5d? for aerial still?<p>not really, for filming, yes. I was there when it exploded onto the advertising stage. But for stills not really. It was an alright camera, but there were more sensitive cameras even from canon. The nikon d700 was easier to use, and I think it was faster with better optical res (I could be wrong on the last bit)<p>For high end surveying the 5d sucked because it has rolling shutter(and no finegrained speed control), so you couldn&#x27;t use it in film mode to get 3d imagery. (RED suffers from this as well, along with being blind to colour, and having a rabid fanbase.)<p>But then there was a trade off, one time resolution vs speed of acquisition. Film for large plate photography has better dynamic range even now. But it is slower and depending on the stock has less optical resolution.<p>Most survey planes are all digital. For the kind of thing that&#x27;s required its just not practical to have 3 miles of 70mm film.<p>For peering out the side of a helicopter, just choose any high end dSLR, unless you want night shots, then you can&#x27;t really use a digital medium format.