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EOS1 MK4 or EOS5 MK2 - for Macro (1 Viewer)

davidblades

Well-known member
United Kingdom
I was having a discussion with some friends and this question came up.... If your photography was mainly macro subjects and you were gearing up from nothing which of these 2 cameras would you choose?

Not a money based question more which camera body would be better suited for the job?

Interested in your opinions and thanks in advance
 
Though I'm a Nikon shooter, I have some suggestions:

I've seen macro with excellent results with both - as you can expect, both are well capable of stunning results.

The 5D2 is full-frame, and the Mk4 is 1.4x (I think), so you get more magnification with the Mk4. However, depending on your subject, you're likely to get more detail with the 5D2, and the full-frame sensor means you have a bit more scope with depth-of-field effects.

Since autofocus is generally redundant for macro, there's no advantage having the Mk4 over the 5D2 for AF performance if the sole use is macro work.

Noise isn't usually a concern with macro users, since the majority use very low ISOs and relatively long shutter speeds on solid (ie expensive!) tripods/heads (esp. if using lenses in the range of 100-200mm, or else Canon's amazing MP-E65). However, using a rather different handheld flash technique (using a diffused flash very close to your subject at full power, and deliberately underexposing the shot by about 1 full stop) you can get very versatile handheld compositions utilizing the high ISO potential of the Mk4 (similar I guess to what I do with my D3S which I use with a 200mm, with shutter speeds as fast as 1/250-1/320 at f16 all the way up).

Other considerations which might have an effect here: the full-frame 5D2 is also an excellent tool for landscape photography (where its low frame rate doesn't hurt and its high resolution wins out). The Mk4 is an exceptional birding camera. If you wanted to get birds as well, the Mk4 would be the better option, esp. considering that using it with a 300mm f4 lens would also produce an excellent dual-purpose bif and dragonflies/butterflies pseudo-macro setup.

Other than that, the price difference reflects pro-quality features and build on the mk4, but would you be paying for features you'd never find useful?
 
Last edited:
Though I'm a Nikon shooter, I have some suggestions:

I've seen macro with excellent results with both - as you can expect, both are well capable of stunning results.

The 5D2 is full-frame, and the Mk4 is 1.4x (I think), so you get more magnification with the Mk4. However, depending on your subject, you're likely to get more detail with the 5D2, and the full-frame sensor means you have a bit more scope with depth-of-field effects.

Since autofocus is generally redundant for macro, there's no advantage having the Mk4 over the 5D2 for AF performance if the sole use is macro work.

Noise isn't usually a concern with macro users, since the majority use very low ISOs and relatively long shutter speeds on solid (ie expensive!) tripods/heads (esp. if using lenses in the range of 100-200mm, or else Canon's amazing MP-E65). However, using a rather different handheld flash technique (using a diffused flash very close to your subject at full power, and deliberately underexposing the shot by about 1 full stop) you can get very versatile handheld compositions utilizing the high ISO potential of the Mk4 (similar I guess to what I do with my D3S which I use with a 200mm, with shutter speeds as fast as 1/250-1/320 at f16 all the way up).

Other considerations which might have an effect here: the full-frame 5D2 is also an excellent tool for landscape photography (where its low frame rate doesn't hurt and its high resolution wins out). The Mk4 is an exceptional birding camera. If you wanted to get birds as well, the Mk4 would be the better option, esp. considering that using it with a 300mm f4 lens would also produce an excellent dual-purpose bif and dragonflies/butterflies pseudo-macro setup.

Other than that, the price difference reflects pro-quality features and build on the mk4, but would you be paying for features you'd never find useful?


Many thanks for your detailed thoughts.
 
I use a Canon 1D Mk4 & Canon 5D Mk1. Obviously the 5D Mk2 has higher MP and better color space (with the advantages that they bring). I notice two things when using my 100mm macro:
1. the 1d gives higher apparent magnification, well no it doesn't but it APPEARS to do so because of the 1.3 crop factor, it is useful for increasing your working distance.
2. one of the big moans/disadvantages of cropped sensors is the reduced dept of field control. In other words a crop sensor struggles to give a very shallow DOF. However in the case of Macro work the problem is getting enough DOF, so a crop score here - but only by a LITTLE! I have read that a 1.6 crop sensor gives 2/3 of a stop more DOF, I have no way of proving this but it seems logical to me.
On a pound for pound basis the 5D2 wins hands down, simply because it produces some of the VERY best images available from any DSLR at a fraction the price of the 1 or 2 that beat it. If you need speed coupled with high IQ then it gets very expensive! I know - I am missing an arm and a leg!
 
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