Canon EOS 5D, a digital SLR camera, announced in August 2005, went down in the history of digital photography as the first relatively affordable camera, equipped with full-frame sensor. Prior to the Canon 5D release only professional cameras had a full-frame matrix.
With the weight of only 1.8 lbs, it has a CMOS-sensor of the second generation sized 23.9 x 35.8 mm, features a shooting speed of 3 fps, and in the continuous shooting mode a series of 60 frames with high-resolution in the JPEG format. The camera starts up within 0.2 seconds.
With the frame size equivalent to 35mm film, the 23.9 x 35.8 mm CMOS-sensor allows you to view images at full view angle with no grain effect and necessity to enhance. This ensures more strict control of the depth of field and high image quality due to a large number of pixels, catching now even more light.
Main Functions
The EOS 5D is equipped with a DIGIC II processor, as the Canon professional cameras of the EOS-1D series are. This lightweight camera with a protective magnesium alloy body is equipped with a new 2.5-inch LCD screen with high resolution. The EOS 5D supports a new function of Picture Style with pre-sets shooting modes, the 9-point auto focus with 6 invisible auxiliary AF points using the beam, accelerating the object search. The 5D is compatible with the Wireless File Transmitter WFT-E1 device for transferring files, supports the customized mode for rapid recovery of user settings, high speed interface USB 2.0 Hi-Speed for fast image loading. The exposure range is from 1/8000 up to 30 seconds with X-sync equal to 1/200 seconds.
Advantages of CMOS-sensor
For five years of continuous development of CMOS-sensor, firstly used in the EOS D30, Canon has achieved significant advancement. The EOS 5D new sensor is equipped with a 12.8-megapixel sensor. The same noise reduction system of the second generation is used in the EOS-1Ds Mark II. It helps to greatly reduce the level of white noise and static structural interference, providing a very clear and accurate image. A wide range of ISO film from 10 up to 1600 can be increased to L: 50 and H: 3200. Large pixel size of 8.2 µm allows you to take a wide dynamic range and reproduce the smallest color gradations in shadow, halftones and light areas.
Advanced Control System
The 5D Picture Style option pre-sets and significantly simplifies the image quality control. It enables to immediately start working in JPEG without prior settings in the menu. The Picture Style function supports different kinds of films with various levels of sensitivity. Within each preset mode you can manually adjust brightness, contrast, color tone and saturation.
The pre-set shooting modes include:
Standard, taking care of crisp, vivid images not requiring post-processing;
Portrait for optimizing the color tone and saturation, reducing the image sharpness so as to result in attractive skin tones;
Landscape, increasing the saturation of green and blue, as well as sharpness, providing a clear picture of mountains, trees and the outline of buildings;
Neutral, ideal for further processing;
Accurate for adjusting the color during shooting under the color temperature below 5200K;
Monochrome with a filter effect (yellow, orange, red and green) and toning effects (sepia, blue, purple and green).
In addition, three user-definable settings allow you to create additional styles of shooting on the camera or install additional files for customized settings of the Picture Style. Additional files of the customizing Picture Style can be downloaded from the Canon site.
The Picture Style option replaces internal image processing, which was previously adjusted by setting processing parameters and color matrix. The Picture Style is also compatible with the Digital Photo Professional and RAW Image Task software, included in the package.
LCD Screen
Thanks to a new large poly-silicon liquid crystal 2.5-inch TFT screen with 230,000 pixel resolution, the EOS 5D features a significantly increased area of image reproduction and viewing the menu. The improved screen retains brightness and visibility throughout a viewing angle of 170 ° (horizontal and vertical), which makes it easier to view images on the camera, attached to a tripod.
Autofocus
There is the 9-point AF system featuring 6 additional invisible AF points located inside the spot-metering circle. These points are activated only in the Intelligent AF servo (AI SERVO) with a fixed central AF point. They are detected automatically and help to improve the quality of object tracking.
Ergonomic Design and Easy Operation
The Canon 5D features a premium design of the EOS series: a magnesium alloy body with rubberized coating. Elegant, lightweight, and compact body of the 5D measures just 6 inches wide, 3 inches deep and 4.4 inches high. A convenient new option allows you to save and set the camera settings by selecting on the mode dial the C position (camera settings). Thus, you can quickly move from one shooting mode to a completely different one, without turning on the camera. It ideally suits photographers who need, for example, to quickly switch from shooting indoors to shooting outdoors. All set parameters, including exposure, ISO sensitivity, AF mode, shooting modes, Picture Style, white balance and custom functions are saved in custom settings. The EOS 5D supports 21 custom options with 57 user-defined settings to enable photographers to best configure the camera operation.
Connectivity
The optional Wireless File Transmitter WFT-E1 device allows you to work autonomously and automatically transfer full-frame images from the EOS 5D to a computer over a wireless LAN for a few seconds. USB 2.0 Hi-Speed interface enables to quickly transfer images from the camera to a computer. This option is ideal for shooting in a studio, when you are able to save directly on a hard disk via the camera connected with the computer. Thus, the images can be immediately viewed in full screen. The EOS 5D also supports video output connection that allows you to play and view the picture on TV, and the PictBridge standard enables direct printing of photos on any compatible printer without computer. You can use memory CompactFlash Type I and Type II cards.
Compatibility and Accessories
The EOS 5D is compatible with all lenses of the Canon EF series, allowing you to choose a lens with a needed focal length in the range of 14 - 600 mm. The 5D is compatible with Speedlites flashes of EX series and other accessories of the EOS family. It features great flexibility for shooting and image processing. The Canon E-TTL II Flash with the exposure metering system provides high accuracy of exposure by analyzing such factors as the distance to the lens, the level of ambient light, and the detection of reflective objects, when calculating flash output.
A new battery pack BG-E4 has been specially designed for the EOS 5D. Made of the same magnesium alloy as the 5D body, it provides a comfortable and reliable grip. The pack can be used for two BP-511A / 514/512/511 batteries or six AA batteries. The BG-E4 is equipped with a button to control shutter curtains, AE lock button, AF point selection, and the main mode dial, making it easy for the camera to operate in a vertical position.
The Canon EOS 5D is an excellent camera for professional photo journalists. It can do everything that photographers would like from the camera to do, and it can do it well.
