full frame for wildlife (1 Viewer)

I have a canon 50D and am considering changing to a 5D MKII as I am doing a lot of studio work at the moment. Having spent quite a lot on my wildlife kit inc a 30mm f4 and extenders can anyone tell me will I lose much in the way of reach changing from a cropped to a full frame sensor.

John.

quite a bit 300mm and 21 mps V 300mm +1.6 crop 480mm and 15 mps.
So with the 5dmk2 haveing 6mp more - worth about 40mm in reach you would lose aprox 140mm in field of view / reach .
Rob.

Thats quite a bit more than I had thought. Thanks for posting I need to do some serious thinking now.

John.

You would also be stuck with a really crappy AF system and low frame rate. That said, when you can get close to something, the resulting photos will blow anything the 50D can manage out of the water.

While I agree that moving to full frame will make a very noticable to the apparent reach you have but on the plus side the image quality will be miles ahead, as will the low light performance. As for the crappy AF system - I would say that the AF on the 5DmkII is on a par with the 40D/50D so is plenty good enough for most uses. For studio/portrait work there are real advantages in shooting full frame.

As Pete said if John is happy with the AF on his 50D then he will be fine with the 5dMKII as I believe the AF systems are identical.

However there is not only the reach issue to be considered when using FF for wildlife. You need to use bare glass whenever possible and make sure it is top quality L glass because with the FF sensor as the edge and corner sharpness really comes into play and the centre sharpness will also be focussed onto a smaller area vs a 1.6x camera. In my view you'd be better using the bare 300mm for the wildlife and cropping if you go for a 5DMKII, you'd notice the drop in IQ when using a TC more so than with your 50D and seeing as how you use the plural I'm guessing you stack two 1.4s together sometimes which would be a risky proposition unless the subject is bang in the centre of the frame and sometimes for composition purposes or for frantic action when we are struggling to keep up with a bird that is not always possible. I'm by no means dissing the 5DMKII because it has the capability to produce awesome images as Pete has said and for studio work is a real workhorse but for for wildlife it is a camera that would require a lot of work and patience to produce the goods.

So I'm just going to throw this out there. Have you considered a s/h 1DMKIII which is the same sort of money as the 5DMKII? That way you have something with a wider FOV for you're portrait work and a camera that can still kick ass with the wildlife side although there will be a definite loss of 'reach' there but think of what bonuses you would get in return.

So I'm just going to throw this out there. Have you considered a s/h 1DMKIII which is the same sort of money as the 5DMKII? That way you have something with a wider FOV for you're portrait work and a camera that can still kick ass with the wildlife side although there will be a definite loss of 'reach' there but think of what bonuses you would get in return.[/QUOTE]

I should have thought of the 1D Mk3! You beat me to it.
WELL worth a look. In my opinion a more versatile camera than any 1.6 crop camera I have tried/owned. These days 10mp may sound limiting, it is a bit, but how big is your printer? I does not run out of pixels on my A3+ printer.
They are also far tougher! My Mk4 has been slung across a road and my friends Mk3 fell over 6 feet on to flagstones, both still work perfectly - his Mk3 didn't even get scratched!

Chkm8 said:

I have a canon 50D and am considering changing to a 5D MKII as I am doing a lot of studio work at the moment. Having spent quite a lot on my wildlife kit inc a 30mm f4 and extenders can anyone tell me will I lose much in the way of reach changing from a cropped to a full frame sensor.

John.

Click to expand...

Considering you're using 21MP you are not giving up much. The bokeh, and framing possibilities of FF, as well as image quality make up any difference in supposed "reach" IMHO.

This topic has been discussed on this forum before, so search a little.