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1DS Mark ii or 5D mark ii? (1 Viewer)

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MattLivesey.Hertfordshire

Active member
At the moment I'm looking to upgrade my camera body from a 40d and am stuck between either a 1ds mark ii or a 5d mark ii, being able to use autofocus with a teleconverter is pushing it in favour of the 1 series body at the moment, as I've also heard bad things about the autofocus on the 5d2. Although the image quality looks extremely good on the 5d2.
 
You will read plenty of bad about the AF on the 5D but it really isn't that bad, it is definitely no worse than the 40D. That said the AF on the 1Ds is much better and the spread of focus points is great too. As for image quality they are both excellent cameras - the 1D gives the least digital images of any camera that I have used at low ISOs it is hard to beat. However at higher ISOs the 5D will give much cleaner images. The 5D is also great for video if that is of any interest to you. Basically they are both very good it's just a matter of working out which suits you best - is high ISO performance of better AF more important to you?
 
You probably already know this Matt but both these Cameras are Full frame which means that even with a 1.4x tc on board you will not get as much 'reach' as you would with a bare lens on a 1.6x crop Camera (e.g your 40D). A 400mm lens on a APS-C sensor Camera will give you a FOV equivalent to 640mm whereas with the Full frame Cameras even if you add a 1.4x tc you are still only up to 560mm FOV. Just pointing this out in case reach is important to you.
 
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This had occurred to me but I have read up on this, and I believe you can crop the images from a FF to a greater extent when processing as they capture more detail. I also looked at this test where a professional wildlife photographer tested to a crop camera (40d) against a FF camera (1DS mark ii) and he found that there was no benefit of the crop camera's extra reach, an interesting read:
http://www.ophrysphotography.co.uk/pages/tutorialfullframeandcrop.htm part 1
http://www.ophrysphotography.co.uk/pages/tutorialfullframecrop2.htm part 2
 
MattLivesey.Hertfordshire said:
This had occurred to me but I have read up on this, and I believe you can crop the images from a FF to a greater extent when processing as they capture more detail.
Click to expand...
I do not go along with that Matt, at the moment I have a 5D3 and a old 40D and cropping the 5D3 images to give the same FOV of the 40D does not give as much detail I can assure you. When you crop an image you can never get back detail that was not captured in the first place. In my experience a full frame like the 5D3 gives a much nicer image in terms of colour, noise, contrast .... but it does not give more detail.
 
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After shooting the 5D3 Matt I know only to well that MP's and crop factors are not the be all and end all but in bird photography I do believe that MP per bird does help with capturing fine detail. As an example for, say, the 7D against a full frame Camera, then the FF would have to be around 46 MP to be able to crop to the same FOV of the 7D and give the same number of pixels. As a side note the guy who you were linking to was comparing to the 10MP 40D whereas all the current crop of Cameras are coming in at around twice that many of MP's!
 
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I do see your point, and I think you've convinced me that I won't be able to shoot from as far away with a FF than with a crop camera, I place image quality over reach and therefore instead of using a crop camera I think I'll accept the fact that using a FF I'll need to get closer to the subject in order to fill the frame. Subsequently I'm leaning towards the 1 series at the moment as a 1.4 teleconverter with autofocus enabled would be useful to reduce how close I need to be, without reducing image quality by an unacceptable amount.
 
Matt, as Roy has noted 1dMkiiDS is FF as well. I use 1DMkIII and am very pleased with it, often with 1.4 on a 400f5.6 and have the 1.3 crop factor. Results are very acceptable to me. Try and avoid heavy crops though as detail is reduced.

Just my2p worth. Roy and Postcardcv both give very good balanced opinions. I'd put plenty by what they say. Look at Roy's images for proof!

Good luck with your choice.

Cheers

Phil
 
Matt I am sure you will not be disappointing with a FF Camera as far as IQ and high ISO noise levels go, they will both be a big step-up from your 40D. But if reach is a problem then Phil's suggestion of the 1D3 (or 1D4) is a good compromise with its 1.3 crop factor. One of these two Cameras (1D3/1D4) are the preferred option for a big majority of bird shooters.
 
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I should have mentioned 1DMk4. But for upgrade cost that would be my choice. I am happy with Mkiii and just can't justify cost of going unto Mk4, undoubtably the better camera.

Phil
 
I use the 1dmkiii with the 400mm f5.6 plus 1.4tc ,plenty of shots with this combo on my flickrstream ,you will need steady hands or good technique with this combo though as there's no I.s
 
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