A couple of first impressions with the 5D

Well, it's dark outside, and I have nothing to shoot around the house of interest other than kittehs, but so far, I'm blown away by the 5D and the two new lenses.

Let's start with the benefit of a full-frame sensor I hadn't thought much about: The viewfinder is HUGE. When you look in there, it's a giant bright view. Instead of three focus points, there are I think nine, and until I set it otherwise it finds the best single or combination.

The focus, perhaps because of these lenses, is super fast. I put the camera into AI Servo mode with the 50mm, and was shocked at how quickly and continuously it makes adjustments, since the depth of field on the 50mm, when wide open at f/1.4, is incredibly shallow. That's why I was able to snag the image below.

The menus and controls are roughly the same as my old 10D, though this one doesn't have a built-in flash. I've tried my Speedlite 550EX, and my existing 70-200mm f/4 L too. The big zoom seems faster when it focuses.

The noise level exceeds my expectations in ever way. The image below was at ISO 1600, which frankly looks like 400 film from back in the day. A few test shots at 100, 200 and 400 show no discernible noise. There's a tiny bit at 800, I'd feel totally comfortable shooting at 800.

As for the new lenses, the 50mm f/1.4 is every bit as cool as the reviewers say it is. While not as heavy as an L lens, it still has a nice build quality. It has manual focus override like most of the L's as well, without having to switch out of auto mode. I was annoyed that I had to buy the lens hood separately. The very shallow depth at f/1.4 is a little challenging with the animals since they won't hold still, but with humans who move less, I can just imagine how wonderful and soft those images can be.

The 24-105mm f/4 L IS is just amazing. It's kind of heavy, no doubt because of the image stabilizer and all of the metal construction. Looking through that full-frame viewfinder at 24mm makes me remember how much I've missed true wide angle shots, which you can't get without a very, very wide lens on the cropped field camera bodies. I look forward to shooting outdoors in daylight, to see just how sharp the picture is, especially with the IS.

Overall, the initial impression is that it was worth every penny, and I haven't even shot anything that cool with it yet. It's an amazing tool.

Here's the one shot that I liked out of the two dozen or so I shot of the cats. Emma has never looked so good! It was at ISO 1600, 1/30, f/1.4, using the 50mm lens.