Product ReviewsCanon EOS 5D 12.8 MP Digital SLR Camera Body Only【ALMOST MINT SC 9881】#1896

Love this camera. Lucked out with the buy it now and got it 5 days before I thought I work. Thank you so much.

I've been a "professional" photographer who used a Canon t3i for 7 years. I've used other cameras in between but for what I needed, I always stuck to my basic camera and did actor headshots every few months and earned enough money that I paid the camera and lenses back multiple times. Never been interested in a full frame camera over a crop as there's really no huge difference with bokeh if you know what your doing, also, if full frame is so much better with crop why not just go medium format which crushes both? But, I decided I wanted to wade in the waters of full frame without paying thousands. After all I am semi professional, not a full time job. So I decided to go old school, get the Canon 5d. It's used so there's lots of risk. But right away, I love it. You take pictures with it. You can barely review them on camera. But it's a photography tool. No special tracking focus. No video. No insane see the night. But what it does, it does very, very well. Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: california545

Very bad LED display.

LED display on rear of camera is of extremely low quality. Even though this camera has a full frame image sensor, it is too outdated.

It is more worthwhile to pursue a more recent version of this camera or another camera all together. I returned this item not realizing that my current camera, a Canon 70 D, which has a crop sensor, produces better pictures.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: kehoutlet

Great old camera love it

Just because it's an older camera doesn't mean it isn't good this model still has life left in it. This is my first full frame camera and I couldn't be more happy with it. It does have limitations on it but still is very useful in learning about photography. 12MP ,Full frame the Canon colors that's a plus,battery life I can shoot an easy 100 or more pics and not worry about the better dieing, there's cons but you can live with them easily. So if you see this camera up for sell get it.I am happy w it...Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: cgeorge110

Built like a tank, pro-quality pictures on budget

Canon EOS 5D is the cheapest way to get into the game of full-frame photography. Although there are not features found in today's modern full-frame DSLR, this camera offers just what you need - photography. Awesome image quality. Built like a tank, works great even after THIRTEEN YEARS! And, of course, that mystical "canon color" is yet another special trait of the 5D classic. If you are looking for full-frame DSLR and on a budget, this one should not be missed. Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: gorthlak

Love it so much I own two!

I bought a second 5D I liked my first one so much! I cannot compare this camera to the newer cameras today, that would be like comparing apples and oranges. This camera has a unique feel and produces beautiful images with film like quality and colors that are absolutely gorgeous. The controls are simple and focused on the core activities of true photography. My photography skills have improved greatly since I purchased my first 5D and it's a joy to use. ironically the 12 MB file size is really a good balance and doesn't take up massive amounts of storage space on your CD card or your computer's hard drive. Unless you're printing extremely large prints you don't need more than this. I crop some and still end up with plenty of megapixels. almost all photographs now days are displayed online, and even if you're viewing on a 4K you will never need more than eight megapixels and most pics display beautifully with 3 mega pixels. sure a 50 megapixel file lets you crop more but 12 megapixels is perfectly fine for the photographer who takes their time and tries to fill the frame with their subject. I paid $320 for each of my 5D's, an amazing value for the money! I am not a professional and do not make my living taking pictures, so frames per second, improved focusing abilities, live view, video, and all the other bells and whistle's are totally unnecessary for someone who just takes pictures for the joy of it. Read full review...

Verified purchase: No

Great value for a Full Frame

You will not get much support from Canon for these old cameras. However, repair for Any Full Frame camera would usually cost more than a Used Classic 5D anyways. A Full Frame camera for less than $500.. or even $1000 is extremely rare, and incredible. the UI is a bit archaic, but at 12 MPx, you can make fairly large prints. Highest ISO settings do become quite grainy, compared to newer versions. Yet even still, Hardly any affordable camera these days are able to utilize the full projection of your lenses, wether those are Canon EF, FD lenses, or universal M42. Also, The camera has no video, If you are Only doing Still Photography, this is a Great Camera! The only thing I don't like about this camera is the lack of Live-View (which is a function I personally rarely use, anyways.)Read full review...

Verified purchase: No

A n affordable quality Full-Frame camera

I do landscape photography. I needed a full frame camera. The Canon 5d MK II was too expensive for me so I decided on its forerunner: the Canon 5D - a heavy and very solid camera. The image quality is superb and it handles really well.

Although the LCD is a bit small, the settings display is only visible on the small LCD on top of camera and you cannot see the ISO on the inside viewfinder display, these are things to get used to easily. I still have a little problem with setting correct White Balance and/or K but will work this out.

There is one BIG PLUS for those who use lenses from the old film cameras: My old Sigma Macro gave me an ERROR display when used on my cropped sensor camera - I was told that it was broken and could not be repaired and I was reluctant to have to dispose of the lens. To my surprise and delight it works perfectly on the full frame Canon 5D.

All in all, I love this camera and I will get used to the differences. Although a few years old, make no mistake: this is a tough quality workhorse camera still used by many professionals. And.. you can get it used for a very decent price.Read full review...

Decent camera, but if you've got the cash, go for 1dx

Overall, this is a very good camera. I like it a lot.

There are several things that I've noticed and did not like:

1. Auto iso works great in daylight/bright indors, but in difficult conditions (at night, badly lit indors) it plainly sucks. And there's no way to, for example, set minimal acceptable shutter speed or get a consistent picture quality with it under those conditions. I tried it at first and now I rarely use it
2. You cannot create usable pictures at extended iso.
3. The auto focus is fast, I admit that, but often it focuses not where I'd like it to focus. I assume that they included the face recognition system in canon 1dx to fix that problem. This bug renders most of the 61 auto focus points of this camera useless; I make pictures by selecting a region where I'd like for the picture to be focused. This is a time wasterRead full review...

A great professional body bargain with impressive image quality that suits most needs

This camera model is 17 years old as of the time of this review. In our day and age of technological leaps, you'd be excused to assume that it's an artefact from its era; however, the reality couldn't be any further away from this! The 5D still takes amazing looking photos that will leave you very satisfied.

While the dynamic range is not as wide as in today's technology, you can get amazing results under good lighting conditions that you won't be able to differentiate from any modern camera today. In fact, I like its rendering and colors more than some of my more recent bodies.

In the race for the highest megapixel count, this camera shies away with its 12.8 megapixel sensor; however, if you don't need to crop much for prints or pixel peep, there is no issue at all here. If you're looking at your photos all the way up to a 4k computer screen/TV, photos taken from this camera will look perfect. However, if you have an 8K monitor then you will probably notice some limitations. That said, for prints, this camera is more than enough for any large print that you might want to have, no issues there.

A few things to consider when buying this body:

This is a bargain camera. I bought mine which is in a very good condition with the box and everything else that comes with it for $255, shipping included. Of course there are a few negligible scuffs from use that do not impact the looks of the camera. There is also a noticeable discoloration around the edges of the hot shoe as Canon used to have these painted black, and other than in new bodies, I haven't come across any used copy where the black paint hasn't peeled off. The last thing is that the side flap that covers some of the connectors was almost entirely missing; however, there are tons of these brand new on ebay for as low as $3 so you can easily buy and install one which I did for my camera, it takes minimal effort and gives you that element of protection and a better looking body overall. Other than these minor imperfections, the camera is in a perfect condition. So, if you get a cleaner copy than mine, I would still not pay anything beyond $300.There are a lot of stupid deals for double the price, in which case you'd be better off buying a new entry level camera, or a 5D Mark II which has a lot of improvements over this model and sells in good condition for around that same mark.

The other thing is that this is purely a photo camera, no video. Consequently, there is no live view mode either, which might make precision manual focusing much more challenging. So, again if you need that, look for a 5D MKII instead.

One more thing is that this model is apparently known to have an issue where the mirror breaks after continued use (this is not from my experience, but from reviews out there). The issue seems to impact all models with serial numbers starting with 1 or 0. Reports are that Canon fixed the issue in later models with serial numbers starting with 2. I got to know this information just after my purchase, and my body's serial number happens to start with 1; however, I don't have a shattered mirror so far and everything seems to be working perfectly even though the body has tens of thousands of shutter actuations. Ideally I would have asked about the serial number prior to purchasing the body had I known about the issue earlier, but all in all, Canon seems to be able to service this with a fix that reinforced the mirror and addresses the problem, so I'm not too concerned.

The last thing I will share has to do with the build quality of the body. While it feels solid and very nice in the hand, I can vouch that it does not feel as sturdy as a Canon 5D MKII or a Nikon D700. While similarly to the aforementioned bodies, this camera's chassis is made of magnesium alloy and stainless steel, it still doesn't feel as rugged. This is my personal feeling; however, people over the internet praise the rigidity of this body and claim that it can take a beating just as well as other professional cameras. Note though that this is not rated as a weather sealed body, so ensure not to shoot under harsh weather conditions.

Overall, the camera has a very simple menu layout (one page only with everything as opposed to the multi-page menu system of later Canon bodies), a limited ISO range from 100 to 1600 native and 50 to 3200 extended, a bit of a primitive autofocus system that doesn't favor extreme low light shooting conditions, and a basic motor drive that goes up to only 3 FPS which might pose a challenge for birders and sport shooters. Other than that, this is an excellent body with great professional picture quality that can be used for paid jobs to this day and produce great results. It might just slow you down a bit due to some of its limitations, so if your workflow does not require a very fast paced shooting, you're in for an insane bargain with this impressive imagining tool, and you can never go wrong with a classic 5D.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: wlpowerstore

canon 5d

My first SLR was the canon 30d, then upgraded to the 40d. I loved both those cameras, and the 40d really has been a great camera overall. I happen to come across a great deal on a 5d. You keep hearing about the advantages of a full frame sensor. After testing with some candid shots, it does as well as can be expected. Picture quality is better than the 40d. I did identicle shots between the 40d and 5d, when you zoom in to 100%, you can see it is noticeably clearer. The top display looks nearly the same, minus the iso. The viewfinder is clean and crisp, but the iso,shutter speed etc is a little smaller than the 40d, yet it is readable.
All in all, it appears to be an upgrade. Cant wait to get out and do some shooting with it and also work with it in studio settings with good lighting.Read full review...

40% of the cost of the new 6D for a full-frame sensor camera - recommend.

The 5D Classic is barely a move from film to digital. When this camera came out it may have been revolutionary, but the features are somewhat primitive and regressing to the 5D Classic show how far DSLR's have come in quality and features.
That said, I have a T4i with the crop-sensor and I wanted to see the difference a full frame sensor makes, and it is substantial. This photos are pretty good - I have a 24mm f3.5 L Tilt-Shift (TS-E) which I am having a blast with, creating wide panoramas, or something I have been experimenting with, square photos, both using the shift feature of the lens. Compared to the photos on the T4i, you can see the difference in increased angle you get with the 5D full-frame sensor - I am wondering if I should even keep my T4i since I haven't been using it much.
The down-side of the 5D Classic is the viewing screen. It is very poor at seeing how the focus was, and barely helps with exposure. I am trying to set up a tablet to increase the size of the image, not sure how that will come out but hope it gives more information than just the on-camera LCD.
This is a bulky camera, and together with the chunky TS-E lens AND the battery grip, it ways about two bricks(!). But it gives a solid feel. I hardly ever shoot without a tripod.
Overall, I highly recommend getting the 5D. It does not have an auto sensor-cleaning mode - you have to buy a kit and clean the sensor by hand.
The 5D is about 40% the cost of the new 6D - balance that with the feature set of the 6D you don't get on the 5D. Remember, the 5D doesn't do video.
I recommend, for the price versus having a full-frame sensor. Shots come out very nice and I will be entering photos into local competition.Read full review...