5DmkII or 7D. Jeez this is tough

[Derek Weston]

don't they have remotes now that do the same thing as a cable release? I had a remote that worked really well... lost it though

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

don't they have remotes now that do the same thing as a cable release? I had a remote that worked really well... lost it though

Might but then it would want new batteries lol. I'm totally a wired person as I've never even owned a wireless mouse. Not sure how the remote would work for the bulb deal or how well. Guess that would fix the whole getting snagged thing. I seem to get in and out of the car a lot on low light or no light shooting and just love to snag that thing on something. Usually it is just taking it off the tripod after throwing them both in the car together, then trying to take the camera out without the tripod. I swore I'd be more mindful and not break them so fast and bam, I broke mine already. It still works but I can see the actual wire lol. Outer part broke as did the actual wire casing, showing the copper or whatever it is. Thought, yeah better just order a couple anyway as that won't last long like that lol. Just seems there would be a market for some seriously industrial strength plug in cable releases even if they cost more. At $8.95 at least they aren't too annoying now, compared to the canon ones I was getting before.

 

[Allan Jeffers]

Mike, are you not happy with your 5d or where you just expecting more from it?

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Mike, are you not happy with your 5d or where you just expecting more from it?

Well it's not not being happy with it. Just doesn't seem it will be worth the upgrade price tag when it comes to real world image quality and use. Over say a T2i instead. Something I sort of figured but went and did it anyway. I'm just rather certain if I could do it all over again I'd just have went to T2i(not that it was revealed at the time I thought I needed an upgrade from my XSi).

Don't get me wrong the 5D II is a great camera. Same time it was a mistake to me. I'd be more happy right now most likely with a T2i and a new nice lens like that 24-105L range. (probably already said that in this thread, oh well)

My tripod reference should explain it well enough. There might be a tiny select use it might make a difference on, but the vast majority of the time and image uses from those....just going to be little to no difference over a much cheaper camera. That is why it felt like a let down getting it, something already known but ignored. Add in the full frame lens corner softness drawbacks and it's most certainly sort of annoying now lol.

 

[Allan Jeffers]

Yeah, the price was a bit hard to swallow, I mean, the 5DmkII is pretty much a 50D aside from a few differences. If the 60D had been out, I probably would have went that direction. The 7D, Im sure its a nice camera, but I did not need the auto focus and the high MP count on that small sensor irked me, I figured since I shot a lot of the sky, the noise would be more obvious. The 7D images I seen did have a different look to them then what I seen from the 5DmkII. Not sure, but the 5D kept drawing my attention.

I must admit, going after the 5DmkII has left a few issues for me. One major one, well, its not that bad) is weather sealing. I wanted to take my gear out so bad the other day when Denver got hit with this snow storm, so weather sealing would have been nice. I am thinking that if I have some spare cash one of these days and a used 1DmkII comes up for sale, I may pick it up.

I guess there is no "one camera to rule them all" well, perhaps the 1DsmkIII, but not at that price tag!

 

[Brandon Goforth]

Yeah, the price was a bit hard to swallow, I mean, the 5DmkII is pretty much a 50D aside from a few differences. If the 60D had been out, I probably would have went that direction. The 7D, Im sure its a nice camera, but I did not need the auto focus and the high MP count on that small sensor irked me, I figured since I shot a lot of the sky, the noise would be more obvious. The 7D images I seen did have a different look to them then what I seen from the 5DmkII. Not sure, but the 5D kept drawing my attention.

I must admit, going after the 5DmkII has left a few issues for me. One major one, well, its not that bad) is weather sealing. I wanted to take my gear out so bad the other day when Denver got hit with this snow storm, so weather sealing would have been nice. I am thinking that if I have some spare cash one of these days and a used 1DmkII comes up for sale, I may pick it up.

I guess there is no "one camera to rule them all" well, perhaps the 1DsmkIII, but not at that price tag!

The 7D is the 60D from what I'm gathering, or rather, the xxD line has been replaced with the 7D...although, regardless, IF there were a 60D it would be a further cross between the 7D and T2i, and would have the same MP count as the 7D. The xxD line doesn't make much since at this point, so I'm not expecting a 60D. The 7D handles noise better than any other Canon crop camera, and is the best crop they've ever produced. At low ISO, your images more or less will be almost identical to the 5D mkII. It's not until you get over 1600 ISO that the 5D really starts to own the 7D. But I never shoot that high of ISO anyways, I always keep it pretty low. And that's really what kept me from going with the 5D mkII, it's the lack of real improvement in overall IQ at low ISO. I could go rent a 5D mkII, take 2 pictures with each of the same scene at low ISO, and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference unless you made very large prints. So based on my needs, the 5D mkII didn't make a lot of sense. I will say, however, when the 5D mkIII is released, I will most likely sell my 7D and go with the 5D mkIII. That will likely be a full frame version of the 7D, with a few other additions/enhancements. But, a 5D mkIII is likely to be at least another year away. But, like I was saying, the similar IQ at low ISO and the fact that the 7D had some features I wanted really made the choice between the 5D and 7D a lot easier when I really started thinking about it. Funny thing to consider though, is that when comparing images online between the 5D and 7D, you have to realize that the skill level of the photographer is generally (but not always) higher with 5D users, who are generally the more "serious" photographers so to speak. I say this because the majority of the 7D images I've seen online have sucked compared to the 5D, and almost always it's because the photographer didn't get the most out of the shot. In addition, the images I'm getting from the 7D have been better than almost all of the samples I've seen online. So the point is that there are a lot of n00bs out there posting images with the 7D that aren't doing the camera justice. Anyone who has IQ problems with this camera either has a bad copy or they're a bad photographer. I think this is largely the point Mike H. is making when he says he's not seeing that great of an improvement, even over the Rebel series, with the 5D mkII at low ISO in real world situations.

 

[Allan Detrich]

Weather sealing is why I went with the 1D Mark IV, plus the high ISO capabilities have a 1D Mark II as a back-up, also picking up a 24-105mm f/4 L IS before my chase, like the range over the 24-70 f/2.8 I currently have. Looking forward to shooting with my new stuff as you probably are too.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I just updated the firmware on the 5D II to the latest one finally. This was probably in place before the update but I just noticed it. I had been wondering why in manual mode for video it would not let you select something slower than 1/30th. Not that you'd need it with higher ISOs and using a small fraction of the 21mp for 1080p. But just having the ability to go slower might be nice on storms.

Well picking shutter priority it won't let you go below 1/30th either. Messing around just now I see when you pick aperture priority it will go lower than 1/30th. It seems it will just go down to 1/15th then. That is about all the slower I'd want to go anyway.

Anyway get on a late dark storm and would rather use 1 stop less ISO might try flipping it over to aperture priority and see if it gives you the 1/15th. Granted I'm not sure how well that will work yet, since it will be adjusting the lightness itself while not in manual. Probably get away with the offset adjust and hopefully still keep that slower setting. The other thing is for all I know(and actually imagine) is there will be zero need to go slower than 1/30th. Then again it's quite possible with a dark storm you want to lighten you might need 1/15th. Looks like it is limiting the ISO to no more than 3200.

Here's to a storm to try it on tomorrow night.

 

[Jim Edds]

For those of you looking for software to edit the 5D & 7D video files, Grass Valley's Neo Booster 2.5 will do the job without transcoding if you have an I5 or I7 processor. If not, it will convert the file to the HQ codec and then you can edit. For a couple hundred it's a pretty good deal. Neo also will play AVCHD files without transcoding.

 

[Allan Jeffers]

Thought I would update this thread with some real world examples

I used a circular polarizer (experimenting) a canon 100mm f/2.8 USM (non IS) lens , a 12mm extention tube and a 430ex II off camera with a lumiquest softbox fired by the ST-E2 transmitter.

Pretty windy outside

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

http://philipbloom.co.uk/2010/04/05/5dmkii-2-0-4-firmware-bug-with-canon-f2-8l-is-100mm-macro-lens/

Woohoo sounds like the 2.0.4 that fixed the 2.0.3 firmware upgrade everyone had waited on.....has issues of its own that need to be fixed. I mostly just was skimming the comments but sounds like something one would want to update yet again when/if they ever put out another firmware upgrade.

http://5dmark2.wordpress.com/

Please note that this is a firmware issue, not a lens issue.
As we explained in the previous report, it is easy to reproduce:
Set camera to M mode, Live View to “Stills+Movie – Movie Display“, which is the correct mode to get “full manual control” on movie mode. Then turn ON Live View mode and rotate the focus ring, and you may notice the iris jitter watching it directly or watching the image on the camera’s LCD, also hearing the noise of the iris.
Remember the camera is now in “full manual mode” for movie/video mode, so the iris should not change “at all” unless the user intentionally does change it.
Clarification of the issue: It is not the iris/diaphragm is closing or opening a step and remaining there. It is a jitter: a fast open/close or close/open movement of the IRIS, mostly depending on the direction the focus ring is being rotated. It usually occurs in small values (1/3 f-stops), with the consequence that the image is also suffering that “jitter” when recording a video clip (or even when not recording), making the footage unusable.
Important note: the IRIS jitter is not related to the amount of light being gathered by the sensor, nor being metered by the camera, because the same issue occurs in a dark room.

 

[Darren Addy]

Those thinking about the 5D Mk II (or any of the other FF cameras) might want to read (one man's opinion) at The Online Photographer. http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2008/12/sony-vs-nikon-v.html

I have no dog in this fight (apologies to PITA and Michael Vick for ripping the scab off that one) but as a Pentaxian I did find this quote from the article more than a little humorous (the K20D is a generation old Pentax camera... it's replacement as the Pentax APS-C flagship is currently held by the K7).

The 5D Mark II is a brilliant camera in many ways. It has more, and better, of most of the good things we like. But my holistic overall impression is that its images just look more digital, in some fundamental way, rather than just "photographic." To test that impression, I compared it with what is becoming my "Old Trusty," the Pentax K20D, a currently $810 camera with a really good APS-C sized sensor (and which I also don't own, N.B.) The 5D Mark II is better than the 14.6-megapixel K20D. But it's not that much better. If the 5D Mark II lags behind the D700 by not-quite-a-stop in high-ISO noise, then the K20D lags behind the 5D Mark II also by not-quite-a-stop—certainly it looks at least as good at ISO 1250 as the Canon looks at ISO 2500 (and yes, I ran the tests). And the Canon does indeed have more resolution—but not that much more resolution. A paper size, maybe? Maybe a tad less?