocus mode is set to AI Focus. (AI Focus evaluates subject movement, automatically sets either one-shot AF or AI Servo AF automatically.) Drive mode is set to Single Shot, and the metering mode is set to Evaluative.


Program AE: Next on the Mode Dial, Program AE works similarly to the Full Automatic exposure mode, but allows more control over the exposure variables. Aperture and shutter speed are automatically selected by the camera, but you can bias the exposure to larger or smaller apertures by turning the Main control dial, which will change the combination of aperture and shutter speed so as to maintain the same exposure value, but with a different choice of aperture/shutter speed. Turning the Quick Control dial in this mode adjusts the exposure compensation setting, to increase or decrease overall exposure.


Shutter-Priority AE: This mode allows you to manually set the shutter speed anywhere from 1/8,000 to 30 seconds, while the camera chooses the best corresponding aperture setting. You have control over all other exposure variables, including exposure compensation.


Aperture-Priority AE: The opposite of Shutter-Priority mode, Aperture-Priority AE allows you to set the lens aperture (with available ranges depending on the lens in use), while the camera selects the most appropriate shutter speed. Again, you have control over all other exposure variables, including exposure compensation.


Manual Exposure: This mode provides the same range of exposure control as the other Creative Zone exposure modes (except for exposure compensation), but lets you control both shutter speed and lens aperture independently. A display in the top LCD panel reports whether the camera thinks your settings will result in under, over, or correctly exposed photos.


Bulb Mode: Indicated by a "B" on the Mode dial, this mode provides complete exposure control, but allows the shutter to stay open as long as 999 seconds. (I highly recommend that you use Canon's RS-80N3 remote switch in Bulb mode, to avoid jiggling the camera with your shutter finger during the long exposure.)

Custom Mode: The final position on the Mode dial, this mode lets you recall previously saved camera settings, registered via the Register Camera Settings option of the LCD menu.

Playback Mode: This mode is entered by pressing the Play button on the back panel. Playback mode lets you erase images, protect them, or set them up for printing on DPOF/PictBridge compatible devices. You can also view images in an index display, enlarge images to 10x, view a slide show of all captured images, or rotate an image. The Info button activates an information display, which reports the exposure settings for the image and graphs the exposure values on a small histogram.

Operating Menu: This menu is available in all of the camera modes, though a few of the capture-related options are only available in the Creative Zone (P, Tv, Av, and M exposure modes). Pressing the Menu button calls up the Operating menu.

• Quality: Sets the image size and the compression ratio. Options are Large/Fine (4,368 x 2,912 pixels), Large/Normal (4,368 x 2,912 pixels), Medium/Fine (3,168 x 2,112 pixels), Medium/Normal (3,168 x 2,112 pixels), Small/Fine (2,496 x 1,664 pixels), Small/Normal (2,496 x 1,664 pixels), and RAW (4,368 x 2,912 pixels, with lossless compression). Also available are RAW + JPEG combinations for each resolution and quality setting.
• Beep: Turns the camera's beep sounds on or off.
• Shoot w/o card: Allows firing of the shutter without a CompactFlash card in the camera.
• AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing): Sets the bracketing range for Auto Exposure Bracketing in increments of 1/3 or 1/2 EV from -2 to +2 EV (P, Tv, Av, and M exposure modes only).
• WB SHIFT/BKT (White Balance Shift/Bracketing): Adjusts the white balance bracketing series, in arbitrary units from -3 to +3 in full-stop increments, also allows sophisticated biasing between Green/Magenta and Blue Amber. (secondary screen)
• Custom WB: Lets you manually establish the white value by referencing a shot of a white card (Creative Zone only). (This mode on the 5D is a little different from the implementation used by other camera makers, in that it makes use of a previously-shot image of a white card, allowing you to store several white-point references on the camera's memory card and switch between them. It also allows a white reference to be shared between multiple photographers shooting the same event, simply by putting the same white reference image on each of their memory cards. Very handy!)
• Color Temp.: Sets the color temperature in degrees Kelvin for the Kelvin white balance option. Choices range from 2,800 to 10,000 Kelvin in 100-Kelvin degree increments.
• Color Space: Switches between sRGB and Adobe RGB capture. This is a nice addition, because it allows the user to modify Picture Style parameters (see the next menu item) independently of color space choice.
• Picture Style: Accesses preset parameters for specific shooting situations. Presets include Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Neutral, Faithful, and Monochrome, with three User Defined settings for custom parameters. A secondary screen lets you modify the detailed sharpness, contrast, saturation, and color tone settings for any of the six standard or three user-defined Picture Styles.)
  
  
  
• Protect: Protects the currently displayed image against accidental deletion, apart from card formatting.
• Rotate: Rotates the currently displayed image 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise.
• Print Order: Allows you to set up images for printing on any DPOF compatible device. Print options include setting the number of prints, and whether or not the date and/or file number is printed as well. (secondary screen)
• Auto Play: Automatically plays captured images in sequential order as a slide show.
• Review Time: When the Review function is set to On or On (Info), this setting controls the amount of time that images are displayed in the review, with options of two, four, or eight seconds, or Hold (which displays the image until the Set button is pressed, or the Shutter button is halfway pressed).
• AF Points: Specifies whether the AF point(s) used to capture an image are displayed in the shooting information screen. Choices are Display and Not display.
• Histogram: Sets the type of histogram display to Bright or RGB. In Bright mode, the histogram graphs the tonal distribution for the image. RGB mode graphs the distribution for each color channel separately.
  
  
  
• Auto Power Off: Sets power down time to between 1 and 30 minutes or to Off for no automatic shutoff.
• Auto Rotate: When enabled, records the camera orientation information with the image. This makes portrait-format images to appear right-side up on the camera's LCD screen, but doesn't affect the picture data itself in the camera's JPEG or RAW-format files.
• LCD Brightness: Adjusts the LCD brightness.
• Date/Time: Sets the camera's internal date and time.
• File Numbering: Extends consecutive file numbering between media cards or resets numbering with each new card.
• Select Folder: Selects the image folder for playback and storage.
• Language: Sets the menu language to one of 12 languages.
• Video System: Selects either NTSC or PAL video timing formats
• Communication: Sets camera to work with a computer (PC Connect) or Printer/PTP.
• Format: Reformats the CompactFlash card, which erases all files (even protected ones).
• Custom Functions: Sets a variety of custom camera functions for individual camera users (see below).
• Clear Settings: Resets all custom settings to their defaults.
• Register Camera Settings: Saves the current camera settings, for recall in Custom (C) mode.
• Sensor Clean: Locks up the mirror and opens the shutter, allowing you to clean the sensor of any dust.
• Firmware Ver.: Reports the camera's current firmware version and allows the user to update it.
  

Custom Settings Menu:

• C.Fn-01 SET function when shooting: Assigns a function to the rear-panel SET button.
  • 0: Default (no function).
  • 1: Change Quality.
  • 2: Change Picture Style.
  • 3: Menu Display.
  • 4: Image Replay.
• C.Fn-02 Long exp. noise reduction: Enables/disables black-frame subtraction noise reduction.
  • 0: Off.
  • 1: Auto noise reduction (for exposures one second and longer if noise is detected).
  • 2: On (all exposures one second and longer).
• C.Fn-03 Flash sync. speed in AV mode: Useful to avoid overly-long shutter speeds in aperture-priority exposure mode.
  • 0: Auto
  • 1: 1/200 second fixed.
• C.Fn-04 Shutter/AE lock button: Various options for the AF/AE button.
  • 0: AF/AE Lock
  • 1: AE Lock / AF
  • 2: AF/AF Lock, no AE Lock
  • 3:AE/AF, no AE Lock
• C.Fn-05 AF assist beam: (With compatible speedlite only, no AF-assist on camera body.)
  • 0: Emits (on dedicated Speedlite)
  • 1: Does not emit.
• C.Fn-06 Exposure level increments: Affects shutter speed and aperture increments, but not ISO.
  • 0: 1/3-stop.
  • 1: 1/2-stop.
• C.Fn-07 Flash firing (PC terminal): Disable PC-sync terminal if you want.
  • 0: Fires.
  • 1: Does not fire.
• C.Fn-08 ISO expansion: Enables L-50 and H-3200 settings.
  • 0: Off.
  • 1: On.
• C.Fn-09 Bracket sequence / Auto cancel: Sets the order of the bracketed exposures when auto bracketing is active, and whether auto bracketing cancels after the exposure series or not.
  • 0: 0, -, +/Enable.
  • 1: 0, -, +/Disable.
  • 2: -, 0, +/Enable.
  • 3: -, 0, +/Disable.
• C.Fn-10 Superimposed display: Controls whether or not active AF points flash red in viewfinder when shooting.
  • 0: On.
  • 1: Off.
• C.Fn-11 Menu button display position: Controls which menu screen you see when you press the Menu button. ("Top" means the size/quality option.)
  • 0: Previous (top if power off).
  • 1: Previous.
  • 2: Top.
• C.Fn-12 Mirror lockup: When mirror lockup is active, it takes two shutter button actuations to take a picture. The first locks up the mirror, the second release the shutter. Handy for minimizing camera shake during long exposures on a tripod. (Really only makes sense if you're also using a remote release.)
  • 0: Disable.
  • 1: Enable.
• C.Fn-13 AF point selection method: Normal mode requires you to press the AF-point selection button before changing the AF point. Direct modes change the AF point selection as soon as the appropriate control is actuated.
  • 0: Normal.
  • 1: Multi-controller direct.
  • 2: Quick Control dial direct.
• C.Fn-14 E-TTL II: Controls exposure algorithm for flash exposures. (Requires compatible shoe-connected flash system.)
  • 0: Evaluative.
  • 1: Average.
• C.Fn-15 Shutter curtain sync.:
  • 0: First curtain sync.
  • 1: Second curtain sync.
• C.Fn-16 Safety shift in AV or TV: If subject brightness lies outside the range that can be achieved with the current user-set aperture or shutter speed value, the camera will automatically shift it to the closest value that will produce a good exposure.
  • 0: Disable.
  • 1: Enable.
• C.Fn-17 AF point activation area: When enabled, in AI-Servo AF mode, six additional AF points become active when the center point is selected. This improves tracking of erratically-moving subjects.
  • 0: Standard.
  • 1: Expanded.
• C.Fn-18 LCD displ -> return to shoot: Normally, pressing only the shutter button will return the camera to capture mode from playback or menu operation. With the feature enabled, pressing any of the *, AF/WB, AF Selection, or Metering/Flash comp. buttons will also return to shooting mode.
  • 0: With Shutter button only.
  • 1: Also with * etc.
• C.Fn-19 Lens AF stop button function (only on super telephoto lenses): Controls the operation of the AF stop button found on some super telephoto lenses.
  • 0: AF stop.
  • 1: AF start (AF operates only when AF stop button is pressed).
  • 2: AE Lock while metering (when button is pressed while metering).
  • 3: AF point: M -> Auto / Auto -> ctr (in manual AF point selection mode, button switches to automatic AF point selection from manual).
  • 4: One Shot <-> AI Servo (on One-Shot AF mode, button switches to AI Servo AF mode only while held down).
  • 5: IS start (with the lens' IS switch on, Image Stabilizer operates only when button is pressed).
• C.Fn-20 Add original decision data: Appends original data verification to the image files. Canon's optional Data Verification Kit can then be used to verify that the image data wasn't modified after being captured by the camera.
  • 0: Off.
  • 1: On.
• C.Fn-00 Focusing screen: Adjusts in-camera exposure correction for different focusing screen types.
  • 0: Ee-A (Standard screen).
  • 1: Ee-D (Precision matte with grid).
  • 2: Ee-S (Super Precision matte).

Image Storage and Interface

The EOS 5D utilizes CompactFlash (Type I and II) memory cards as its image storage medium, which should never be removed from the camera while in use. (Removing a card while the camera is still writing to it could cause permanent damage to the card.) The EOS 5D does not ship with a memory card, so you'll want to purchase a large capacity card right away. I'd recommend picking up at least a 1 GB card for starters, given the EOS 5D's large, 4,368 x 2,912-pixel maximum resolution. The table below shows card capacities and approximate compression ratios for the various file sizes and types, based on a 1GB memory card. The 5D is fully compatible with Hitachi MicroDrives and other Type II CompactFlash devices.

The EOS-5D supports the FAT32 directory structure. (FAT stands for File Allocation Table, and FAT32 indicates that these newer cards use a 32-bit File Allocation Table. In general, digital cameras made before 2003 supported only FAT 16.) The larger address space provided by FAT32 is necessary for managing high-capacity memory cards of 2GB or greater capacity. This wasn't an issue in the past, but CF cards with capacities greater than 2GB are quite common these days, and FAT32 is required to properly access them.

The RAW mode listed above deserves some explanation. This is a format that records all the data from the sensor, exactly as it comes from the A/D conversion process. It is lossless compression, meaning that the file is reduced to a smaller size, but without losing any data in the process. It thus preserves all the original data from the sensor, but is nevertheless much more compact than an equivalent TIFF file.

Download Speed

The 5D has a USB 2.0 port for rapid file transfers to the host computer. Downloading files to my Sony desktop running Windows XP (Pentium IV, 2.4 GHz), I clocked it at 1216 KBytes/second, a respectable if not astonishing speed. (Cameras with slow USB interfaces run as low as 300 KB/s, cameras with fast v1.1 interfaces run as high as 600 KB/s. Cameras with USB v2.0 interfaces run as fast as several megabytes/second.)

Video Out

A video cable comes packaged with the 5D, allowing you to connect the camera to your television set for image playback. The video signal can be switched between NTSC and PAL timing via a menu preference, for use in the US and Japan, or most European countries. All menus, etc. appear on the external video monitor, but do note that it won't work as a viewfinder for the same reason that the rear-panel LCD won't. (The SLR optics mean that the sensor is only exposed to light when the shutter is open.)

Power

The EOS 5D uses the same BP-511A battery introduced with the Canon PowerShot Pro1, and which now appears as standard in many of Canon's cameras. These are compatible with older chargers and cameras, they're just of higher capacity. The BP-511A battery pack provides 1390 mAh at 7.4 volts. A separate charger comes in the box with the 5D. It works much like many of the recent ELPH chargers, with two flip-out prongs that plug directly into the wall. You'll need to purchase the AC adapter kit ACK-E2 if you need to run the camera from AC power. Canon's optional BG-E4 battery grip permits the use of either two BP-511A or six AA-size batteries.

Because it lacks an external power terminal, I couldn't perform my usual direct measurements of power consumption on the EOS-5D. I can attest to its excellent battery life though, as I should shoot literally for days without exhausting a fully-charged battery. Canon rates battery life at 800 shots, at 20 degrees C / 68 degrees F, or 400 shots at 0 degrees C / 32 degrees F which certainly seem like reasonable ratings given my personal experience with the camera.

Of course, regardless of how good a camera's battery life is, there's rarely an excuse to not purchase at least one extra battery to bring along as a hot spare. Plan on buying a second battery along with your 5D, it'll save you a world of grief later on when the battery that you were sure was full of juice runs out of gas in the middle of an important shoot.

Included Software

The 5D ships with a pretty complete complement of Canon-developed software on both Mac and Windows platforms, on Canon's EOS DIGITAL Solution Disk. The EOS DIGITAL Solution Disk enables image downloading and management, as well as the necessary tools to process the camera's RAW files. For the Mac platform, it includes ImageBrowser v5.5, Digital Photo Professional v2.0, EOS Capture v1.5, and PhotoStitch v3.1. For Windows computers, it offers ZoomBrowserEX v5.5, Digital Photo Professional v2.0, EOS Capture v1.5, PhotoStitch v3.1, PhotoRecord v2.2, WIA/TWAIN Driver v 5.5/5.7/5.8, and PTP WIA/TWAIN Driver v1.1.

In the Box

The EOS 5D comes with the following items in the box:

• Neck strap.
• Eye cup.
• BP-511A battery pack and charger.
• CR2025 lithium battery.
• Video cable.
• USB cable.
• Software CD.
• Software Instruction/Manual CD.
• Instruction manuals and registration information.

Test Results

We ran the Canon EOS 5D through our usual battery of tests, and have summarized our findings here. To see the full set of our test images, with explanations of what to look for in them, see the Canon EOS 5D Sample Pictures page. For a complete listing of all our test and "gallery" shots, go to the Thumbnails page.

Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! Visit our Comparometer(tm) to compare images from the EOS 5D with those from other cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let your own eyes decide which you like best!

Lens

The EOS 5D accommodates a wide range of Canon lenses with the EF mount, so lens performance will depend entirely on the lens in use.

Sensor

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
Strong warm cast with the Auto white balance setting, though good results with the Manual option. Less exposure compensation required than usual.

Auto White Balance +0.7 EV	Tungsten WB +0.7 EV
2800 Kelvin WB +0.7 EV	Manual WB +0.7 EV

Color balance indoors under incandescent lighting was quite warm and orange in Auto white balance mode, though the Manual setting handled it quite well. The 5D only required a +0.7 EV exposure compensation boost to get a good exposure, much less than average for this shot. Overall color is quite good, though the blue flowers very dark and purplish, and the greens are a bit dark as well. (Many digital camera produce dark and purplish blues here however.) Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulb, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the US.

Outdoors, daylight
Good color balance, very bright colors. Good exposure accuracy.