Canon 5D and 24mm f/1.4 L lens
Wednesday, July 12th, 2006
I recently had the good fortune to borrow my friend Gary’s Canon 5D with his Canon 24mm f/1.4 L lens for a workout on The Brooklyn Bridge in New York. I thought I’d give some impressions of both camera and lens because this will be meaningful to anyone considering a full frame Canon.
The 5D feels very much like a larger version of the 20 or 30D. Ergonomically, it’s about the same camera only a bit bigger and heavier. It has a larger LCD than the 20D although the 30D sports the same LCD.
Color saturation on the 5D sensor is noticeably better than on the 20D. The sensor is more sensitive to light, has a broader ISO range and the ISO can be set with finer granularity than on the 20D. This is most of what one pays for with this higher-end camera and it appeals to me. I love my 20D but if I had both I’d use it as a backup only, not as an equal. The sensor is the reason why.
Most importantly, the 5D sensor is full frame: a full 35mm frame vs. the 20 and 30D’s cropped frame.
Cropped Frame Background
Many years ago Canon and then Nikon decided that one way to bring DSLR cameras within the price range of advanced amateurs was to make the sensor smaller. The sensor, the single most important and expensive part of the camera, is the piece of silicon that, like film, records the scene projected on it by light coming through the lens. The number of transistors (resolution) and how each transistor is sensitive to light (ISO) and color are all important variables in making a sensor act like film. However, while in the early days camera companies thought it was of ultimate importance to try to keep DSLRs parallel to film SLRs, someone had the bright idea that if they could just lower the price point many people who otherwise would never get a camera like one of these would get hooked and move up from consumer cameras and start buying lenses and other photographic gear. The easiest way to get the price point down was the reduce the size of the sensor. And, given that they were not trying to sell these cameras to professionals who already had lenses and multiple SLR bodies and might be put off by crop factor, they figured that many of us wouldn’t care or even try to understand this crop factor issue and would just buy a camera. And, they were right. Once the price dropped below $1000 (original Canon Digital Rebel and then Nikon D70) it was like they opened a floodgate.
Even people who had SLRs and related gear started buying these cameras.
Canon continued to make full frame sensor cameras in addition to their cropped Rebel and 20D (now 30D) line: the 1Ds and 1D are the highest-end, professional digital SLRs and cost serious money. The 5D is Canon’s answer to those of us who are not professionals but would like a full frame sensor and it sits closer to the 20 and 30D in terms of price than it does the 1D or 1Ds.
Full Frame
A full frame sensor means that lens metrics will be accurate instead of multiplied by 1.6. On a 20D or a 30D or Rebel a 24mm lens is really a 38, a 35mm lens is really a 56, a 50mm lens is really an 80, an 85mm lens is really a 136, a 135mm lens is really a 216, and a 300mm lens is really a 480. This crop factor is great at the long end of the focal range in that one gets a bit more reach out of a cropped sensor but at the wide end one must go wider than 24 to get a truly wide angle view. It would take a 17mm lens to get 27mm on a cropped sensor (and the Canon 17-40mm f/4 L is quite popular on the 20D for this reason).
The pictures below demonstrate the use of the 5D with a 24mm lens. The 5D’s full frame meant that the 24mm was actually a 24mm and seeing the world with this wide angle view is fantastic.
Canon’s 24mm f/1.4 L lens is one of the highest quality wide angle lenses made. It’s sharp, fast, and not so wide that it distorts the edges of images the way a real fish eye would. I fell in love with this lens although my 35mm f/1.4 L lens is close enough so that on a 5D it will possibly be wide enough for me.
I’m seriously considering a 5D in the near future. If I get it, I’ll have to adjust my brain about what my lenses can actually do, especially on the long end.
The Manhattan Bridge shot from the east tower boardwalk area of the Brooklyn Bridge with a Canon 5D and a Canon 24mm f/1.4 L lens.
Gary Sharp using my 20D and 135mm lens on my tripod while I go crazy with his Canon 5D and 24mm f/1.4 L lens. A wide lens on a full frame is “the bomb,” no doubt about it. Ya gotta experience it to get it. Another world of possibilities. Yaba daba doo.
The wonderful color capabilities of the 5D full frame sensor coupled with a wide lens. Oh my.
What a sweep the 24mm lens will give you on a full frame camera. Gary, when are you coming back to share…
Richard, I’m coming to share my 24L with you as soon as possible. I know you’ll put it to good use on your 5D. What a great time we had photographing around New York City! A superb time. You’re right on about the advantages of using a camera with a full-frame sensor. The 5D is expensive, but the camera is solid as a rock and the menus and controls are very well-thought out and easy to use. More importantly, this camera’s sensor produces vivid, realistic color. I’ve been a Nikon user for many years and immediately noticed that the 5D had smooth, rich images, virtually no noise, even at high ISO’s, unlike the Nikon DSLR I started out with. And getting the full angle of view from a wide angle lens is very meaningful once you compare it side by side with a DSLR that has a smaller sensor, and crops the image.
So Gary, knowing what I have and what I want, which would you buy first, the 5D or the 24L? I know, I know, buy both. But, this is serious $$ so which?
Richard, Without hesitation, I would go for the 5D. All of your lenses will work with it, and you’ll love the rich color of the photos, it’s silky smooth operation, and the ability to fine tune color, and more, easily, in the camera. The spot meter is very useful for metering under mixed lighting or contrasty situations. The 24L is a spectacular lens, but you have a spectacular 35mm lens, wide enough for most of your wide angle needs. The 24L can come later. In some ways, because the perspective is so wide, it’s a specialty lens, that you won’t use everyday. and the 5D will do produce higher quality images than your 20D: you’ll see the difference when you make prints, especially in bigger prints.
Gary, good advice. Now if I can just close my eyes and click before the rebate ends…
I closed my eyes and did it without the rebate and have no regrets….But I know it’s a serious amount of $$$, not an easy thing to do.
Gary: I was just given pause by a review I read on amazon.
Go here and scroll down or search for a review by “M. Ryley.”
You would be the best judge of corner softness from full frame with the 24 but according to him, it’s a sensor flaw so affects all lenses.
Thoughts?
Richard,
> it’s a sensor flaw so affects all lenses
not so. All lenses produce some light falloff at the edge of the image circle - the image is darker at the edge. If you take a crop (small) sensor, you won’t reach that edge, and thus light falloff is less dramatic with crop sensors; this is why photos taken with FF lenses on crop sensor cameras show much less of that effect.
You would have the exact same light falloff with a 35 mm film camera.
If that really is bothersome, there’s software which corrects for the light falloff.
I bought a 5D 2 weeks ago, bundled with the 25-105 mm f/4 lens, and I am quite overwhelmed. I came from a Pentax *ist DS 6 MPixel camera which is quite good, actually. However, the 5D has twice the number of pixels, the FF sensor, stout build quality, serious mass (reducing shake during a shot), very good contrast dynamic, and very good colours.
I only shoot RAW, thus I don’t know how good the JPGs are that the camera’s processor renders.
Cheers,
k.
Karl: You’re absolutely right. I now have a 5D and a 24-70 and I must say, at 24 things are as sharp as a tack. I’m not seeing any of the above mentioned light falloff at all.
So much for using Amazon reviews for much of anything.
I absolutely love the 5D; it’s the best camera I’ve ever owned, by a long shot, and I’ve owned may and some high end ones.
I’m really glad I read your thoughts on this camera. I was shooting with a 20D but the preview screen quit on me at a wedding last week. Thank God I took my Elan II with me! Anyway, I have a wedding this Saturday so I just went and bought the 5D. I’m a good shot but not technically minded at all. I was concerned about not being able to use my efs 17-85mm with the 5D, but now that I’ve read about the 1.6 thing, I’m so relieved my 28-135 will pretty much give me the same image with the full frame! This was just a “wee” note to say thank you for educating me and ehem.. saving my arse!
Jennifer, delighted to help out. When I posted this I was borrowing a friend’s 5D and had a 20D myself. Since then I’ve bought a 5D and sold my 20D and while the 20D is a fantastic camera, the 5D is even more so. I think you’re going to like it.
One thing I would warn you about is that a full frame camera like the 5D will make great lenses look greater but less than great lenses look, well, less than great. The full frame will accentuate the lack of sharpness edge to edge on cheaper lenses. So, you may want to get yourself a new mid-range zoom at some point. I have and love the Canon 24-70 f/2.8 L and highly recommend it in the zoom range you’re looking at. It’s extremely sharp and f/2.8 throughout the zoom range. There is also a Canon 24-105 f/4 IS L and it gets decent reviews too, but not as good as the 24-70 which has been photojournalist’s lens of choice for many years.
Delighted you got a new camera, good luck with it.
Would the sensor in the 5D be the reason why my pal gets better colour saturation in his shots than i do with my Nikon D70s? or is it to do with lens coatings?
Neil: great question and while you didn’t mention the lenses you use on your D70 I can say that it’s undoubtedly mostly the sensor difference.
But, it’s not just the 5D’s color dynamics, it’s also the fact that it’s a full frame sensor with much bigger pixels which gives images more depth.
The 5D sensor is really the reason people love the camera so much. I’ve had one for a year now and have no regrets. I’d buy a second one if I could afford it but rumor has it that Canon will come out with an upgrade to it soon that will have their dust cleaning capabilties and a few more goodies. I’ll wait and see what that camera looks like before making a move.
All of that said, lenses also affect color and a 5D or any camera with a high end lens with the right coatings on it will record better color than same camera with a lesser lens.
So it’s both. However, my guess is that the 5D sensor is most of it.