Nalu Loc: Southern Arizona

I have one that I used off and on for years. Relatively simple and straight forward and nice images. I used it only for landscapes so there are not many clicks. Had the sensor cleaned and have not used it since. I would be willing to sell. Considering the price range quoted here, I would consider $375 plus shipping. Send me a private response if you are interested.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

The 5D "Classic" is an excellent camera for some things. It was the first reasonably affordable full frame DSLR and was the top choice of wedding photographers in it's day. It's still perfectly capable of making excellent portraits (you might want to pick up an 85/1.8 lens for that purpose... the 135/2L is also superb, but a lot more expensive).

One thing the 5DC is NOT particularly good for is birding. You will be much better off continuing to use your 60D for that. Mainly, the 5DC's weakness is it's rather primitive AF system. On the surface, it looks the same as your 60D's... but it's not. For moving subjects it's center AF point is the only one that's even remotely usable... and even then it's not as good tracking movement as some other cameras (such as your 60D).

Also, the "extra reach" of your 60D is an advantage. It's sort of like a "free teleconverter". The 60D simply puts "a lot more pixels on target" than you'd see cropping a 5DC's image down to the same dimension. 60D is 18MP... by the time you crop a 5DC image down to the same dimensions, only about 5MP would be left. Believe me, you would see the difference in image quality with any print larger than 8x10 (or similarly cropped).

The other drawback of the 5DC is that it doesn't have a self-cleaning sensor, the way your 60D does. The 5DC was widely thought of as a "dust magnet".... so be prepared to do fairly frequent manual sensor cleanings. This was enough of a concern that I waited and bought the 5DII instead (same AF system unfortunately... but self-cleaning sensor and a big jump to 21MP, among other things). I have to do a lot of shooting in very dusty conditions and had to clean my 30D's quite a lot as it was, didn't need a FF that was even more of a dust bunny. However, someone working in less dusty conditions would have a lot less trouble, I'm sure.

Still, even though it's old tech now, the 5DC is excellent for some other things. As mentioned, it's a great portrait camera. It's also good for landscapes, cityscapes, seascapes. Anything you might want to shoot with a wide angle, it's excellent. Your 28-135 will actually be able to shoot wide, using it on a FF camera (and that's actually a pretty darned good lens... it matches the much more expensive 24-105L in almost all respects other than build quality and environmental sealing). To really enjoy wide angle with it and complement what you already have, I might recommend the Canon EF 20/2.8 lens.

And, another good thing... all the lenses you mention having are usable on both crop and full frame. But you didn't tell us what one of the Tamron lenses was... some of those are "crop only", Tamron designates them "Di I"... Those they designate "Di", such as the 150-600mm, are full frame capable.

In general, I agree with some other responses there would be some advantages to a 5DII or a 6D... but of course they will cost 2X or 3X as much!

EDIT:

Also, 5DC uses BP511, BP511A and BP-512 batteries and Compact Flash memory. Both those are fine and are widely available (third party BP511 are cheap!). But your 60D uses the newer LP-E6 batteries and SD memory, so won't be able to share either with the 5DC. In comparison, the 5DII uses Compact Flash and LP-E6... so at least would share batteries. And, the current 6D uses SD memory and LP-E6, so could share both these with your 60D (Off-hand, I'm not sure what your Rebel camera uses... older Rebel used BP511 and CF memory... but later ones use an entirely different battery from 60D or any of the FF model, though they do use SD memory.)

The 6D also has control layout/menus/etc. most similar to 60D (5DC, 5DII and 5DIII have control layout more similar to 7D-series, 50D, 40D, 30D).

All the Canon FF cameras DO NOT have articulated LCD screens or built-in flashes. If you use these features on your 60D, it might be a consideration. If you use one for portraiture and don't already have one, might need to budget for an accessory flash (or studio lighting setup).

The 20MP 6D is considered the "king of low light" among current Canon models (short of the $4500+ 1DX). The 21MP 5DII comes pretty close, but the 6D is about a stop or more better... and it's center AF point is able to focus in exceptionally low light (but the 6D's AF is otherwise pretty simplistic and fairly comparable to the 5DC's and 5DII's.. The 22MP 5DIII sees a really big step up in AF performance, but of course it costs a whole heck of a lot more).

Two things to watch out for if buying a used 5DC are the condition of the mirror and the sensor. It was a common problem on the 5DC for the mirror to come loose. Initially it was just glued in place... and after some use the glue would let loose. Canon fixed this free and installed some little clips at the edges that solved the problem both on the repaired cameras and during late production. Do a search online and you can probably find a photo of how the little clips at the edges of the mirror look, if it's been properly fixed or is one of the late production models. If I were shopping for a 5DC, I'd look for and hope fix had been done, just to be safe.

Another thing was that the sensors of that vintage Canon were sometimes damaged by sensor cleaning fluids. In fact, it's the coatings on the surface of the filter that sits in front of the sensor that got damaged. This happened with 5DC, 30D and some other models. For a while, there were special cleaning fluids recommended for use with those Canons (also some Sony and other manufacturers' DSLRs). The folks making the cleaning fluids eventually changed them all to prevent this issue... and Canon improved their coatings at some point. Just check any used camera you are considering carefully. So long as there is no apparent problem (shows up as spots on images made at small apertures and can be seen as flaking coatings on close inspection), modern cleaning fluids should be fine and Canon may have improved their coatings during the 5DC's production run. At any rate, it's not a problem you hear occurring any longer.

I am NOT sayin' "Don't buy a 5D classic". It may be perfect for your some of your needs. I'm just pointing out some of the things you should watch out for and will need to consider making your decision.

Old Timer Loc: Greenfield, In.

I am NOT sayin' "Don't buy a 5D classic". It may be perfect for your some of your needs. I'm just pointing out some of the things you should watch out for and will need to consider making your decision.

I have some of the same thoughts that you mentioned but I did not want to spend that much now after the hearing aids. I think I will wait and get the 6D as that was what I was originally thinking. At my age I really do not need, it is a case of G.A.S. mainly.