50D vs 1d MKII

JE Kay · Mar 24, 2009

K..... I have the opportunity to trade my new 50D w/grip for a 1D MKII with 20K actuation's, and an extra battery.

Do I do it?? :thumbup: :thumbdown:

I have brain lock on this... Every tiny piece of brain matter says yes, but there is the one far far in the back that is going 'what?'.

So, chime in. I've owned a 1d MK I not a MKII is there anything that I should be looking for when I go and look at it? Issues, troubles. Anything like the metering board, or first frame clearing on the D2H? :meh:

JE Kay · Mar 26, 2009

I like the input, cool... :lol:

Well I'm now shooting with a 1D MKII, and is it sweet. Mint condition, 21 easy on the shutter K and two batteries. I can't believe I was even debating it.

schumionbike · Mar 26, 2009

congrats!!! now can you give us your opinion on the two cameras? How does the Mark II hold up to the 50D? I mean I would think the software is quite a bit more up to date in the 50 D. The Mark II shoot a bit faster and is weatherproof right?

JE Kay · Mar 27, 2009

Not even a contest. The MK II in almost every way. The only thing I miss is the micro adjustment feature, and that will come when I get a MK III.

Seriously, for someone who shoots RAW files only, again no contest.
The AF reminds me of the F5, even better, it's just amazing. IQ is better than the 50D as well on final output. I can't believe Canon is going to stick with the same sensor and try and stuff it to 18mp, maybe. They said they think they can do it. Good luck, in my mind 15mp is too much, and it shows.

Build is a big difference, the 50D is pretty solid, the MK II even more so. I shoot outside a lot so the weather sealing is great.

LCD is nicer than I remember it on my friends. I only use it for composition anyway so it's fine. Live view I don't care about, it adds noise from what I've heard and read and the 50D has enough of it's own.

Did I mention the AF?

I shoot some sports, I thought the 50D was actually quite good so no knock there, this is a world of it's own. Even over the D2H I had for a while.

1/3 crop makes a difference as well, a nice bonus.

The only other thing is it's not USB 2, but hey. I don't use that much.

If you have a chance to do this deal I wouldn't even think about it. They are right, once you shoot with it I can totally see never going back. :mrgreen:

tsaraleksi · Mar 27, 2009

Sure it's not USB 2.0 but how many people do you know that FIREWIRE on the camera. Go ahead and brag about it even if you know it's because the hardware dates to USB 1.1 days.

(also, if you were wondering how much a replacement firewire cable costs, it's a lot

)

I have not heard anything about fatal errors in the Mark II.

JE Kay · Mar 27, 2009

also, if you were wondering how much a replacement firewire cable costs, it's a lot

I actually have a couple of them. :thumbup: Not that long but they'll do I suppose.

Ya I don't really use the camera to off-load files anyway. I use a card or a reader.

The only thing I heard of that can stop it dead is the mirror box problem that cropped up when they first came out. Not sure if it's still and issue. But I guess it happens pretty early on in it's life...... I'm hoping.

tsaraleksi · Mar 27, 2009

Yeah, I would not say for sure but if I recall correctly, that was an early-in-life problem that would have shown itself already.

I now can't remember, it's been a while-- do you need the firewire to change personal functions or can you do that with the USB?

JE Kay · Mar 27, 2009

Pretty sure you need the firewire cable, if I remember seeing right. It came with all the manuals, and other books as well.

usayit · Mar 27, 2009

JE Kay said:
I like the input, cool...

Well I'm now shooting with a 1D MKII, and is it sweet. Mint condition, 21 easy on the shutter K and two batteries. I can't believe I was even debating it.

Congrats on the camera. You made a wonderful choice... Mine still keeps me happy each day. Just one tiny piece of advice. The battery life is very very good but they are Ni-MH which means you need to take care of them. They are not as care free as Li-ions. Don't charge when they still have power too often or they will start to develop a memory. Be sure to recycle them occasionally (your charger will discharge completely and recharge). When you recycle them, be sure to leave plenty of time. Two batteries will require about 16 hours to go through a complete recycle (discharge and recharge).

I still laugh when a rebel shooter walks up to me asking "How many megapixels?" Thinking they are ahead of the game ... lol.

JerryPH · Mar 27, 2009

JE Kay said:
Pretty sure you need the firewire cable, if I remember seeing right. It came with all the manuals, and other books as well.

FireWire rocks, no doubt... but I've seen a camera that received an accidental charge from a defective cable and fried. No, it was not firewire, it was a USB cable, but all cables can go south without warning.

Use an external card reader. It doesn't matter even if your camera has the FireWire connector, it is never going to be as fast as using a good external card reader... and it will never fry your camera.

Even the $8000 Nikon D3x direct from camera transfer rates pale when compared to a $35 USB 2.0 external card reader.

BTW, connector type is important for transfer speeds, but you won't see any great speed differences between a USB 2.0 and a FireWire transfer unless you happen to use a fast card. Even cards like the SanDisk Extreme III are vastly different in transfer rates to the Extreme IV versions and even these versions all pale compared to the Ducati series of SanDisk cards. Be prepared to pay a premium for these faster cards.

Congrats on the new camera.

tsaraleksi · Mar 27, 2009

We're talking about using the FireWire for things like modifying the camera's internal data and personal functions (a quirky thing on the Canon 1D-1DmkII N) that are like custom functions but have to be set on the computer.

You also need the firewire should you wish to shoot tethered.

JerryPH · Mar 27, 2009

tsaraleksi said:
We're talking about using the FireWire for things like modifying the camera's internal data and personal functions (a quirky thing on the Canon 1D-1DmkII N) that are like custom functions but have to be set on the computer.

You also need the firewire should you wish to shoot tethered.

Wow. Can you tell I am a Nikon guy? :lol:

Tethered shooting is cool, I can definitely see the advantage that FW would have there, especially shooting RAW.

JE Kay · Mar 27, 2009

The battery life is very very good but they are Ni-MH which means you need to take care of them. They are not as care free as Li-ions. Don't charge when they still have power too often or they will start to develop a memory. Be sure to recycle them occasionally (your charger will discharge completely and recharge). When you recycle them, be sure to leave plenty of time. Two batteries will require about 16 hours to go through a complete recycle (discharge and recharge).

This is what I've been looking for. Thanks a ton for posting that. Greatly appreciated. I wondered about the batteries given the Ni-MH, I just wanted to know how long the cycle took. It mentions something about using the battery until it's dead, or near enough. Then discharge it, doesn't take as long this article said. I've read here, that once a month is a good discharge/charge cycle. That sound right?

Ya I love FW, I don't know why they took if off the new Macbook.

Yep, I like using readers.

usayit · Mar 27, 2009

Yes... once a month is fine.... or in my case, after long term storage. You'll also want to recharge just before using because they will gradually loose their charge.

Yah... New Macs suck because of the missing FW.