Going from 40D to 5D Classic

futureal33

futureal33

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Nope, its not anothing of those 40D vs 5D threads... hopefully this is a little different!!

As the 5D is the older of the two cameras, it has somewhat older technology behind it, which currently as a 40D user I am worried that I will miss them...

Im pretty sure I want to move to FF, although I love my 40D the FF bug has bitten and I cant stop wanting a 5D Classic - unfortunately the 5D2 is out of the equation price-wise!!
So... will I miss these things:

Auto sensor cleaning (40D has it, 5D doesnt) - how effective is this in reality?
No live view - rarely use it on my 40D but I have used it for long exposure shots where getting auto focus is impossible
Smaller screen - again, I dont see this as much of an issue because the main screen on my 40D is usually turned off anyway
No popup flash - I dont own a flashgun, so I think I would miss not having inbuilt flash - regardless of how poor it is! But I could buy a 430EXii I suppose ;)

And one final thing, I read something that 5Ds dont support 14bit RAW capture? Whereas 40Ds do? What exactly does this mean to me as someone who only shoots in RAW format?

Thanks for any help!
 
You'll either fall completely base over apex for full frame or... it'll take a day or two to acheive the same result.

You can expect to be cleaning your 5D on a regular basis. I found that the viewfinder screen showed more spots than a teenager's chin but they very rarely appeared in the image.

Pop-up schmopup! Buy yourself a proper flashgun if you think you'll use it.

You'll shoot in RAW and be happy.
 
Wonder why the viewfinder gets so mucky? Ive never once had to clean my 40Ds viewfinder or sensor for that matter!
I know I want full frame... i just wish there was a halfway point between the 5D Classic and 5D Mark2, which had some of the newer technology of the 40D/50D etc but without the ultra new technology such as HD Video which obviously ramps the price right up!
 
I've gone for 1Ds2 from 40D, so I could probably comment here.

1. Cleaning - 40D is cleaner. You will need to find a way to sweep 5D every now and then, but the worst will only show up after f/11 and above.
2. LV - useful sometimes with 10 stop filter or composing on tripod, but not a deal breaker.
3. Smaller screen - not an issue. 40D screen has poor resolution an doesn't reveal the true sharpness of the shots anyway. Both will show framing and histogram, so I'd call it a draw.
4. No built in flash - a bonus. It stops you ruining pictures. There are cheaper 430 mk1 second hand.
5. 14bit. In practice 5d/1ds files have more depth and meaningful information than 40D (40D from 30D is a big improvement). A lot of 40D 14bit is just noise, I'd ignore this one.

5D IQ will be far better. The camera is slower and has no sealing. If these are important consider 1Ds mk2 instead.
 
I have a 5d and a 50d. Unless I have a specific reason, higher fps or needing to be closer on a telephoto shot I will always use the 5d as the quality, dynamic range and noise handling is so much better. And I think the 14bit thing is to do with in camera jpegs. Raw files are 16 bit and there is a lot more information in the 5d files.
 
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amtaylor said:
And I think the 14bit thing is to do with in camera jpegs. Raw files are 16 bit and there is a lot more information in the 5d files.
Click to expand...

Other way round, Jpegs are 8 bit, raw is 12 or 14 on canons and 16 on most current medium format backs. You will edit 12/14 bit files in 16 bit mode in photoshop though.

Where you notice this most is pushing shadows. Recovering something thats 5-6 stops under an 8 bit file will have nothing but noise, a 12 bit file will still have detail, a 14 bit file will have a little bit more but if you were to want to recover even more then the 14 or 16 bit files would be better.

In this scenario the 5D is fairly good with noise so a 12bit 5D file probably wont be much different than a 14bit 40D and then you get the other benefits of the 5D sensor as well.
 
flash gun wise last time i looked mpb had a 420ex for 130 quid, a choice of two sigma flasguns for 75 notes each and a 220ex or a nissin for 69 notes - any of these will out perform on camera flash
 
Even though I have a 5DmkII and 1DmkIII I still grab my 5D sometimes as the results are great and I'm not putting clicks on my more expensive bodies. I went from a 30D to the 5D (still have the 30D) and have to say for shooting pretty much anything apart form sports and wildlife it is amazing. I have done sports with it when the 30D went down and it was perfectly fine, just the motor drive is a little slow - yes, I know it isn't really a motor drive!

Re your points, I still have to clean my bodies that have dust removal, just not quite so often, this is a simple job so never worried me. Flash, well as soon as you start using a flash gun with different bounce techniques etc you will never go back. Screen, sure not great, but tells you enough and when you see the photos side by side printed or on a computer you won't care that you can't see them so well on the camera. Live view, this is a tougher one as there are benefits depending on your shooting so that has to be your call. When I macro shoot I always use live view so it just means I don't grab the 30D or 5D for that.

Handling, the body is a little bigger so for me that is a bonus, make sure you mate it with the right glass and have a load of fun!
 
Yeah, go for the 5d. Sure it's an old camera, but it still produces amazing images. The shortcomings are balanced out well by the great picture quality.
 
Would I be mad in thinking of keeping my old 40D for the 1.6x teleconverter, and therefore using it when I know I need range over anything else (ie, motorsports, wildlife) but having a 5D for general use (landscapes, portraits and general photo-taking)
It would make my lens selection a little more difficult I guess!
 
futureal33 said:
Would I be mad in thinking of keeping my old 40D for the 1.6x teleconverter, and therefore using it when I know I need range over anything else (ie, motorsports, wildlife) but having a 5D for general use (landscapes, portraits and general photo-taking)
It would make my lens selection a little more difficult I guess!
Click to expand...

Not mad at all! Sensible in fact, loads of people do that! I have a 60D for wildlife and 5D for everything else :)
 
The Canon 100-400L would be a great allrounder. Don't get your effective focal lengths confused though, the 70-200mm is 70-200mm on the 5D (all lenses are marked with full frame lengths). On your 40D it will give you an effective field of view of 112-320mm.

Personally, I don't use the 5D for wildlife generally. When I do it's with the 300/4L + Canon 1.4x TC.
 
Tbh I dont do a lot of wildlife photography...maybe some birds in the backgarden but thats about all.. However as a test last night I took photos of my girlfriends dogs and horses and limited myself to 125mm max (equivalent to 200mm on a 5D) and must admit that I did find that range somewhat limiting - which is what worries me about getting a 5D and the 70-200 F4 lens

The 100-400L is an ideal solution to telephoto (as it gives me the same range I am used to with my 55-250mm on my 40D) but as wildlife shots make up 5-10% of my photographs only, I cant justify spending £1200 on one! Whereas the 55-250mm on a 40D only costs £130!

Decisions!!

The 300mm F4 IS looks very good, but again priced somewhat out of my ballpark!!
 
Is your 300/F4 the IS version? Seems like you got a bargain there indeed, the new price is over £1000 and there's one on eBay for £500 that hasnt ended yet!

The Tamron does seem to get good reviews, not sure how it would fare on a FF sensor though - I'll do some digging, thanks for pointing the lens out to me though!

Still currently trying to weigh up if 5D + 40D is a good combo, or just to get 5D + 100-400mm which covers the range my 40D does....expensive option though!
 
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