Photography Thailand Forum

[Marc Schultz]

For the last 6 years I have been shooting with a Canon 1DS Mark II body. My plan when I bought it was to use it for 5 years and then upgrade to a newer model once they advanced 2 generations past the 1DS Mark II. Well, so far, Canon has not announced a new pro body with some of the new features that I would like to have at this point, except for the 1DS Mark III. The 1DS Mark III however is now more than 4 years old and has a relatively high noise image processor compared to some of the newer generation DSLR cameras that have come out since its release in 2007. Plus it is only 1 generation newer than the 1DS Mark II body I have now. So it would make no sense to buy a 1DS Mark III at this point given its age and the high price it is still demanding, even though Canon has not kept up the pace of releasing new Pro bodies at the same rate they did before. And since I didn't want to keep waiting for a new Pro body to come out from Canon (not knowing how long that would be), I decided to take a step backward to take a step forward. The recently announced 1D-X they are planning to release is a low megapixel body geared towards sports and news shooters, which is not suitable for me. So in the end I bought a 5D Mark II rather than keep waiting. At first I thought I might be really disappointed with it, but actually I am not disappointed with it at all. In fact, I am finding I like it in many ways better than the 1DS series body I was shooting with before. Some of the advantages of the 5D Mark II I have discovered are:

1 - Lighter weight (even with the extra BG-E6 battery grip attached to it that I put on)
2 - Bigger preview screen
3 - Much lower noise
4 - Much easier menu navigating through settings and when viewing pictures. No longer need to press 2 buttons for every function, file deletion, or setting change.
5 - Much smaller and lighter battery, smaller battery charger (easier to transport), and yet capable of capturing the same number of pictures on a single charge as the 1DS models.
6 - More megapixels

The things I thought would bother me about the 5D Mark II are the fact I was going from 45 focusing points on my 1DS down to just 9 on the 5D. But honestly it is not as big of a deal as I thought it would be. Also, people complained about the auto focus system on the 5D Mark II being slow and inaccurate. Personally, I don't have any problems with it. Focus is fast and concise so far.

The other main thing was not having the double memory card slot for the instant backup in case one of your memory cards fails. What I decided to do to reduce the risk though is to just use smaller memory cards instead. This way if a card gets damaged, the risk of losing pictures is reduced with less pictures stored on each card to begin with.

People talk about the lesser quality build on Prosumer bodies versus Pro bodies in general, but to be honest in last 6 years I never dropped my camera once or shot in the rain with it anyway. So why do I have to care so much about the toughness of the build of the body and the waterproof seals? The truth is I don't. And with the 5D being less than 1/3 the price of a 1DS body, I can buy three of the 5D bodies before I would pay for one of the 1DS bodies. So if I do drop it and it breaks, I can still afford to buy another one by not having bought another 1DS series body at more than 3 times the price.

I did a lot of shooting with the 5D Mark II the last few days and I found it a pleasure. I think maybe I am hooked now on the 5D even though it was only intended to be an interim body while awaiting the next 1DS high megapixel release. I am starting to think that when Canon eventually releases a new 1DS body with more megapixels, and less noise at high ISO settings, that I might not even bother spending the extra money for it. It hardly makes sense to me at this point and the 5D Mark II has turned out to be a great camera in many ways. Above my expectations in fact.

I would have never thought I would have liked going from a pro body down to a lesser build body so much, or I would have bought one long ago.

[Gregg Spradling]

I'm glad you like it. 

My only concern was the 9 AF points and only 1 being a cross type (if you don't count the 2 hidden cross types used in AI servo mode). I too heard people complain a lot, but I have long since learned to take what people say on forums with a grain of salt. From what I understand the AF points are fine unless you are shooting in very dark situations. But then again, just use center point and recompose if the outer AF points are a problem.

I always wonder why people make such a big deal over mag bodies. A lot of good guns today are poly-carbonate and have a phenomenal stress record. Sure it's nice to have a mag alloy body for those "opps" times, but I don't ever drop my camera.

Now you make me want to get a 5D MKII even more. 

[Marc Schultz]

Thanks. Yes, I don't think you would be disappointed with it at all. In fact, the frame rate in the continuous shooting mode on the 5D Mark II is exactly the same as on the 1DS Mark II, despite it being a higher megapixel count camera. So it even has a bigger buffer it seems.

[Marc Schultz]

Also, unless the actual focus point is critical on a subject (more often it's not), then you can make life easy for yourself by making all 9 auto focus points active. This way it focuses faster and with less chance for back focus. It may also be possible that even though though the 1D series bodies have a lot more focus points that they are all contained within the same amount of focusing area anyway. I am not sure exactly what percentage of the total view finder frame the focus points cover on a 1DS model versus a 5D model, but it doesn't physically seem much different if at all.

[Ray Evans]

Got my MK2 when first launched as an upgrade from the MK1. Best camera I've ever owned. Like you say, never had a problem with AF, happy at the frames rate and the IQ is simply wonderful. I use mainly Contax Zeiss MM lenses (via adaptors) which I find quite superb for contrast and colour rendition. Manual focus no problem with AF confirm. Currently possess a 25mm f2.8, 35mm f1.4, 50mm f1.4 and an 85mm f1.4. I also have a Conurus converted N24-85mm which will AF and frankly lives on the camera.

The real advantages for me are:-

1. The exceptional auto sensor cleaning. I've not once needed a clean in nearly two years. (The MK1 was a dust magnet!)
2. Liveview. Brilliant for critical focusing and histogram readout
3. Usable ISO up to 6400
4. Wonderful clear viewfinder
5. AF micro-adjustment

People question the "need" for 21mp but I love it. I can crop the hell out of an image and still end up with a lot of megapixels.

If this one breaks or dies on me - I'll buy another one!

[Marc Schultz]

Thanks Ray for your feedback. All good points. I have been pondering buying one of those wide angle 18mm Zeiss lenses with the Canon mount on it for a while as you might have seen me talking about in another thread recently, but to be honest, I hardly ever need anything that wide. So, so far I haven't bought one. But I imagine with the manual focus it would not be a problem as you said with the AF confirm. I am shooting with the 24mm tilt/shift lens from Canon quite often and it is also manual focus and no problems focusing at all. As you said, the viewfinder is quite bright and sharp making it easy to manual focus when needed.

The sensor dust issue though has been a bit of a problem. I was shooting indoors with it this last week and was shooting with one lens and no lens changes. Yet, I had some big pieces of dust get in there that seriously affected my pictures. Once I realized it, a quick blast with the dust blower and they were gone, but the problem was I did not see it for a while (see below one of the dust spots) and I ended up with dust spots on many of my pictures. It happened twice in fact with two of these big pieces of sensor dust.

I haven't actually used the live view at all, but I may do at some point. I guess I still prefer the viewfinder.

One personal adjustment in my shooting I had to make was the fact that the 5D viewfinder does not show 100% of the actual frame like the 1D series does. So you end up with a bit more in the final frame than what you saw when shooting. I actually prefer to see the whole frame to know exactly what I am getting before I press the shutter, but I will have to get used to this. And the sound of the shutter is a bit clunky compared to the sounds of the 1D series shutters. But that is something completely immaterial to performance and just takes some getting used to as well.  

[Ray Evans]

I've done some very controlled and exhaustive tests of my Contax Zeiss lenses v Canon equivalent and found the following:

The 25mm f2.8 (actually 26mm) is not so sharp in the corners as my Canon 24mm MK2 L but shows a lot less distortion, hardly any CA and contrast and colour is wonderful. A slight crop soon sorts out the corners (p.s. $300 including adaptor!)
The 35mm F1.4, 50mm f1.4 and 85mm F1.4 murder my Canon equivalents. (caveat - In 85mm I only have the Canon 85mm f1.8 so not a fair comparison)
The N24-85mm is considerably sharper than my previous Canon 24-70 L with NO corner softness at the wide length even wide open.

I also use Contax Zeiss G lenses on my Panasonic GF-1 so it's fair to say I'm a Zeiss fan!

Liveview, with it's tremendous 10x zoom in facility, is a Godsend in the studio and landscape shooting. You can tag the focus point to a tee. Plus of course you get a live histogram enabling viewable aperture/shutter adjustment to maximise the dynamic range. Well worth investigating.

[Marc Schultz]

Thanks. The live view is sounding more interesting. I have another shoot coming up where it might be useful. Maybe I will have to give it a go and see how it does.