Search This Blog

Canon 5D on sale - Is a new model release around the corner

The Canon 5D, which is considered to fall within the "professional" segment of the camera market, is currently being offered widely for less than $2000 (body only - previously sold for $3000), so the photography blogs are abuzz with speculation that Canon is about to release an update of the camera within the next few months and is now trying to clear inventory.

The 5D was released way back in August 2005 so is definitely due for an update. If it follows its big brother, the 1D, it will be called something like 5DII. So if you are in the market for a new camera and ready to move up to a "pro-level" camera, then you have a few options to consider. Decisions, Decisions!

For a start you could wait for the new release of the 5D, whatever it will be called, so that you don't miss out on any of the new bells and whistles. But of course you will need a bigger budget for that. It's obviously going to be at least $3000.

Or you could go for the recently-released Canon 40D, the high-end "pro-sumer" (professional at the consumer level...get it?) camera that is an exceptionally good camera available with lens kit for around $1500, or as a body-only deal for around $1,000.

Or you go for the 5D at around $2000. Why? The main thing you're going for is that the sensor in the 5D is a "full-format" sensor. The sensors in the 40D and Rebel series cameras are not full-sized sensors so your images in fact suffer from some cropping. This effect is more pronounced at the lower end of your lens' focal range. Just imagine the light coming through the lens and falling on the sensor but with the outer edges of the light being wider than the sensor itself. So with the 5D you get the full focal range of your lenses, as well as all exceptional technology of the camera itself.

Comments

Do Not Disconnect - The Real Digital Divide

The fly in the ointment, Opito Bay, around 2007. This post was originally published in November, 2007. Almost two decades on, the photograph and the argument both feel — if anything — more relevant than they did then. I have updated this post lightly in May, 2026, some 19 years later! The Photograph I was on holiday in Opito Bay on New Zealand's Coromandel Peninsula, sitting on the couch in the place we were staying at. A friend's iPod was resting on the coffee table, on top of a copy of The Economist from March 2005, whose cover story happened to be titled "The Real Digital Divide." A fly landed on the iPod's click wheel and stayed there. I reached for my camera, took the shot, and edited it later in Photoshop to give it the grungy, oversaturated look you see above. The fly on the iPod along with "The Real Digital Divide" struck me — immediately, and with a kind of emb...

Samoan Youth

This young man was preparing with his friends for his moment of fame on the stage at the Samoan Village at the Polynesian dance festival called Pasifika in Auckland in March this year. Samoan Youth Canon EOS 20D 1/30sec at f/20 ISO 200 Canon 70-300mm lens at 300mm

Anza-Borrego Wildflowers

Anza Borrego Desert State Park California Wildflowers This cluster of wildflowers is typical of the flowers in Plum Canyon in Anza-Borrego Desert this spring. Because of the dry and harsh environment, most of the flowers are tiny like the three in this photo. But what they lack in size, they make up for in color. It's pretty difficult to try and identify all these flowers, but I'm pretty sure the white one is Desert Pincushion. Help out if you can. I've been using the CalFlora.org website to try and identify the flowers in this series.