So I'm really torn and was hoping for some advice. I am really getting into stock photography and hoping to make a modest living with it some day down the road. I have been using the original canon 1D since the first week it came out on the market and am wanting to update for a higher resolution body.I have looked at a used Canon 1Ds, a new 40D, and a 5D. I love the 5D but its a little out of my price range. The full sensor would be awesome with noise reduction but I was wondering which one you guys think would work best for microstock? I was also looking a little bit at the Fuji Film S5 but have never used anything but Canon and dont know much about it. Please let me know which you think would be best for image size and quality, thanks for any help.

Keep in mind that if you switch from Canon you will most likely have to buy all new lenses, flash, etc.

At present, the best microstock camera is the 5D Canon.

Remember that the most important choice is the lens quality, not the body. Canon has the best overall quality and quantity of lenses. 

First up I don't see how you can make your first statement, please gives reasons why the 5D is the best microstock camera, is it just because you have one. There are many cameras it's equal and quite a few which are better.

Next one I don't think that there is a hell of a lot of difference between the lense line up of canon and nikon, canon make poor quality wide angle lense, why else are all those pro guys over at Fred Miranda and other pro forums using Leica and CZ.......

a few of the benefits for the 5D are

full frame sensor (less noise)
12mp - a decent amount
relatively cheap for the functionality and the sensor size.
small (compared to the 1D cameras) so it is nice to travel with - or use it as a walk around camera

Quote from: yingyang0 on February 14, 2008, 00:55

At present, the best microstock camera is the 5D Canon.

Remember that the most important choice is the lens quality, not the body. Canon has the best overall quality and quantity of lenses. 

First up I don't see how you can make your first statement, please gives reasons why the 5D is the best microstock camera, is it just because you have one. There are many cameras it's equal and quite a few which are better.

Next one I don't think that there is a hell of a lot of difference between the lense line up of canon and nikon, canon make poor quality wide angle lense, why else are all those pro guys over at Fred Miranda and other pro forums using Leica and CZ.......

I'll second this! As a 5D-Owner i would say that the 5D is the worst for Microstock the main reason - DUST. I own 7 DSLRs from three different brands and the 5D is the worst then it comes to Dust its a actually a Dust-Magnet. Yes if you do isolated stuff its okay but anything else especially Macro, Landscapes with blue skies etc you will spend a lot of time removing dust in PS.
And to clean its Sensor is also a task you will have a hard time to clean the corners of the sensor because of the limited space in the mirror-box.
Noise of course is still state-of-the-art but any modern DSLR don't have issues at low iso and high-iso is never recommendable for Microstock.

My friend just bought a 5d - I'll let you know what he thinks about it once I find out from him.  The dust thing seems to be the biggest hassle, so for me I'd probably go with the cheaper 40D. 

Is there a website that shows the difference between normal and full frame cameras?  How much more of the shot from the lens do you actually get?

My friend just bought a 5d - I'll let you know what he thinks about it once I find out from him.  The dust thing seems to be the biggest hassle, so for me I'd probably go with the cheaper 40D. 

Is there a website that shows the difference between normal and full frame cameras?  How much more of the shot from the lens do you actually get?

why would the dust be any better on a 4D, or other brand camera for that sake?

I don't find it too difficult to clean the camera once every couple months.

Newer Cameras have a sensorcoating that is less "dust-magnetic".
And a few other improvements which doesn't work all the time but at least make things better. (Filter- or Sensorshaking with a stickingstripe in the mirrorbox thats collect the dust falling from the sensor etc.)
Also thicker AA-Filters makes the dust less visible.
Leaf take your Macrolens manuell focus it on closest distance put it in aperture priority with a aperture of 22 or 32 and release the shutter (point your camera against a white wall or any uniform area it doesn't matter if you have a shutterspeed of several seconds). Now look at the Image and try to clean the corners till the image is totally clear - good luck

Yep, I have done just that.... that is how I clean it - but you forgot to use 'auto levels' in photoshop on the image to really bring the dust to site.

I bought the 5D last july.

I have clean it a couple times - the last time being a week ago before a wedding.

Just to double check I took a sensor dust picture just now. 
Here is the dirtiest corner (100% crop of the top right corner after auto levels in photoshop) of the sensor.  The other corners had 3 or so flecks on them.

I clean with a brush and blower, and if necessary swabs.

5D is great except the dust problem. I hope Canon will introduce successor to 5D with dust removal system soon . I found out that dry brushes do not work well with the 5D. Now I use Eclipse liquid sensor swap system which works just great. But it is a great camera. If I have enough money in the future I will go to 1ds series, but meanwhile I stick with the 5d series...

I hope this help.

br, MJP