Canon 5D, some thoughts

For every new camera Canon releases there is a firestorm of excitements, criticism, comments, etc. This is a sign of a young industry. Every new Digital SLR has been received in a similar way every new version of the Windows Operating system was received in the late nineties. Computer geeks would wait hours in front of a store to get the latest version of the software. Not so much because it performed better or were less expensive, but rather to be the first to have it. The same trend is now taking place in Digital SLR world.

Some cameras warrant more attention than others. When the Canon D30 came out, it was a breakthrough in performance. It was the first time a CMOS chip was used in or associated with a high quality camera. CMOS chips had mostly been used in low end imaging devices. The image quality was revolutionary for a $3000 digital camera. This opened up new possibilities for using this camera in professional work where very few if any camera had the usability and quality of this camera. See the initial review from Luminous Landscape.

Canon 5D has some improvement worth noting, but they are not by any means as revolutionary as the D30 was when it came out. The 5D has a full frame sensor, the main point here is the price. It already has two older brothers with full frame CMOS censors, the IDs and IDs Mark II. Size is the other advantage. Its size is much more similar to the 20D that its 1Ds brothers. The rest of the specifications indicate few incremental changes from the Canon EOS 20D.

With the full frame sensor there are a lot more real estate. Since the 5D or all full frame censors are about 2.5 times bigger than sensor in the 20D, we could expect cameras with 20 MP in not too long. Since noise was not a problem in the 20D, pixel count could be increased further.

For now, for those who have been waiting for a lower cost full frame camera, its here.