And where can I find a list/review of the best lenses for it?

Hi Frank,

I have the 5D and, though it has it's shortcomings, it is a great camera. Being a full format camera however, it needs the best lenses you can afford, preferably prime lenses.

I have tested the following zoom lenses:

24-105mm/4.0 L IS USM: quite visible chromatic abberation and vignetting at the wide end at f4, but no longer visible at f8. Much better at the long end. Distracting pillow distortion if you photograph architecture, no problem in most other cases

24-70mm/2.8 L USM: much better overall performance than the 24-105/4.0 L IS, but not perfect either.

70-200mm/2.8 L IS USM: great lens, even at f2.8 it is pretty good. My favourite lens.

100-400/4.5-5.6 L IS USM: not bad at all, but sharpness is not as good as in the case of the 70-200mm, but you wouldn't expect that.

The Canon L-primes I own (just the long focal lenght lenses) are all very good. I don't have any experience with lenses of third party manufacturers.

rainer: what do you consider the camera's shortcomings....i'm curious, have been thinking about getting one of the these.....everyone who has one seems to love it...

Meryem,

I like it myself, so the shortcomings I mentioned are not really serious, but for the price...

- the AF works only up to f5.6, so I can't use the 1.4x extender on the 100-400mm/4.5-5.6 L IS USM or the 2x extender on the 500mm/4.0 L IS USM

- the AF is faster and more accurate than that of the 20D/30D but still note quite as good as that of the 1D series of cameras (yes, it's cheaper, but still...)

- it doesn't show the ISO speed in the viewfinder. Personally I think, this is a major drawback

Otherwise it's a fine camera and 'm very happy with it.

Thanks. I'm thinking of 2 prime lenses, a normal and a short tele. Is there any site that has lens test/evaluations for this mount?

Rainer, thats bizarre because my friend Justin has the 100-400 and has used a canon extender on it. Ah, i love my 350d, got to love the crop factor for long range work lol.

His exact words to me are that you can trick it into autofocusing - "you need to tape over 3 connectors in the extender, the ones on the left as you look at it, it fools the camera into thinking that the extender isn't there". he says that the af is slow but will do ok for still shots (no panning for you).

His exact words to me are that you can trick it into autofocusing - "you need to tape over 3 connectors in the extender, the ones on the left as you look at it, it fools the camera into thinking that the extender isn't there". he says that the af is slow but will do ok for still shots (no panning for you).

Yes, Tim, I know about this trick. But as you say, the AF is slow and sometimes erratic then. I would have expected a camera that carries such a hefty price tag to work with the extenders without having to tape over any contacts.

But as I said before, the 5D is a great camera.

in the end, if you really want more reach theres still the 1200mm f5.6 ;) lol

sorry for telling you what you already know, maybe other people will find it uself.

in the end, if you really want more reach theres still the 1200mm f5.6 ;) lol

sorry for telling you what you already know, maybe other people will find it uself.

Well, I guess I should sell my house first.

But the 1Ds MkII works fine with the extenders. And the 5d is a nice spare body, just in case...

Oh, well, should I see my bank manager?

I just bought my 5D today. Luckily my sister is visiting me from Texas so I had her show her passport and I got it tax free, that along with the $200 cash back from Canon and I got it $400 cheaper. I was using the 8 megapixel digital Rebel, so I finally outgrew that camera and got the 5D.

I will use it this weekend on a photo shoot, got to read up on the manual, also got the Epson P-4500 picture viewer. I love the full size sensor, I got a 17-35mm Tamron lens and I took some shots in the house, can't wait to shoot in the nightclubs with that lens. Gonna have to save up some more money and get some better lens in the future. I'll post my experiences after I had some time to shoot with it.

I'm looking forward to your feedback, Rik.