Some of you know that I am desperately in need of replacing my trusty old 1D Mark 2 (non N). I have considered the 1D MK3 and the 50D, but since for at least the next few months have the opportunity to wait I have held off on either. My time frame is to have a new camera by the Holiday season so I can test it prior to an Africa trip in late February.
Well I borrowed a friends 5DMK2 and learned the following.
The detail in the images from the newer cameras is amazing. I really like the deep color tones and overall file quality. FF is nice, but for less than 50% of my shooting is important. I didn't miss the 1.3 crop of my MK2 as much as I thought as I could crop the 21 mp files to be larger than those of my 1D MK2 and still fill the frame as desired.
I really missed a fast frame rate. The less than 4fps of the 5DMK2 is just not up to what I need. I also missed the ability to AF at f8. So my 500 with 2X TC could not AF and since the camera is FF the loss of reach is aggravating. A 1.6 crop would mostly make up for this allowing my 500 to AF with a 1.4 TC.
So, a long post to say that I will not be buying a 5D MK2, but will either get a 50/60D (when the 60D is released)or the soon (I hope) to be released 1D MK4. I believe the detail in the files of the 50/60D and any future 1D will equal the 5DMK2 although not give the large print size in its native resolution.
I did not try the movie mode as it is not a factor to me at this time.
I am just posting my thoughts as they may be of interest to others.
Thank you for the well balanced review. I have a 5DMII and I really like it but some of the points you make have been sticklers for me as well. I was on vacation recently and had a bit of an accident that resulted in the 5DMII being out of commission for the rest of the trip and ended up buying a 50D to replace it. I found some of the features from the 50D to be great (like the fps) but the noise compared to my 5DMII is truly horrid. I know there are many out there who haven't had a problem with this but I did so my recommendation is that I'd take a good look at the noise profile for that camera before buying.
Posted by Peter Barnes on August 27, 2009 at 11:47 PM
Thanks for this Ed.
Posted by Jason Denham on October 2, 2009 at 2:21 PM
Obviously old news now, but the new 7D might fit your needs perfectly...
Discussion
6 repliesWell I borrowed a friends 5DMK2 and learned the following.
The detail in the images from the newer cameras is amazing. I really like the deep color tones and overall file quality. FF is nice, but for less than 50% of my shooting is important. I didn't miss the 1.3 crop of my MK2 as much as I thought as I could crop the 21 mp files to be larger than those of my 1D MK2 and still fill the frame as desired.
I really missed a fast frame rate. The less than 4fps of the 5DMK2 is just not up to what I need. I also missed the ability to AF at f8. So my 500 with 2X TC could not AF and since the camera is FF the loss of reach is aggravating. A 1.6 crop would mostly make up for this allowing my 500 to AF with a 1.4 TC.
So, a long post to say that I will not be buying a 5D MK2, but will either get a 50/60D (when the 60D is released)or the soon (I hope) to be released 1D MK4. I believe the detail in the files of the 50/60D and any future 1D will equal the 5DMK2 although not give the large print size in its native resolution.
I did not try the movie mode as it is not a factor to me at this time.
I am just posting my thoughts as they may be of interest to others.