Initial Impressions
My initial impressions of this camera are that it is heavy. I know that's not too flattering, but it is the first thing one notices. Weighing in at about 1.5lbs (.8kg), it is heavier than my pz-1p, which itself was on the heavy side. Add to it the 100m f/2.8 macro that I bought to go with the camera (a heavy piece of glass in itself) and it is like doing photography with a brick. The weight doesn't both me, but it does bother the rest of my family when they try and use my camera. Worthwhile though, as the images are superb. Take, for example, this cropping from a 1-1 magnification of part of a $20US bill. Even after resizing by blogger.com for inclusion on this posting, there is still lots of detail.
Notice the fine lined hexagons. We can't see much of the other fine detail though, so let's take a closer look...
On this full-res crop you can see very fine details, like the blue threads embedded in the paper matrix, the glossiness of individual paper fibers and the three-dimentional nature of the holographic ink. I picked this subject because of all the fine detail, and found that I liked it because of the coppery, sparkly color of the holographic ink on the “20”. A large print of it would show both, too bad it isn't a more exciting composition.
The LCD Screen
The LCD screen for previewing images is very bright. I've had to turn the brightness all the way up on every digital camera I've ever owned as almost the first thing I've done, but I haven't needed to do that here. This is our winter though, which means short, dark days and eternally overcast skies. I only get to play with the camera after dark, or under overcast skies, so I'll have to wait a few months to know for sure.
The Graphical User Interface
My way of rating any user interface is a bit strange – I rate them based almost solely on how easy they are to use without ever opening the manual. That's about the toughest standard there is, but I also have a rock-solid reason for using that metric. From experience, I've learned that if a feature isn't self-explanatory or intuitive, then I can't use it without constant reference to the manual. Sure I could memorize their manual, but I've also got a lot of other manuals to memorize, not to mention all kinds of other things to remember, like to stop for milk on the way home. For portable devices, not meeting this stringent metric simply means it's UI failed. Obviously, different features deserve different standards. Core features must meet this goal or the UI has failed. Ancillary features get a looser standard depending on how useful they are. For portable devices, I expect a better user interface because referring to the manual is more difficult. For cameras, I've learned my metric needs to be even tougher yet as I find that the ancillary features are oftentimes the very features I need to solve a technical photographic problem out in the field. What good is knowing the camera can do something when you can't figure out how to get it to do that when you need it?
All that said, I'd say the GUI of the 5D mostly works. The core features like aperture and shutter speed control, exposure compensation and exposure lock are all very convenient. The custom settings are also very nicely done, with each including a one-line mnemonic description and enable/disable (or another appropriate list) of selections to choose from. Contrast this with my pz-1p, which numbers the custom functions and uses 0/1 or on/off settings, and the 5n is lightyears ahead.
My only criticism thus far is that the mirror-prefire feature, something I find I use often, is obscure to set and not indicated well. Chances are, the designers figured nobody would want it since the camera can do true mirror lockup (and that mode is easy to set). They may be right. Since this is my first camera with true mirror lockup (my pz-1p only had prefire), I haven't tried it yet to see if I like it. It'll have to wait till I get a shutter release cable though.
So, what's my big beef with this feature? Twofold: it is obscure to set, and there is no indication it is active. To set mirror prefire, one turns on mirror lockup in the custom functions, then sets the self timer. And.. the camera indicates self timer and mirror lockup both set. However, the camera doesn't do either.. the 10 second self timer is abreviated to 2 seconds, and the mirror doesn't lockup and require a second shutter click to take the picture. Instead, the mirror flips up immediately when the shutter button is pressed and then, two seconds later, the shutter automatically trips. Would it have been so hard to give the mirror lockup custom function three settings: Enable, Disable and Prefire?
This is the worst UI gripe I can come up with, so they've definately succeeded.
The Control Layout
Another part of the user interface is the layout of the control knobs, buttons, jog controls and joystick. I've no serious complaints this early. With one exception, everything seems to be more or less laid out where it is convenient without being convenient to accidently bump. Overall, I think they did a very good job laying out the control buttons. There are a lot of buttons back there, and on the top, but they grouped them, making it easier to compartmentalize my memory of what they are and what they do. They also clearly marked them so I don't even have to remember what they do. Better yet, even though each button on the top controls mutliple settings, they used two different controls to change those settings. No significant multiplexing of controls makes for a very easy to remember interface. I don't have any other recent Canon SLRs to compare to, but have been told by friends that the interface is very similar. Regardless how long they've been developing it, they really do deserve some kudos for what they implemented.
The only sore spots I have with the control layout is that they used paint to label the buttons.. it'll be interesting to see how long it takes to wear off, and whether I've memorized the button functions by then. My other complaint is the location of the depth of field preview button. The location is expected from the mechanical lever days, but inconvenient for macro photography. I can't peek around the front of the camera to find it and if I press it too hard (which often happens since I can't see what I'm doing with that button), I shift the camera and ruin the composition or focus. I already have a sturdy tripod, and the next step up in stability, concrete pilings, are notoriously difficult to adjust and move, so are not an option. A relocation of this button to the rear of the camera would have been appreciated.
The Images
All this discussion about the camera aside, it's really all about the images. Like I said earlier, the images are supurb. Here's a cropping (a very small cropping) from a 1-1 picture of a book page that demonstrates the level of detail this camera is capable of capturing:
Not only can we see two very crisply printed letters, but we can see every individual paper fiber, the glossiness of those fibers, how they were deformed by the the detail in the weave of the paper, the depression made in those fibers by the type and the glossiness of the ink.
And this is just a boring old man-made macro subject. I can't wait till I start putting little bits of nature in front of my lens.
Enough for now.
posted by patbobw @ 7:25 AM
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