Recovery

Just minutes before leaving to go to our local wood, my mother took ill and passed out in her kitchen. Although she wasn’t badly hurt in the fall, it was a very anxious time. Thankfully a few weeks later she was back enjoying the walk she had missed.

On the same day as her return to the woods, I dusted off the old Canon EOS 5D I’d bought back in 2006. It had been lying on a shelf for seven years after being damaged during a hike through the Mourne Mountains. A small sponge strip that absorbs the impact of the mirror had been dislodged, lost somewhere in the grass and heather at 2000ft. Fortunately I was able to use an almost identical part from my 90s EOS 50 film camera. Out of the seven original batteries I still had, only three held a full charge.

If you’re thinking of buying an EOS 5D, first released in 2005, while I enjoyed using it I’d hesitate to recommend it. Apart from the weight – it’s heavy! – you’ll appreciate better high ISO performance, SD cards rather than CompactFlash, the inclusion of live view, and the much improved LCDs on more modern cameras. You’ll probably prefer more megapixels too. If it’s a used full-frame EOS camera you’re after, you might want to consider a 6D instead, or a modern Canon mirrorless model.

If you’re just getting into photography I can also recommend the Fujifilm X-T range of cameras. I recently bought a used X-T3. It’s an impressive camera.