Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D User Reviews September 15th, 2005 | by David Elrich
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Average user rating from 4 users |
Better than Rebel XT
by Tim on Oct 20th, 2005 at 9:55 AM:
I had a chance to use both the Maxxum 5D and Rebel XT and compare them for a few days. Here is what I found...
Both are pretty good in weight, size and feel. In terms of build quality, the XT feels a bit cheap/plastic vs. the 5D, except for the 5D shutter/mirror which is extremely loud & sounds cheaper.
The XT has a “pop up flash” that automatically pops itself up (in auto mode) or can be engaged via a button. In my opinion, Minolta went cheap on this, offering neither an auto pop up nor a button to manually pop it (must raise w/ fingers manually).
Despite having a pocket Canon digital, I have never found their menu system very easy to navigate or their icons particularly intuitive, and also found this with the XT. Again, this is perhaps personal preference, but I just find the 5D menu easier to navigate, with the exception of the “zoom” function in playback mode. Here, Canon allows stepped zooming in; Minolta zooms all the way in first, and only then allows stepped zooming out and back in.
Re: the display itself, the very large 2.5 inch display of the 5D offers a much easier way to view the camera settings than the XT, in my opinion, though they both use 115,000 pixels total. The practical effect of this is that the LCD panel on the 5D appears “grainier”. To me, the graininess was not that bad and I find it a reasonable compromise in getting a larger 2.5 inch display vs. the 1.8” on the XT.
W/ the viewfinders I did notice is that the XT exposure compensation scale appears larger and thus easier to read in the viewfinder than is the 5D’s. Perhaps this is because of the space for the “anti-shake” indicators in the viewfinder.
Control layout (buttons / switches) are pretty good on both, though I think the 5D looks a bit cleaner / less cluttered. One complaint on the 5D – the on/off is on the left hand side of the camera meaning you can’t pick up the camera w/ the right hand and turn it on w/ that same hand.
As for metering, one advantage of the 5D is spot metering. In terms of Auto White Balance, I found both were inadequate under low wattage tungsten, though overall the 5D was much less bad. In theory, the Canon offers better white balance control via a 4 quadrant grid, but it looks like a lot of trouble and testing would need to be done to get it right.
As for the Minolta anti-shake, I have to say it seems to work well. I did not test it extensively, but did use it a bit and liked it.
As for image quality, I found the skintones SIGNIFICANTLY more natural with the 5D. The Canon skintones were too pinkish and fake looking for my liking. I have seen the exact same unnatural effect w/ my pocket Canon s400. Fine detail surprisingly seemed a bit better w/ the 5D, depending on the shot. However, in the bright highlights (white shirt in the sun) the Canon did better. But overall, the image just looked better w/ the 5D. This was far from a scientific test, just my initial impressions, but it convinced me that I made not just an OK choice w/ the 5D, but the BETTER choice in terms of image quality. Others my disagree, this is just my opinion (and my wife’s when I had her compare the images without saying which came from which camera).
In summary, I am very happy with my choice of the 5D over the Rebel XT. The thing that drew me the 5D was the larger display and the anti-shake. I was concerned about the lower megapixels and imaging capabilities, but after looking at side by side images, I think overall the 5D outperformed the XT despite having fewer MP. If you are looking at a camera in this class, I suggest you seriously consider the 5D unless you are tied to the Canon system or need its greater range of flexibility.
My first DSLR
by Sanjuro on Sep 22nd, 2005 at 11:32 PM:
I have to say first that I had a SLR canon eos and jumped into the digital world into a Nikon Coolpix 4300 (a very good P&S but old).
I found that the film era for me was dead, I sold both cameras and bought the Dynax 5D.
Why? I am a hobby photograph, the p&S was not good enough, and i did not wanted to spent a lot of money in develop of film (3 or 4 rolls per month, you can count) so the digital was a good choice for me.
I had narrowed my search to 3 cameras, KM 5D, Nikon d50 and eos 350D and i bought the 5D becouse of price issues (it was the cheapest).
I borrowed a Nikon D70 from work and it is a very good camera but too heavy and bulky. It is like a bazooka if you sooht street photo.
Now regardeing image quality, the 5D is an excellent camera, I have really nice photos, I had the camera for 3 weeks so far and it is a really good one.
It is not to noise so the review here states, it is loud but nothing disturbing for me (for the moment).
Bad things:
The display has low resolution.
The only thing I can point.
I can recommend it to everybody who is looking for a DSLR.
Rgds
Sanjuro
Very good camera
by Allan on Sep 17th, 2005 at 4:10 PM:
I'm coming from Point and Shoot (P&S) land and I love my new Maxxum 5D. My previous camera was an Olympus C750uz, which I really liked, but left me wanting more.
The 5D certainly is bigger and heavier. Of course it is, it's a dSLR. It also has many more features and capabilities than your average, or even state of the art P&S. My mom just got a Canon PowerShot S2, which is fine for her (she's 73), but I wanted something that I can grow with.
First, there are a couple of things I wish the 5D did better. 1) the LCD could have had more pixels. 2) The shutter release button and the control wheel could have been swapped. I think then the camera would be as easy to hold as a Nikon D50 (very nice camera, BTW). I just need to get used to the feel, but it's SOOO much better than the Rebel XT. I have small hands for a man and and Rebel XT just hurts to hold (literally), so I passed on it.
Now the good, and why I got the 5D. First off, its a dSLR which means virtually instant focusing (much faster than any P&S) as well as near instant on.
Second, interchangeable lens. I can get lens that covers the 12x range of a P&S for my walk-around lens. Even with the wide range lens (28-300mm which translates to 42-450mm SLR), the picture quality is still better then a P&S due to the much larger sensor of the dSLR. Larger sensor means more light can get captured into the picture. Once I feel I'm ready, I can move up to specific lens for specific purposes, and get even better pictures.
Third, Anti-Shake (AS). Sure some P&S cameras have this, and a few lens from Canon and Nikon have it, but with the 5D As is built in and available on almost any lens. For snapshots having AS is great, and a must for hand-held long telephoto shots.
Overall I'm very pleased with my Maxxum 5D. The Nikon D50 is a slightly better camera, but only marginally so. The AS on the 5D tips the scales to the 5D for me and many others. The ergonomics are so bad on the Rebel XT that virtually any other dSLR is better. If the camera hurts to hold, then what's the fun.
The 5D is an ideal camera for the P&S shooter ready to move up to a dSLR. Anti-Shake, interchangeable lens, virtually instant auto-focus, great high ISO shooting range, good ergonomics, and competitively pricing makes this a great choice. Remember this when you price the camera: anti-shake is built in! a Nikon D50 is, at best $700 with a lens. The 5D is about $785 with a lens. For only $85 you get anti-shake for every lens. Fantastic.
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Better than the 7d
by photov on Dec 30th, 2005 at 10:54 PM:
-Auto ISO from 100-800. On 7d only 100-400.
-Select Hi/Lo Zones from the ISO menu directly.
-Better exposure than the 7d.
-White Balance bracketing (oh man this is heaven).
-Smaller, so it is easier to get those candid shots.
The shutter is louder than the 7d, but that never bothered me because it never ruined a shot for me ever, and I take alot of public candid shots. People just dont pay attention to me because the camera is so small. When I had the 7d I was always getting stares and quesions.
Ok so the 7d people argue that all of their manual functions are now embedded in menus. It is actually not as bad as the old-timer 7d users make it out to be. All of the necessary functions are easy to get to:
White Balance: its own dial.
ISO: Its own button.
Shooting mode: Its own button.
Preset modes: Its own dial.
AEL: Its own button.
EV Compensation: Hold button/turn dial. VERY EASY TO USE. (Alot easier than the Rebel).
And for other things like focus mode selection and other minute functions that you would need to change there is the function button. Minolta has really made menu browsing extremely easy.
Why do the old-timer 7d users complain that the 5d is not up to par with the 7d? Because they are too lazy to buy the 5d and because they think its an amateur camera. Buy how riduculous and incorrect!