Vintage Digital: Canon EOS 5D. The Search For A Daily Carry Camera.

Preface:

I had been pondering what camera and lens I would recommend to someone interested in acquiring an inexpensive digital camera for the first time. Simultaneously, I had been looking for the least expensive camera I could buy that was capable of being a daily carry anywhere camera.

Back to the task at hand.

I have experienced a reversal of my earlier justification for mirrorless cameras.

Adapting glass.

One of the purported strengths of mirrorless cameras, especially full frame ones, is the ability to use just about any legacy lens with them. This is true in theory and is also a technical fact. But for me, it left one significant thing out of the equation.

Using the lens as originally intended.

Warning: Many nonsense camera nerdery words strung together as if any of this makes sense ahead.

As laid out in my Leica M240 posts, I finally concluded that a main draw of rangefinder lenses was the rangefinder experience. In short, the shooting experience of the system was as, if not more important, than the lens used. So I could create an image with the lens, but not recreate the experience of using the original camera system. And this was proved simply. Since acquiring a digital rangefinder I have not once considered using a rangefinder lens adapted to mirrorless, even with AF on the table. I did not expect that. It was truly about the experience of the native system.

Well, I have since realized that, for me, the same thinking applies to more pedestrian systems. Broadly I am speaking of DSLRs. Since I have a few Pentax lenses and film camera bodies an easy fix seemed straightforward… Buy a Pentax DSLR. But, there are a few issues.

Few full frame options.
- I really like the Pentax K-1. It did its job as a coping mechanism. But with time I could not make peace with the relatively high cost so I hung on to my Pentax film variants and traded the K-1 on.
Crop options are not what I am looking for and a bit pricey for their vintage.
- While I have my theories I am not sure why Pentax crop bodies hold their value so well. Great cameras, but as I have stated often in this space I prefer full-frame.
I have eyes for a particular DSLR nifty fifty.
- It involves the brand name Canon and three letters, STM.

While I lean towards another brand for my main system I have a weak spot for Canon’s range of STM lenses. Here is a quick photo interlude, ending with the topic of today’s post.

Starting with the more recent STM lenses I obsessed over.

RF Blog Post Product Shots — RF mount 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm STM lenses.

Great lenses. So good that because of them I owned a Canon EOS RP… twice. All are fantastic value. All have top notch performance, compact size, and wonderful IQ. But ultimately it was Canon’s business decision to not allow other lens makers in on the fun that eliminated the RF system from my consideration as a main system. This was followed by a sell-off. But those are not the STM lenses that started my minor obsession. And now for the star of this blog post.

My first experience was with the gen II of this lens paired with a brick bat of a DSLR.

1Ds Mk II for blog post — Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II and EF 50mm f/1.8

Bought almost as a joke this combination absolutely smashed past my expectations.

In the end, I sold them both off after I had my fun. Having this camera and lens, “Did not make sense.”, I said to myself. So I continued on with my Holy Grail-esque search for a proper Sony 50mm-ish solution…. Which did not go as expected at all.

But I never quite shook this brief encounter. Sure I could have bought a SIGMA MC11 adapter and used this lens on Sony bodies. Have done it in the past.

Technically fine. But for reasons I could not quite put to words at the time I sold both the EF to FE MC11 adapter and EF 50mm f/1.8 STM on. Was not what I was looking for.

I am only now starting to sort out why.

Similar to my rangefinder experience I did not just want the lens, but also the native experience. I am not pretending that this makes any sense. But it is what it is. Like the rangefinder before it…

It was about the DSLR.

But I must tell a side story before I continue. One that outlines just how silly all of this is. How I “justified” the purchase. Was considering a grip for my main Sony body. I enjoy the compact size with primes and smaller zooms. but thought it might be nice to have a grip for larger lenses. I had been unhappy with third party battery grips in the past. Found them to be fairly flimsy and had one fail on me. So I looked up the price of the Sony option… $399! As much as makes no sense the first thought I had was,

Pfft. I could buy an old full frame DSLR and a nifty fifty for less.

That is it. That is all it took. That is how we ended up here. Because a half hour later that is exactly what I had done. Ordered a Canon EOS 5D and my <thinks for a moment> fourth Canon 50mm f/1.8 STM lens including EF II and RF variants. There were other DSLR options. Having had, and rather liked, a Nikon 3300 in the past I did look up a D700, which costs a bit more than what I wanted to spend. And while Nikon offers a 50mm f/1.8, of course, I prefer the EF STM variant. The battery gripped EOS 1Ds II was quite affordable when I purchased it from my local camera shop, but I went for the smaller and even more affordable gen 1 EOS 5D. Why? Easy. It was the cheapest and no features added to later versions moved me to consider an upgrade. It is kind of my thing.

Outcome. Exactly what I expected. One question I imagine may be asked is why?

Easy.

Part 1.

Recently on a night out at a work dinner,…

…a conversation stuck with me. After the dinner, I took a spin through a local Ben & Jerry’s. If there is a Ben & Jerry’s nearby I will stop at it by the way. Cherry Garcia wafer cone please and thank you. The young man behind the counter asked me about an old digital camera I had on me. He then mentioned that he used his phone to take photos and he wanted to get into photography more but did not think he could afford a camera. He acted as if he was down on using a phone. So I shared two thoughts.

A phone is a perfectly viable option.
Buying an older digital camera will yield great results. The latest and greatest is not necessary.

If he wanted to follow up on bullet 2 I recommended he go to KEH.com, click digital cameras, click bargain grade and up, and sort on price from lowest to highest. Then buy what he would be comfortable paying. He could always upgrade later if he wanted to. This got me thinking.

Part 2

With all my talk of vintage digital I had not yet secured a daily carry digital camera for myself. I decided that my “real” gear is too precious to me to carry around in the wild every day, being knocked about, accidentally left behind, or generally being worn out. And as fun as my existing less expensive vintage digital menagerie is they are all either too precious to me, sentimental wise, hard to replace, and/or outright inconvenient or impractical to use to fulfill the role of a daily carry camera.

Enter the EOS 5D.

And so far so good. Notes so far:

No surprise here, since these are common DSLR traits, it has great ergonomics and build quality.
Focusing does not keep up with the latest and greatest but it is a speed demon compared to some of my other vintage digital darlings. Also a common DSLR trait.
Quite a bit smaller than the 1DS II.
Accessories, like extra batteries, CF card, CF card reader, and such, are readily available and reasonably priced.
Like Pentax, there are plenty of lenses on the market if I was inclined to flesh out my EF lens collection. But that is not my intention here. Have been tempted but for now I am looking to stick with the 50mm STM.
Very reasonably priced. Not only did this camera cost less than the 1DS II and D700 mentioned above. It also cost less than the MC11 adapter needed to use the STM lens on Sony. I say again. This whole camera costs less than a lens adapter.

Downsides?

At this price point and performance, I do not have any so far. If pressed?

Auto ISO is only available in full auto. Non issue. I treat it like a film camera and choose my ISO for the situation.
No video. Non issue. Not the tool for that task.
Low light color performance. But there are workarounds. And as you can see in the sample photos you can still get some evening color photos if you slow down a bit and employ old film camera habits.

Anything above ISO 800 can get sketchy. Black and white is more forgiving, but both are fine up to 800. If you do go higher for both color and black and white the new RAW file denoise tool does work wonders. For black and white I find that the in camera JPEGS do very well at 800.

With the proper perspective this does not bother me. I view this camera as a film camera alternative where I typically top out at 800 speed film. A film camera that I do not have to develop film for.

The main benefit?

If anything should happen to it I would not hesitate to go online and purchase a replacement right away.

And that is largely the point. If I had a do over with the gentleman at Ben & Jerry’s this is what I would recommend to him. While the price of entry for film cameras can be small I cannot recommend them to many because of the ongoing costs of film and development. Case in point for a brief moment right before this purchase I considered a Pentax MZ-S QD 35mm that cost $100 more. A film SLR that costs a touch more than $300. In the end, I picked up the EOS 5D and lens together for less and I am happy I went in that direction.

Now let me backtrack for a moment. This is an assessment very specific to me. There are other similarly priced vintage digital cameras that have more features. For example, not that long ago I took a last lap around MFT during the pandemic as a distraction. Specifically an Olympus OM-D E-M5.

If you compare the two on paper the OMD is a slam dunk. Smaller, better AF, has IBIS, higher resolution, does video, etc. I understand. There is even a great, inexpensive full frame equivalent 50mm lens with the Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 ASPH.

This is likely a great fit for many and I would say that it is an excellent alternative. Just not for me. Why? (Please turn away MFT adherents.)

Full frame sensor.
…that is all I have got.
That is enough for me.

I tried. MFT did it for me early on in my interchangeable lens system journey.

But for me, there is no going back. Forward with full frame.

Enough of that. On to the images followed by more product pics.

Even tried out the EOS 5D with a great Tamron 85mm f/1.8 at the local camera shop.

But at $427 I chose to stand down as it would break the whole affordable scheme of this purchase. Below is a pic taken with the Canon 35mm f/2.

But for now, I am good, so back to the 50mm STM.

Next up is my first test spin in the very type of environment this set up was meant for. A camera and lens I can leave in a chair while my chorus sings without much worry of it getting knocked over, forgotten, or growing legs. Set the camera to JPEG with the Monochrome profile with contrast and sharpness pushed up +2.