Canon 5D I vs Canon 5D II

paleblue

paleblue

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Hi all,

I've been out of touch with photography for a few years, and looking to get back into it. I have some a few EF canon lenses and old M42 lenses with a canon adapter from when I had a Canon 5D about 5 years ago, so will definitely be sticking with Canon for now.

I'm thinking of getting a Canon 5D again, but am wondering if anyone has opinions on getting such an old camera vs a slightly newer Canon 5D mkII (mkIII will be way out of my price range)? Would it be possible to still be able to find a Canon 5D mkI that won't have shutter/sensor issues?

Appreciate any advice.
 
Welcome back to photography! ;) What's your upper price limit? What sort of shooting do you do? Do you like to manual focus mainly (obviously AF is not a choice with the M42 lenses)?
 
Thanks for the welcome back :) I will mainly be using the MF lenses for portrait photos, but do love landscape/astrophotography too and have an autofocus wide angle for that.

Have around £300 to spend right now. I know I can't get a mkII for that but would consider saving up a little longer for if it's worth it.
 
5d2s still go for 6d money, you'd be better off considering the 6d.
 
I bought a 5Dmk1 late last year with a 50mm 1.8 + grip for £325. The camera in 2013 had been serviced by Canon with no issue with the mirror, have had no issues apart from dust (well known problem) There are bargains to be had out there, have you looked at MPB? They have several in stock less your budget The MK11 was not to much of a leap forward by Canon.


Good thread here showing what this classic camera can do

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1159990&page=1
 
Twist, I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for pointing that out! 6D looks like a good option.

Mazdaman, that's good input on the classic 5D. I may even get a 5D mkI for a few months and sell it again when I'm ready to upgrade (if I see the need at that point).

Thanks both!
 
I have a 5D2 [which I don't use much at the moment but I'm not sure about selling] & one thing I found handy at times was the live view for accurate focusing manually. I'm not sure the 5D has that feature [but happy to be proved wrong] but you may be fine with focus confirm adapters for your M42 lenses.
 
LeeRatters said:
I have a 5D2 [which I don't use much at the moment but I'm not sure about selling] & one thing I found handy at times was the live view for accurate focusing manually. I'm not sure the 5D has that feature [but happy to be proved wrong] but you may be fine with focus confirm adapters for your M42 lenses.
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The 5D doesn't have live view, and doesn't do video at all. If those are important to you the 5D is not for you! I went from a 5D Mk1 to a Mk2 and back again (it's a long story!) and am happy with the Mk1 for now.
 
I dropped an S type focusing screen in my 5D mark 1, was a nice upgrade for manual focus. I was also going to suggest you consider a 6D but £300 is not even halfway to being enough sadly! Maybe just get something you can afford now so you can start enjoying photography again, at least if you buy used you can always sell again and get your money back when you have more saved for an upgrade.
 
I was surprised the other day on how much the 5dII still goes for, especially as the 5diii has been out a while now and the new 5D is only around the corner. As someone has mentioned already, I think the 6D would be a good option for similar money to the 5dii.

I use an original 5D. I think it's a great camera and still performs well in my view. I have always been impressed with the output too colour wise. If you get one, look to get one with a later serial (starting 2 onwards) as I believe these are the ones less effected by the mirror fault. (don't quote me on that but I'm sure thats the general view).
I would like liveview on some occasions I must admit but for the difference in £ to have it I'm not that fussed. Video has never been a selling point to me either.
 
Do you really need Full Frame? A 7D will offer similar high-ISO performance to the 5D mkI, and is much better built and far higher specified. The 7D wins on every spec apart from actual sensor size.
 
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Orville said:
...A 7D will offer similar high-ISO performance to the 5D mkI, and is much better built...
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Having owned both bodies I'm not sure I'd agree with either of those points. The high ISO preformance on the 7D is legendarily poor - yes, the 5D is noisier at high ISO than more modern full frame bodies but it's a different, finer, nicer looking noise. Not as harsh as the 7D. The build quality is about the same on both bodies too IMO.

I'd probably still own and use a 5D Classic if it weren't for the lack of Auto ISO and Live View. The actual IQ, wich is what it's all about really, is fantastic.
 
danny_bhoy said:
I'd probably still own and use a 5D Classic if it weren't for the lack of Auto ISO and Live View. The actual IQ, wich is what it's all about really, is fantastic.
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Yup. The image quality is very nice and it's a bargain these days too.
 
I agree with danny_bhoy regarding 5D vs 7D high ISO noise being "different", however final image results are very similar. At a per pixel level the 5D wins up until ISO 1600, with 3200 being even to my eyes. You also need to factor in that the 7D sensor has 18MP vs 12.8MP for the 5D, so is at a disadvantage at the per pixel level, yet claws it back when images are viewed at the same sizes.

Advantages for the 7D
*Much superior AF and tracking abilities
*Higher resolution - 18MP vs 12.8MP (can be useful for crops and fine detail)
*Shoots Movies (never had much use for this myself)
*8FPS vs 3FPS and larger frame buffer.
*Supports micro-adjustment for lens/AF fine tuning
*Built in flash (fine for emergency use)
*Weather sealed and better built
*Much better and bigger LCD
*Higher native max ISO at 6400 (12800 boost) vs 1600 (3200 boost)
*Higher Dynamic Range
*Better battery life
*1.6 crop factor can be useful for long-range shooting.
*Many more in-camera tuning options. Auto-ISO is a prime example.

Advantages for the 5D
*It's Full Frame (important for some)
*Superior per-pixel ISO performance at lower ISO's.
*Makes full use of any existing EF lenses you have. Wide will be wide and bokeh is much better/deeper.

7D pricing is a bargain at the moment. Lots of people are bumping up to 7DII's or upgrading to 6D's and 5D3's so there are plenty of good one's about. I own both a 7D and a 6D, and I choose the 7D regularly over the 6D. The 5D was great in it's day, but that day was 10 years ago and used examples will on average have been used for twice as long as better built 7D's.
 
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I've never used a 7D so how do 7D images look if you boost the exposure a bit? Not a lot, just a bit?

I have 5D night time shots at ISO 3200 that have been boosted quite a bit and they still look good to me. I suppose you might not have to boost 7D shots taken at 6400?
 
I think I remember you sending me them when I was looking at getting my 5Dc, they were cracking!

5Dc is where I would be going, immense quality compared to the crops imo.
 
woof woof said:
I've never used a 7D so how do 7D images look if you boost the exposure a bit? Not a lot, just a bit?

I have 5D night time shots at ISO 3200 that have been boosted quite a bit and they still look good to me. I suppose you might not have to boost 7D shots taken at 6400?
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I have just taken 4x quick test ISO 1600 to 12800 images from my 7D and uploaded them here. The 7D can shoot up to 12800 natively wihin High setting, although I tend to set auto-ISO at max 1600 and use a speedlight if more light is needed.

*images taken under artificial/LED lighting, so far from ideal conditions.
*All noise reduction and artificial optimisations disabled within camera.
*RAW's straight converted to jpeg within Lightroom without any additional post-processing.

Hope it helps Op, one way or the other. Noise reduction and moving a few sliders around would of course clean them up much nicer, but that would be cheating.

Can post some better shots tomorrow if requested, but in a rush to catch MoTD and stop annoying the wife (she hates it when I play with my toys).

edit: Click "View Original" on the link above to download full images.
 
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Hi everyone thanks for the input on this topic!

I think I have decided on the 5Dc for now, and see how I get along with it. If requirements change in the future I hopefully shouldn't lose too much if I need to sell it to put towards a 6D.

Orville, really appreciate your help on this topic too, especially with the noise comparison. 7D would be a great option but I have some lenses right now which are at the focal lengths I want on full frame, so that's what's keeping me with full frame for the time being (a 19-35mm EF which will be good for landscapes especially at the wide end, a 50mm 1.4 prime, an old helios 44-2 lens which has fantastic bokeh. Also an old m42 135 f2.8). Unfortunately I don't have much money I can put into photography at the moment :( otherwise I could consider a 7D with some equivalent focal length lenses for the smaller sensor.

harryduns, I will look into the s type focusing screen too.

Thanks again all, excited to get back into this!
 
You have made a good choice paleblue. The lenses you own will work nicer with FF bodies, and the 5D offers brilliant IQ for the price.
 
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