Robin,

At present there are not any production model Canon EOS 5D's available in the US for the press to test. I expect one to be delivered sometime in September. The only thing you will see for a little while in the way of a "review" is a re-write of the Canon documentation on the camera.

Thanks David. I'll be interested in knowing more about the camera. Full frame sensor at $3300-wow! Canon continues to be on the cutting edge.

Robin,

You can be sure I am as interested as you in this new Canon digital SLR. And I'll be eager to see myself what promise this new professional-level camera will make possible. I expect it will make a very large impact on both professionals and what enthusiasts will will be doing in the future.

David:
This very well might be the DSLR I've been waiting for. Do you have a clue as to when it might be hitting the US market?

There is no indication from Canon's press release and white paper when they expect to make the 5D available. I would guess sometime around the end of September you might start to see some availability.

The Canon website says October, but I'll believe it when it's on a dealer's shelf.

We hear that's correct, as we won't even get a test sample until mid-September, and we get samples right before or when dealers get them. We try to avoid testing beta or pre-production models, as we spend more time on bugs than the on the shelf model that you will be using.

Quote:
There is no indication from Canon's press release and white paper when they expect to make the 5D available. I would guess sometime around the end of September you might start to see some availability.

Thanks for the info David. Possibly there might be some reviews mid September. There are some mags that do reviews on "beta" models. If not then I will wait for Sthutterbugs review.

I would not put much faith in a rushed review based on a pre-production camera. I won't review beta or pre-production, because I don't want to hype my readers about something different than what they will be buying, the real thing compared to a jerk off<S>.

Quote:
I would not put much faith in a rushed review based on a pre-production camera. I won't review beta or pre-production, because I don't want to hype my readers about something different than what they will be buying, the real thing compared to a jerk off<S>.

Are they really that bad? Now that I think about it maybe they are since I assume the purpose for bringing them out in the first place is to work out bugs, correct?

The other day the Canon reps had a 5D at Samy's Camera in Santa Barbara. Pre-production models mostly go to sales and tech reps as well as trade shows to promote the camera to the people who will be on the front lines selling it. In that use the cameras usually get little use and none that is critical. In the past some aggressive magazine publishers used to vie with each other to get their hands on these pre-production models to be able to scoop the competition. Now with the internet getting news out way ahead of magazines that aggressive competition for scoops on new model reports has just about disappeared.

It was not that pre-production products were necessarily bad. However some of course were tested at the factory for potential flaws and problems in manufacture, so very often production changes were made resulting in the release version being somewhat different in how it performed compared to the pre-production model. And that is why I will not do a report on beta or pre-production hardware and software.

Thanks David.

The feature I like most about this camera is that it has a full frame sensor like the EOS 1ds Mark II at half the price.

Some tout the samller sensors as having the advantage of "cropping" factor at the long end making a 100mm lens "equal" to a 150mm lens. However, I don't see how this is an advantage since it doesn't actually increase the magnification factor as some people mistakenly beleive. In some cases I think this cropping factor may, in fact, be a disadvantage as one may not want this cropping in a telephoto lens (which of course may be done in post production). I'm just wondering what you think about this?

Robin,

Personally a full frame digital SLR like the new 5D is an advantage because of the investment I have already in 35mm SLR Canon lenses that can be used as originally intended. But also, the pentaprism viewing system of a full frame is more efficient and makes framing and focusing more effective.

The lens factor with APS size chips is just another way of saying the actual focal length of the lens used is half again as long. To me that means I need a 10mm lens to obtain the same coverage as I would get with a 15mm with a full-frame or 35mm film body. If you want to understand it as cropping, be my guest, 6 of one half a dozen of the other.

Hey! DPReview has a review (not a full, but still not bad) for 5D now. Here: review