5D/II advice

macvisual

macvisual

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Hi all,

Before I aim to buy a wide angle lens for my Canon 5D Mk1 or spend more money...

I need advice; should I maybe change my 5D Mk1 body to the 5D MkII body due to more pixels = better overall quality..?

I'm going to be shooting mainly landscape photography in the near future.


Any advice appreciated!
 
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Speaking as a 5DI user who upgraded, the best aspects of the mk II over the classic are:

- much improved high ISO
- higher resolution (slightly higher than the theoretical resolution a frame of fine-grained Kodachrome film would be capable of, so it's a real step forward in quality from a film SLR, if that's important to you)
- self-cleaning sensor (the mk I tended to suffer from dust bunnies as there was nothing to shift specks of dust from the sensor once they settled on it)

The larger LCD screen is nice to have as well.

A.
 
There's a review at dpr that might be of help...

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos5dmarkii/

They say...

"In terms of 'per pixel' sharpness (particularly in JPEG) the 5D Mark II is second only to the original 5D in our studio test. This holds true as the ISO settings rise, with the Mark II retaining fine detail quite well all the way up to ISO 6400. In this group of cameras the Sony A900 is the worst performer; it is also notable how well the original 5D holds up in this test. All the way up to ISO 3200 the 5D and 5D Mark II are about equal in terms of fine detail retained and noise on a per pixel basis, with the D700 slightly ahead. At the highest three settings, the D700 continues to be slightly ahead of the 5D Mark II, but the difference is not huge - about one stop advantage to the D700. Quite impressive performance for a 21 megapixel camera."

Of course the 5DII is much better than the 5D above ISO 3200 :lol: as that's where the 5D stops.
 
I would have to think carefully before moving up to the 5D mk III if the pixel count was greater than 25mp or so. 21mp already places a big burden on processing power and storage, and 30mp files would just be too unwieldy to process, given that I'd never be making the huge enlargements that would fully utilise that sort of resolution.

If the mk III was a big step up from the mk II in other respects, I might consider leaving it in a lower resolution mode.

A.
 
I'm thinking of doing the same at the moment, mainly because of the dust issue (though the improved ISO performance will also be very handy). The 5D I seems to be a real dust magnet.

Probably going to wait a bit and see if the 5D III materialises (and pick up a hopefully cheaper 5D II).
 
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The 5D2 is still a dust magnet....
 
Perhaps I'm just a bit a..l. I clean mine once a month if I'm using it heavily.... But then if I find one dust bunny, it annoys the heck out of me.
 
arad85 said:
The 5D2 is still a dust magnet....
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Compared to the 5D mk I, which had about the same level of use, I've found the mk II is pretty good at removing dust. I've noticed the odd dust bunny in shots which disappears in subsequent exposures - the vibrating sensor doing its job :)

If you're changing lenses frequently and/or in dusty environments, any camera will eventually pick up crud on the sensor. I'm particularly careful and always find a quiet spot, indoors if possible, to do lens changes.

A.
 
I've never had a 5D classic, so have no idea of relative dust collection.

I know that when I get dust bunnies, it normally means I need to clean the sensor. The vibrating sensor doesn't seem to work too well to fix this. Perhaps I'm just unlucky and have a camera with dust in the body that keeps getting moved around (I do change lenses, but not a lot)
 
grum said:
Really? :(

Does the dust reduction thingamijig (technical term :) ) not help?
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ok, not a straight comparison but my 1dsII (no cleaning function) and 1dIII (with) can get as dirty very quickly. The trouble is none of them has fluorinated coating, which is more effective at keeping dust and moisture spots away. I believe 5DII doesn't have one either, but 1DIV and 7D have. Please correct me if I am wrong.
 
daugirdas said:
The trouble is none of them has fluorinated coating, which is more effective at keeping dust and moisture spots away. I believe 5DII doesn't have one either, but 1DIV and 7D have. Please correct me if I am wrong.
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According to Canon the 5D II does have a fluorine coating on its sensor :)

A.
 
Not necessarily, in the past and probably now much crap is internally generated as tiny bits break off the mechanisms and tiny droplets of lubricant fly about. The sad truth is that unless your camera body is completely sealed tiny particles could even make their way in through the gaps around controls and ports too.
 
arad85 said:
The 5D2 is still a dust magnet....
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I agree. Few days ago i was processing some shots from my 1 month old 5dmk2 and had to remove 13! dust bunnies from the sky in each shot. Very annoying... And Im always extra careful when changing lenses.. need to invest in cleaning system as self cleaning does not help much
 
=ReBeL= said:
I agree. Few days ago i was processing some shots from my 1 month old 5dmk2 and had to remove 13! dust bunnies from the sky in each shot. Very annoying... And Im always extra careful when changing lenses.. need to invest in cleaning system as self cleaning does not help much
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Hmm that's disappointing. I find with my 5D I often have to remove a similar amount. A good few blasts with a rocket blower seems to make a considerable improvement on my 5D I.
 
I've just checked my 5D and at f16 even though I've done a good few lens changes there are only a couple of small black specks but nothing to worry about at the moment.

I'm far more annoyed by specks in the optical path, even if they don't show up in a picture they still annoy the hell out of me when I look through the viewfinder :razz:
 
odd jim said:
Surely its only as dust prone as you allow it to be (when swapping lenses)?
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That always assumes the camera has been kept in clean room conditions at all times ;). I have to say I'm retentive about this. I have a sensor loupe and even a couple of specks annoy me. What I do notice is that the specks that annoy me are never dislodged by the cleaning mechanism though so it always means resorting to cleaning.

As to rocket blower - all that does is move the dust around and every time I've tried it it deposits as much back on the sensor as it moves off - sometimes more.
 
arad85 said:
As to rocket blower - all that does is move the dust around and every time I've tried it it deposits as much back on the sensor as it moves off - sometimes more.
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Not IME - I put the 5D into sensor cleaning mode and hold it upside down while giving it a good go with the rocket blower. Definitely improves matters but it's not a perfect solution.

TBH it's not that hard to remove them in LR, but it's still annoying.
 
Same for me, I have a high success rate with a Rocket and it's the first thing I try and often saves doing a wet clean.
 
Do any Rocket users have access to/use loupes?
 
grum said:
I'm just going by the dust spots which show up in pictures, which are the only ones that I care about really. ;)
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Same here ;)
 
Apart from dust problems (it seems), the 5D/2 is a better than 5D/1 in terms of quality?

Do Nikon cameras have the same dust problems I wonder?
 
woof woof said:
I've just checked my 5D and at f16 even though I've done a good few lens changes there are only a couple of small black specks but nothing to worry about at the moment.

I'm far more annoyed by specks in the optical path, even if they don't show up in a picture they still annoy the hell out of me when I look through the viewfinder :razz:
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luckily i've had no problems with dust bunnies yet, but there seems to be a fair bit amount of specks in the viewfinder of my 5dc. is this a common thing with full-frame bodies? i've come from a 30d and never noticed it with that or my previous sony a390(possibly because of the smaller viewfinder?)
 
My classic came back from Canon with a clean viewfinder and a dirty sensor, the opposite condition that they received it! The dust is a little annoying but at the end of the day it's a great camera. I don't think I'd get the mk2 over it though, live view would be useful sometimes and the screen isn't great but that's about all, so for me not worth the extra cash.

I think if I did change it would be Nikon FX.
 
lexie said:
luckily i've had no problems with dust bunnies yet, but there seems to be a fair bit amount of specks in the viewfinder of my 5dc. is this a common thing with full-frame bodies? i've come from a 30d and never noticed it with that or my previous sony a390(possibly because of the smaller viewfinder?)
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I don't know if it's a common problem. I bought my 5D used and there are quite a few specks in the optical path. My 20D has a couple of very small specks and that's it. I think that the construction of the 5D might hold a clue as the focus screen can be easily removed whereas the one in the 20 and 30D is fixed and perhaps has a better seal as a result? I don't know, I'm just speculating.

I've removed my 5D focus screen and cleaned it but the specks seem to be on whatever lies beyond it and are out of reach for me.
 
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