S/H pro canon body-which one?

[ssray]

I borrowed a friends D2h nikon body a couple of times and was very impressed with the speed and quality,I found the quality of picture I could take was better than my current Canon Eos 400d,
Apart from looking at say a s/h eos 5d what other bodies should i look at?
Ta

Ray

[andy-xr]

Played with a mates 1D MkII and really liked the clarity of the photos. Actually preferred it over the 5DMkII another chap had with him for out of the camera stuff, I guess the resolution of the 5D (or amount of pixels) is going to be hard to beat though if thats what you're chasing

[SamHH]

Obviously it depends on how much you've got to spend. The 1D series cameras go from £400ish to >£3000. Don't discount the lenses though; could it be that part of the difference between you camera and your friend's Nikon was the lenses?

[Phunk]

I would put it down to the lens IMHO

[stigmundfreud]

550d, it is seriously that good. Ignore the "pro" stuff unless you specifically require waterproof the old 1d's are not what you are after. The IQ on the 550d is on a par with my 5dmk2 so much so I use it as much as the other

[RobDickinson]

Realy depends what you want to shoot.

A 1Ds mk1 will get nice 4mp images but will be behind what a modern crop sensor can do for noise. Still will have good AF and a solid body.

1DII/n is very similar in perfomance to a 7D , looses out in a few tricks & pixels but is better built.

1DIII is quite a camera still if 'only' 10mp has great noise AF and 10fps.

If you want full frame the 5D is a cracking camera I still think it has the best landscape/potrait IQ of any canon (if not the build/resolution etc).

If you want FF with focusing then it has to be a 1Ds something and the II and III are pricey.


If you dont realy need/want full frame look at a 7D, else look at a 5D both great.

[stigmundfreud]

When looking at a 2nd backup body I was only considering the 7d until I started to look at the 550d. 550d has better IQ and much better noise performance than the 7d which is odd. What it misses out on is the higher burst rate but as I do portraiture that was not a concern. It really is strange of canon to release such a good camera at half the price of teh 7d with the only real difference being frame rate but giving the lower priced camera better noise performance (thats tech moving on I suppose though)

[RobDickinson]

stigmundfreud said:

When looking at a 2nd backup body I was only considering the 7d until I started to look at the 550d. 550d has better IQ and much better noise performance than the 7d which is odd. What it misses out on is the higher burst rate but as I do portraiture that was not a concern. It really is strange of canon to release such a good camera at half the price of teh 7d with the only real difference being frame rate but giving the lower priced camera better noise performance (thats tech moving on I suppose though)

Not so strange, I'm guessing the 550D's sensor is similar to the 7D but just a 2 channel read, doesnt make sense for canon to completly develop something new, and its a touch newer so the AA filter has been tweaked. Even then there almost identical for noise.

Having used an xxxD body for 4 years the 7D is a massive move on from it , the 550D wouldnt address any of my issues from the 350D.

[Bacardi]

RobDickinson said:

A 1Ds mk1 will get nice 4mp images but will be behind what a modern crop sensor can do for noise. Still will have good AF and a solid body.

I'm guessing that's a typo and you're thinking of the 4mp 1D. The 1Ds is 11mp, good quality, although it's slow and noisy anything above 200iso and titchy screen.

To the OP. Apart from the D2h having 7fps vs 5 of your 400 and having better build quality I would question the quality of the picture to be better from an old, noisy above 400iso, 4mp camera against a much newer 10mp camera. As already mentioned it may be more of a lens issue or how the images are being processed/camera set up.

If you want a heavy duty pro body, more speed look at a 1DmkII/n. If you look at a mkIII make sure it has had the sub mirror assembly repair.

The 7D is a very nice camera and if you can live with the slower fps, the 550D is cracking value for money. Both will give you a leap in IQ over your 400D, plus give you video capture and unlike the the pro bodies, won't give you back ache. But for maximum quality, budget for a reasonable milk bottle to stick on the front.

[S. Gonzales Esq.]

My old 5D?

[dave-therave]

When I shot glamour full time I used a 5D (still do but I don't shoot full time anymore). Cracking camera and I won't be bothering to upgrade until it breaks and if I can get one in a decent condition when it does die, I'll get another.

Depends what you're shooting though, might need to shoot more fps if you're shooting motorsport.

All the shots on my site ( http://dave-therave.com ) were shot on the 5D, I can get you some full size crops if needed to see the quality. Never had any issues with printing large images or sending them to mags either.

[RobDickinson]

Ah yep 1D is 4mp, 1Ds is 11mp.

dave-therave said:

When I shot glamour full time I used a 5D (still do but I don't shoot full time anymore). Cracking camera and I won't be bothering to upgrade until it breaks and if I can get one in a decent condition when it does die, I'll get another.

I'd love a 5D but the prices of them seem to be going up here, when the 5D2 came in they were $1200ish for a used one, now there $1700-1800 :/

[ssray]

I didnt think of the 550d, may look at one of them and poss a s/h 5d, + proper glass of course.
Thanks guys
Ray

[RobDickinson]

I think what differentiates the D2h (not the best 'pro' camera at all) and the 400D will still apply to a 550D.

[agent006]

1d mk1 and mk2 both have the same useless NiMH batteries. The MK3 has Lithium batteries, smaller, lighter and not as st. I'm tired of having to carry 5 batteries around for a day's shooting with my 1d1.