5D MKII, 5D or 50D?

eyeye

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I will admit that I am NOT a tech person. I love photography but the specs make me fall asleep. I am throwing myself at the feet of people who love specs to help me with this question.

I do portrait photography mostly. I do nature/landscape for fun, but 95% of the time I shoot children and families. I do most shoots at parks or in nature and am very limited by my XTi's issues with ISO. I get noise that I do not feel is acceptable at 400ISO. After the new year I plan to upgrade. I would like to upgrade to a camera that I will use for 3 years and that I can use for professional photography. The ISO, and being able to shoot clear photos in lower light is my primary reason for wanting to upgrade. I really really dislike noise. I have 2 L lenses, so I dont want to switch brands.

I have been looking at the 5D MK II, 5D, and 50D and feel pretty lost about what might be best for my sitation. If I buy the 50D, I will have money for a lens or other things but I worry that I will want to upgrade again. I was told that the 5D will pretty much be out of date so not to bother. The down side of the 5D MKII seems the size of RAW files, which I use exclusivly..and the cost would use up all my savings so no money for extras. But it seems like it can grow with me.

So any and all advice is welcomed!
 
5DMKII,

I too have the XTI and i'm very annoyed by the noise, wish I could afford a new camera right now.
 
The 5d is an awesome camera. If money is an issue and you only shoot at 400 iso the 50d is also fine.
But the fullframe is probably nice for portriats.
So i'd say, take it like a man and get the 5d Mk II. memory is getting cheaper and cheaper by the day...
 
I really think that you might want the original 5D, save your money and buy some really sweet L primes like the 50 or 85mm f/1.2 with the savings from the mkII since you'll have to buy lenses anyway.

You can print 20x30 BEAUTIFULLY off the 5D.

And if noise is really that much of a concern, get a D700. That way, you have amazing low-light performance, AND you can use CLS which gives you off camera lighting with the speedlights you'd be using anyway, thus cutting costs dramatically.
 
I don't think you need the 5D MKII. That's just crazy resolution, expecially for the work you're doing. The 5D performs beautifully in high ISO.

Get the 5D and buy yourself something nice.
 
Thanks for all the feedback. I really want to be able to kick it up to 1600ISO with very little noise. Can the 5D do that? Anyone know if the 5D have a drop in price soon?

With the 5dmkii, not worried about the cost of memory, but the time.
 
Dp review has a good review of the 5D http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos5d/ with some sample tests for noise. I would imagine with a little patience the 5D price will drop even further once the new Mark 5D II is released. There is always a lot of hype for the latest and greatest cameras, but they are just tools and if the camera could provide you with great portraits this year than it will provide great portraits next year even if it is an older model.
 
I have the XTi also and like it very much, except for the ISO performance. I shoot at ISO 400 most of the time and frequently could use 800 or higher and I am not happy with the level of noise I can get at 400.

I am going to upgrade this spring for this reason and I am also considering the 50D or the 5DMKII. I've been waiting to see some reviews from magazines that do lab testing and publish comparative readings. I haven't seen anything out there yet, so I'm waiting to make my decision.
 
I was on youtube last night and watched tons of vid on the 5d and the new 5d mkii and the mkii has the new digic4 and a new cmos that is supposed to be WAY better with noise reduction. If you want to shoot at iso 1600 with very little noise, then thats the best of the bunch. that's if you believe cannon's website, you tube and mags... At 2400 bucks it better be the best camera in the world prosumer wise.
 
Well, I don't believe Canons website, of course they will say there new stuff is the best on the market. The mag's at least do some objective measurements and that is what I am looking for, along with some reviews from reliable sources.
 
Well, I don't believe Canons website, of course they will say there new stuff is the best on the market. The mag's at least do some objective measurements and that is what I am looking for, along with some reviews from reliable sources.

There's been people with 5DMKII's in the real world. I've seen completely usable ISO 6400 shots.

But for the price and the wait for a 5d mkii, you could get a used 5d and something like a 16-35 f/2.8 or 24-70 f/2.8
 
I'm hoping the 50D will test out well at high iso. That would be a good upgrade for me and I can still use my Sigma lenses. I've really only considered the 5DMKII to get to the high iso. 21mp seems like overkill to me and I'm not really interested in the video recording capabilities.
 
I'm hoping the 50D will test out well at high iso. That would be a good upgrade for me and I can still use my Sigma lenses. I've really only considered the 5DMKII to get to the high iso. 21mp seems like overkill to me and I'm not really interested in the video recording capabilities.

The 50D will in no way compare to the 5d mkii. The 5d mkii has the same pixel density as an 8mp 1.6x APS-C sensor.
 
From what I have heard the 50Ds noise control is about the same if a tiny bit better than the 40D - that might not sound much of an improvement till you factor in the fact that the 50D has doubled the number of pixels.
Also from what I have read many seem to think that the 50D is a very capable camera, but that it needs quality (read L) class glass on the end to deliver.
 
The 50D will in no way compare to the 5d mkii. The 5d mkii has the same pixel density as an 8mp 1.6x APS-C sensor.
I'm not expecting the 50D to be comparable to the 5D mkII. I'm just hoping it to be sufficiently better than my XTi in terms of noise to serve my needs. That would save me $1000 on the camera body that could go to nice glass.

BTW, I hope the OP doesn't mind that we have pretty much hijacked his thread. It's on the same subject of course, but may not be addressing his issues.
 

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