Upgrade help please. 50D, 7D & 5D?? Aaargh!!

wippers

wippers

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Gareth
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I'm thinking of upgrading my camera body from a Canon 50D to a 5D mkII and would like a bit of advice please.

I generally shoot macro, landscape and recently planes in flight etc. Is the 5D MKII a good upgrade to go for? Is it only 3.9fps? I think the 50D is something like 6 fps. Is this suitable for the planes in flight etc etc??
My lenses I have are as follows:

Canon 24-105 F4
Canon 70-200 F2.8
Sigma 10-20 F4-5.6
Sigma 105 macro

Which of these lenses will work with the 5D?
Where is the cheapest place to get a 5D?
New or second hand?

Any help/advise etc is much appreciated?
 
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I haven't used a 5DMK2 yet but if the frame rate is slow then it may hamper you somewhat but once you are used to it you'll be able to time your bursts.

The only lens I see that you can't use is the Sigma 10-20mm as it's designed for the smaller sensors. I'm not sure of what ultra wide angles fit the full frame sensor size. Immediate thoughts are a 17-40mmL as it's replacement though.

Sorry can't be of more help!
 
The 10-20 won't work on a 5D2

If the lenses do exactly what you want, have you considered a 7D instead? Faster AF will help with planes in flight. Otherwise you'll need to re-think your lenses as well.

10-20 will work on a 7D
 
One thing to take into account is that you're currently using a crop camera which gives you a 1.6 times increase in focal length, moving to a full frame 5D will lose that. In other words your current maximum is 320mm, whereas on the 5D it's be 200mm - all this is a long winded way of saying you may find you need to get a longer lens for aircraft.

Have you considered a 7D now teething problems seem to have been ironed out?

Rumours are that canon have 3 announcements relating to cameras between now and the end of the year too, but they are just rumours!
 
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I've looked at the 7D but never tried one. I liked the 5D I tried from a friend with good results.
The focal lengths going from cropped to FF are an issue. Maybe I should keep the 50D for use on the plane and motorsport shots? That way I have the best of both worlds?

What is the actual advantage of a full framed camera over a cropped camera sensor? I know all the pro's seem to use FF.
 
I made the jump from the 50D to the 5D MKII and it's a jump I'll never regret.

If you can afford to, keep the 50D for the top end of the 70-200 (320mm on a 1.6x)
 
If you can do it, keep both and you can have the best of both worlds and there's always a backup if something goes wrong with either of them.
With FF you have more pixels so bigger images, no crop factor so the wide shots really are wide and if I remember right the iso performance is improved due to a lower pixel density.
 
What digital Camera has a 5d v 7d test this month... Well worth a read...

Good unbiased discussion of the merits of FF v APS-C

I won't give away the result.... :p
 
yeh, you might wanna hold off unless its essential. theres alot of rumours floating about. some saying a camera may be announced next week (11th) though its highly unlikely. but Photokina is very soon.

7d is fast 5d is higher quality, both are fantastic but so is your 50d.

Id say unless you stand to gain financially from using a better body than the 50d. hold off.
 
mipevo6 said:
What digital Camera has a 5d v 7d test this month... Well worth a read...

Good unbiased discussion of the merits of FF v APS-C

I won't give away the result.... :p
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Oh come on!! I'm interested in this and living in Spain can't go out and buy it. You can whisper it in my ear if you don't want anyone else to hear :D
 
StevenFullerton said:
yeh, you might wanna hold off unless its essential. theres alot of rumours floating about. some saying a camera may be announced next week (11th) though its highly unlikely. but Photokina is very soon.

7d is fast 5d is higher quality, both are fantastic but so is your 50d.

Id say unless you stand to gain financially from using a better body than the 50d. hold off.
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lots of rumours indeed - i read that the 60d is coming and is going to have an aps-h sized sensor. very interesting if true.

as far as the 5d2 goes. i love mine, image quality is great and colours are so rich and deep. the dynamic range is also much wider than it was on my 500d (which apparently has pretty much the same sensor as the 50d).

for landscape and macro, i don't think the focus system in the 5d will give you any problems. as for planes in flight... not sure - it's not like they are birds, planes are a lot more predictable in their movement so maybe a change of technique would compensate for the loss of fps shooting speed.

i shoot mainly portraits so the crop factor was never an issue for me, i much prefer the field of view from a fullframe camera, but obviously if you need more reach then it's going to be a hindrance.
 
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I'm by no means an expert but I have owned both and I really can't notice a difference in the speed of the AF - both seem fairly zippy.

I know the 7D has an improved AF system with more focus points etc but in terms of focus speed it's not something I've noticed - although I'm sure the 5D locks focus better in my livingroom (low light) but that's not based on any scientific research just my gut.

Horses for courses I guess... the 5D will give you more detail and better ISO performance but you lose the advantage of the crop factor for sports, wildlife etc...

I have to say I like both cameras but found the 7D showed a lot of noise even at lower ISO settings. There has been a lot of debate over this as some are not seeing the same results and it's been suggested that it may be the photographer. I don't rule this out but what I can say is that I haven't seen any noise on the 5D and I'm no better at taking pictures now than I was then.

For the main areas you've mentioned I would say 5D MKII.

PS. Kerso will be one of the cheapest places to get either body. Last time I checked it was £1549 for the 5D and £1095 for the 7D.



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I have no idea why people are so hung up on FPS, maybe fro high speed sports but for most other things my 5d2 blows the socks of many camera's.

For Lanscape I do use a 17-40L, the colours on the 5d2 are vibrant, picture qaulity stunning and I can mostly not bother with post sharpening.

For wildlife the extra pixels give me more options to crop.

I've shot aircraft at Manchester airport without problems.

High ISO is great until about 3200 but then gets grainy very quickly.
The 7D is reputed to have poor ISO response which is sad.

For what you need I'd definately sell the Sigma 10-22 which may not work on a 7D or 5D2 depending on chipping levels. The 17-40L isn't hugely expensive.

Going from a 40D to a 5D2 was a pure revelation for me.
 
Well I have bit the bullet and bought a 5D mkII. Can't wait for a decent day now so I can go and play!!:clap:

Thanks for all the comments and advice. I think I'll keep the 50D for now and see how much use it get.....:thumbs:
 
good for you. I'll be joining you soon; I've been pondering this for a while but this thread's help me make up my mind.... bit more saving in order though :)
 
Not sure why people say the 7d has poor noise.. I don't find I get noise, none of the reviews mention poor noise...

I think if you are a pixel peeper looking for the ultimate in quality then FF probably should be the route you need to go as you will never personally be happy with your own results.
 
wippers said:
Well I have bit the bullet and bought a 5D mkII. Can't wait for a decent day now so I can go and play!!:clap:

Thanks for all the comments and advice. I think I'll keep the 50D for now and see how much use it get.....:thumbs:
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Congrats. I hope you enjoy it.

Not sure why people say the 7d has poor noise.. I don't find I get noise, none of the reviews mention poor noise...
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You really have to try other cameras to compare. 7D pixels are very small and get little light when it is dark, less than for example 5DII. Hence, it has lower SNR.
 
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