Digital Trends

Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D

September 15th, 2005 | by David Elrich

Performance

The Maxxum 5D is ready to go the moment you turn it on. And when you do it's like getting behind the wheel of a sports car and turning the ignition key; you just know you have a lot of extra power under the hood. Although heavy, the camera feels just right with a nice grip for your right hand while your left steadies the body and adjusts the zoom lens. Very nice. Initially I shot at the default settings in Auto and used the LCD to review my photos in the field. It was here I noticed the limitations of the screen for at only 115K pixels, it's not the most detailed (you can zoom up to 4.7x to check the focus though). Another thing that's hard to miss is camera noise—not digital but aural. When you click the shutter, you know it as the roof mirror flaps. And when you fire a burst (3 fps maximum) you might consider a pair of Shure E4c noise-canceling headphones! That's a bit of an exaggeration but this is one loud camera. And here's another difference between the 7D; the 5D can save only five frames in RAW versus nine for the 7D simply because it has less memory for storage (64MB versus 128MB).

Using a camera like the Maxxum 5D in Auto is like driving a Porsche 911 with an automatic transmission. It works fine but oh, can it do a lot more. The 5D has a number of Program AE setting like those found on point-and-shoot cameras (Portrait, Landscape, High-Speed Shutter, Sunset and Night Portrait). They're nice but keep turning the mode dial and you'll get to Manual where the Photo Gods offer their wares. You can adjust shutter speed (30-1/4000^th of a second plus bulb), aperture, ISO (up to 3200) and more white balance settings than you thought possible. There are also advanced exposure, focus and metering adjustments as well as lots more. This one will keep you fiddling with the menu for hours on end, just to see the camera's capabilities.

The quality of the images I shot in bright early Fall light was excellent, with very accurate colors and fine detail when viewed on a PC monitor and turned into 8.5x11 prints. I too played with the camera's manual adjustments, especially pushing the ISO indoors. Is there grain at 3200? Of course but it really didn't become too noticeable until 800 on my prints. The Anti-Shake mechanism did a very solid job, letting me take indoor shots at high ISOs without much blur at all. The battery did its Energizer Bunny thing and just kept going—it's terrific.

Overall I was happy with photo quality and even after a long evaluation period barely drilled as deeply into the feature set as was possible. As previously noted, these features will keep photo enthusiasts entertained for a long, long time. Dare I say it? I actually was happy shooting away in Auto with excellent shot-to-shot time, little lag and very fast focusing. Yet something kept nagging at me as I packed the camera away...

Image Courtesy of Konica Minolta