Seven years ago I took a borrowed Canon 5D MkI to Cornwall and made some pictures that I was really pleased with. Deciding that it would be ridiculous to keep the camera alongside the work 5D MkIII I had at the time, I parted with it.
After questioning this decision for about six years, last year I bit the bullet and finally bought myself a Canon 5D MkI (or Classic). After some initial excitement, the camera got relegated to the shelf while I messed around with other things.
I’ve been testing new emulsions in my 35mm Canon EOS 1, testing a new lens on my Leica, and between the expense and the delay that comes with shooting film, and the fact that time spent in Cornwall is at least a little to blame for my owning a MkI in the first place, it seemed like an ideal opportunity to reengage with the camera.
The only thing that worried me was that now I had bitten the bullet, there was a chance that we wouldn’t get on as well as we had. A number of those original 5D Classic images remain in my portfolio, and while poetic in its circularity, taking this one back to Cornwall felt a little dangerous, what if I ended up feeling frustrated by its limitations or just made bad pictures?
While the MkI shares a number of similarities with its analog forebears, limited ISO range, noise performance, autofocus and control layout for example, I think I’ve overstated their impact in the past and there is one glaring differential that affects the way that I shoot it.
The freedom to take a lot of photos with impunity changes entirely the way that I use and engage with the camera. I took 328 photos with *The Classic* in the day or so that we were away, a feat that while slim by digital camera standards would have bankrupted me if I’d been shooting one of my film cameras.
The original trip with the 5D MkI was essentially an exercise. It was the only 5D body I hadn’t owned and I wanted to try it out. (I also liked the idea of a ‘cheap’ full frame SLR that I could drop in a rock pool and not lose my shirt as well).
The result of that experiment was falling in love with the colour that the camera produces. I don’t know why the 5D Classic produces such lovely colours. I don’t know enough about colour science to know what it’s doing differently to other Canon cameras, but I know that I rejoice in the colour I get back from the sensor and I love the nearly post-free process that comes with shooting it.
I could presumably replicate the colours with my R5 and own one less camera, but I don’t want to do that, there’s something amazing about a camera that produces the right look under most circumstances.
The pictures I took while I was away are a nice record of the adventure. I really like that they were free to produce. Keeping this camera feels like a luxury, but so do all my film cameras, and I’m okay with that.
