Excerpt from the Canon Boot Camp Manual
How Big Is Big?
It’s interesting to point out here that the 5D’s sensor is as big as the RED Epic.
Take a look at the illustration below:
The lavender area is the size of Canon’s 5D sensor.
In other words, the Canon’s 5D is HUGE.
Find the Alexa’s sensor (2880 x 1620). The RED Scarlet has a sensor measuring 3072 x 1620. Even the new Canon C300 is smaller, at 3840 x 2160. The 5D is bigger than all of them, at 5616 x 3744 pixels. It just can’t push a sensor full of data at 30 frames per second . . . YET! That will probably take faster circuitry which means heat, which means fans and a different camera body. Even Canon’s new C300 doesn’t have a sensor as big as the 5D Mark II.
Many expect that the Canon 5D Mark III will improve the output specs of this camera, which is already a favorite in Hollywood. Canon introduced their new cinema camera, the C300, with a sensor dimension of 3840 x 2160. That’s 34 percent bigger than the Alexa.
The C300 is also capable of shooting at 3200 ISO with no noise. In fact, skin tones look their best in camera tests at 3200 ISO. It has tiny fans to cool the sensor! AND it has less problems with moiré patterns.
The Canon 5D Mark II still beats the C300 with a 5616 x 3744 sensor image. So in a way, the 5D is still a great choice for filmmakers on a budget.