Let me put my cards on the table. I have no interest in technology. It if works, does what I need it to do and is reliable then that’s the piece of kit for me. That’s why I drive a Volvo! It’s also why despite having bought new cameras over the years I still turn to my original Canon 5Ds (or ‘The Classic’ as it is now known) which I purchased in 2006 and have used for all of my professional commissioned shoots ever since. Not professional I hear you cry? Well, it was once and therefore in my mind it is today. Let me explain why…

The 5D was the first digital DSLR that made high quality digital capture affordable and although by modern standards, its specifications may look outdated. Its ability to use EF lenses with their full field-of-view was revelatory at the time, as was its CMOS chip and low light capability, despite its upper limit of only ISO 1600 (expandable to 3200). Sure it has no weather sealing, a viewfinder with 96% coverage and a relatively modest by today’s standards 2.5″ screen. It has no live view or video, no Wi-Fi and no GPS, but it is built like a tank, feels good in the hand and today can be picked up secondhand for less than £150. The 5D isn’t complicated, its easy to use and therefore quick to understand and use. The basic menu is just one long page and takes only a couple minutes to run through and check. I like that. I dont want to spend time understanding, programming and double checking every setting in my camera. I just want it to work!

Now, at this point you may be wondering why I am talking about a camera when I regularly state that we are not a camera focused site and I am not a camera focused guy. Well, the answer to that is simple. This is not a review, I am not being paid by Canon to write it and I have no connection with Canon. I’m also not going to give you a whole host of performance data because I don’t have any! The reason for writing this is to make a point based on my personal experience.

I have seen specialist camera sites re-visit the 5D and conclude that it’s a good camera now for a beginner on a budget. That you can use post-production techniques to improve its resolution to add to the photographers ‘skill set’. Whatever ‘skill set’ in this context may mean. Such sites have to keep camera manufactiurers on their side to keep them going through advertising revenue from new launches and free trips to ‘test’ new cameras. They are compromised but I am not in that game!

The 5D was a pro camera when it was launched and as a pro photographer who still uses it from my perspective it still is. You can look at my website, all of which was shot on a 5D (except the analogue images shot on a Hasselblad or Nikon F1) httpwww.grantscott.com and make your own mind up as to its versatility and quality. You dont need to comment as to whether or not you like my work, that is not the point. Based on my real life experience I recommend the 5D to all photographers who ask me for a recomendation as a great camera to work with. Its as simple as that.

If you think I am wrong to make such a recomendation let me set you a conundrum. If you are an analogue photographer do you have an issue with making work with a Hasselblad from the 70s? A Nikon from the 60s, A Leica from the 50s? Or a plate camera from any decade before the year 2000? Do you think that these cameras are only for beginners? I thought not. So why would a simple, well made, capable DSLR from 2006 only be for beginners? I’ll leave you to answer that question…

Dr.Grant Scott
After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work zas a photographer for a number of advertising and editorial clients in 2000. Alongside his photographic career Scott has art directed numerous advertising campaigns, worked as a creative director at Sotheby’s, art directed foto8magazine, founded his own photographic gallery, edited Professional Photographer magazine and launched his own title for photographers and filmmakers Hungry Eye. He founded the United Nations of Photography in 2012, and is now a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and a BBC Radio contributor. Scott is the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019), and What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020). His photography has been published in At Home With The Makers of Style (Thames & Hudson 2006) and Crash Happy: A Night at The Bangers (Cafe Royal Books 2012). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was premiered in 2018.

Scott’s book Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is on sale now.

© Grant Scott 2025