Photography BLOG

A Long Story

It has been a long wish since my first professional body Nikon D1x to have it shoot in low light (the acceptable sensitivity level is iso400), and it ended up running with wide open aperture, the result is not really up to my expectation.

I have been seeking my next advanced camera for ever best image quality, in particular, in terms of pulling out excellent details and delivering great image quality under lower light environment, it will also serve me mainly for landscape and portrait work.

I have been waiting for a while with hope that there will be one out soon that meets all my expectations (no surprise, it always fails, and I skipped the Nikon D2 series). But with the recent higher-pixel, higher-iso and FF (Full Frame refers to the use of the full film gate at maximum width and height for 35 mm film cameras) revolution in digital cameras, I finally have my shortlist – Canon 1Ds Mark III, Canon 5D and Nikon D3.

After some months of investigation, it comes up into a score chart (5 is the highest mark). Please be reminded that, the ranking here is totally a subjective perception, make your own judge and take your own risk if you take this serious in decision making.

Image quality: 5D=4.5, IDsM3=4, D3=4
Features: 5D=3, IDsM3=4, D3=5
Portability: 5D=4, IDsM3=3.5, D3=3.5
Ease of use: 5D=3.5, IDsM3=4, D3=4
Construction: 5D=4, IDsM3=4.5, D3=4.5
Value for money: 5D=4, IDsM3=3, D3=4
Overall: 5D=23, IDsM3=23, D3=25

Falling in Love

And now you know what, I picked the Canon 5D, is that strange? How come it was not the latest camera at the status-of-the-art technologies like Nikon D3 (for its amazing performance capturing light in darkness and shooting like machine gun to freeze actions?) and why not the 21MP ever high pixel FF digital camera Canon 1Ds Mark III? Yes, I like all of them, I would want all cameras with me, but it turns out that I only fall in love with the Canon 5D.

If I just followed the score chart, I would have had the Nikon D3, which in fact is a reasonable choice, since I already have a nice set of Nikkor prime lenses (10.5/2.8 fisheye, 18/2.8, 28/1.4, 45/2.8, 85/1.4, 200/4 & 300/4). The D3 should produce some very nice result with them in low light environment.

But that is not a simple case, I find the Canon 5D has an edge over all others in terms of “gentle & smooth”, it delivers an output most favorite to my eyes, in fact, it is a please to see the smoothness, not to mention with exceptional details delivered, the 5D is very good both in the landscape and portrait applications. Yes, a very subjective perception? And I am not sure if that could be quantified in a technical expression, but I am confident that I see something inside that makes the 5D unique. Perhaps that is the reason we are different and *STILL* in a world of wonder?!

5D is far from being my “perfect” camera, it has 2-years behind in features and in a relatively lower performance in operations. I have asked myself if I should keep waiting again for something new? …… not this time, though Canon may eventually release something like 5D Mark II, it will be in a completely new design with a new sensor, that is totally another story.

Being a rational man with a mind set seeking value and optimization, I always take a second thought, D3 is about double the cost of the 5D, the additional costs goes to a better built body packing with a rich set of features and exceptional high performance in terms of frame rates. Unfortunately, they are not critical to me, I rarely shoot sports and moving subjects. At this price level, I would prefer to have the 5D body and some more decent Canon EF L lenses. I also acquired the optional battery grip that makes 5D the only FF body available in a more portable advantage over 1Ds Mark III and D3.

On the other hand, I already have a 1.6x Canon 40D (see also Canon EOS 40D for Serious & Everyday Work) serving as a everyday work horse at better portability, the FF Canon 5D will set this into a very good combo, they can share the decent EF L lenses (and just discovered that the 5D is using same type of battery and charger for 40D), and I would enjoy the advantages from both worlds.

Engagement

Well, Canon 5D, I caught my dark angel! Is it up to my expectation? Yes and no.

I ended up to have my 5D kit (24-105/4 lens), 2nd battery, the battery grip and a 8GB flash memory. It is a nice touch recall my feel with pro body, nice handling (I find the 5D kit with the battery grip in very good balance) … but what a relatively much slower machine than my 40D in general operations, downloading my very first pictures to PC is longer than expected. Fortunately, the center AF point is working effectively up to my expectation with 24-105/4 in most case under low light, not that much behind 40D.

Immediately discovered the advantages and disadvantages of FF body, clarity image, but now I have to get used to bad corners. My sensor and viewfinder are absolutely clear, see if it would start to collect dusts in the very soon future (though I am a very careful person).

And I was wondering for a while on the hot pixels (2 big & 7 small identified), but they are not actually visible generally by iso800 at 1 second exposure. By iso3200 at 1/10s, it can hardly tell there is a hot one, this makes the iso3200 a true usable setup (well, I am not going to call for a replacement, guess this is about the 5D quality standard from Canon?).