5dmkII




I read once that women like movies where one person dies slowly, but guys like movies where many people die quickly.

Well just so you know, if you're not into photography, this post will seem like one person dying slowly, so you can stop here.

Otherwise, on with it!

The canon 5D has been my workhorse camera for a couple years now and most of the images you've seen here are from it. I've had the 5DmkII for awhile now and here's my general impressions.

1. Useable 1600. It's not perfectly clean in the shadows but it's definitely useable. In a pinch, you can get away with 3200 but you will see noise in the shadows. These images are 3200. If you blow them up, you can def see shadow noise. That's ok for live or documentary but not so much for some of the album or magazine cover work I do. I'd rate it as a stop better than the 5D since I used to consider 800 useable and 1600 ok for some situations. From what i've heard the Nikon D3 and D700 are still the king of the low light game, but the 5DmkII is definitely playing in the ballpark. Especially when paired with the 50 f1.2 or 85 f1.2. With either of those lenses I can shoot indoors at night, existing light. You can not underestimate the importance of an extra stop of useable ISO if you shoot in low light. I was hoping for 2 stops of improvement, but it seems like about one to me. Think about adding a stop to each of your lenses... that's a big deal. That can mean the difference between freezing the lead singer in a mid air jump or having a blur.

2. It feels slightly faster, enough so that I probably caught a shot or 2 I might have missed before when I was shooting live concert action.

3. Video. For low light video, I believe this is as good as it gets. I own a $17500 RED camera and in low light, the mkII is substantially better than the RED. For all other things, the RED is better, but for low light shooting, I think the 5DmkII is one of the best options right now. It will not automatically make you into a cinematographer however, that is a unique skill set that requires practice just like photography. In addition, the lack of manual controls and poor ergonomics for video make it slightly challenging. Nonetheless I expect to see a flood of music videos and youtube spots shot on the 5DmkII. For the money, it's an amazing deal.

4. Massive drop in price for used 5Ds. I've seen several 5Ds go for around $900. This is a huge bargain for a great camera. Almost all the work on this blog was shot with a 5D.

If I was shooting concerts, I think I'd still get a nikon D700. It has considerably better autofocus points and seems to have a slight edge for lowlight.

If I was getting started and wanting to trade up to a full frame camera, I'd get a used 5D

If I was a budding filmmaker, I'd buy a 5dmkII.

On the low end side, I've seen refurbed rebel xts going for $299 and even less than that used. It's a great time to get into digital photography.

Posted: Sun - January 25, 2009 at 03:10 AM          

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