Buying Guide: Canon 5D Mark II

I'm now starting to write little buying guide posts from time to time. I will basically be talking freely about the gear I'm using or have been using in the past.

This is the first article of this kind, and I will start off with the piece of equipment that is always involved when I'm out there taking pictures. Of course, I'm talking about the camera body. In my case that would be the Canon 5D II.

Here are my 5 top reasons why the Canon 5D Mark II is my body of choice.



1. No matter how much ice cream you eat, you will hear people saying that you have a great body

Happens to me all the time.

2. Because the image sensor is so large, your photographs won't show much noise even when shooting with higher ISO

Different from the most commonly used sensor size (known as APS-C size), full-frame sensors produce less image noise. Noise (or grain) can look nice and artsy in some images, but in general the camera that produces less noise gives you more freedom. It allows you to increase the sensitivity of your image sensor (by increasing the ISO in the camera settings) and take beautifully smooth images in low light situations.

Now why is that?
The image sensor is the part of your camera that actually captures the light coming through the lens. The sensor translates the captured light to electric signals so that it can be digitized and stored on your memory card. So far so good. Now why would one pay so much more money just for a larger sensor? Simply because each single pixel in your image is based on one electric signal. When all these signals are squeezed tightly together on a small sensor, the signals interfere with each other resulting in unsightly image noise.

Let's compare it to a daily life situation: when you sit in the economy class of an airplane squeezed between other passengers, you are affected by whatever your fellow travelers do. You smell the food they are eating, you hear the things they are talking and you notice every move they are making. Now you can imagine the arrangement on a full-frame sensor as the first-class section in an airplane. Everybody has plenty of room to stretch out and enjoy the trip. Now after the long journey is over, who do you think comes out looking better? The OJ zipping first-class passengers, or the squeezed-out people from the economy class?


3. With 21 Megapixels the resolution is high enough for producing large-scale prints of high quality

As discussed in (2) I wouldn't want 21 Megapixels on a APS-C sized sensor because of the interference mess. In case of the 5D II however, I thankfully take the 21 Megapixels and blow the images up to brilliant looking large-scale prints.


4. It is the most affordable (Canon) body with a full-frame image sensor

Now that you are aware of some great advantages of the sensor size, you might want to have a look at other full-frame cameras out there.
If you do some research and look at the different Canon lines, you will see that you would have to spend at least twice the money for other cameras housing the exact same sensor. If money is a concern, and you are not too specialized in what you are shooting, the 5D II seems to be the best choice.


5. It's weather sealed and built to last

I used my 5D II in the rain and in nasty dust storms and it is still working like it did on the first day*.

*results may vary.

Last but not least, two high-ISO example images taken with that body:

This is an example of a nightly street photograph taken with ISO 3200:



An HDR image from three exposures - each taken with ISO 400.



I know most of us don't order such a piece of equipment spontaneously. But if you at some point decide to purchase one, feel free to put a smile on my face by ordering through this link:

Nose Manual - East Village Skate Park

Actually, I don't know if it's called East Village Skate Park, but it's a skate park in East Village.

Picture was taken with the lightweight and inexpensive Tamron 28-200mm lens. With this zoom range it will probably be my lens of choice for Burning Man - an upcoming event I'm starting to get excited about as the date gets closer.

I thought I would try something new: If you follow the link to the lens and end up buying it, I get a small percentage of the sales price. I'm wondering if you guys would appreciate occasional links like that. Thinking about it, there are so many online stores where one can buy photo gear: where do you shop? I believe Amazon.com is the most known and trusted one.

Lensbaby

Today I put my hands on Steffi's Lensbaby 3G. First time I tried it, for sure not the last time. I remember reading about it years ago. Back then it was about $100 and I was hesitating to invest that money. When I visited the manufacture's website today I got a bit shocked about the current prices. Anyway, the optics are really unique. There is more to come.

Steffi and the Canon 7D

The 7D is a great model - and Steffi too.

Leica S2 - What do you think?

A new camera with a DSLR look and feel, but with a larger sensor, and thus with more pixels (37.5). It's built by Leica and has a price tag of $22,995. This is for the body only. Lenses start at $4,495.

What do you think about this? When I first heard about it I couldn't imagine anybody paying this kind of money for a photo camera.
Having not much of an idea about medium format, I later on noticed that there is quite some excitement about having medium format in such a body with such a "high" frame rate (1.5 fps).

I think it's still an unbelievable amount of money for a cam. Can someone enlighten me about medium format? How superior can it be to let's say a 5D Mark II?

In-Camera HDR

This is an interesting camera feature that I was wondering if it would come up soon. After all, HDR is supposed to make up for properties of the image sensor that are considered limitations when compared to the human eye. OK, in people's minds the term HDR is also associated with "over-processed images", but I'm sure that's not what a camera vendor would strive for. So far it involved some special software and/or tedious post processing.

Now it seems like the time has come where cameras start to make the HDR photographer's life easier. From what I read so far, the Pentax k20 and K200 are the first two digital SLR cameras that can compute under- and over-exposed images out of a picture and combine them with a built-in HDR algorithm.
The little Ricoh CX1 (which is supposed to come out in March) is the first compact camera with such a feature. It actually has two different ways to create HDR images: Either from one shot, or from an exposure series.

I'm curious what these first-generation built-in HDR features will be able to produce. The Ricoh has a huge zoom range (28-300mm), and interesting sounding things that I have never heard of, such as "Multi-Pattern Auto White Balance" and "Multi-Target Auto Focus". I'll keep an eye on this one.

Here are my sources:
About the Pentax SLRs.
About the Ricoh CX1.

First 5D Night Shot (HDR)

This is probably not too impressive right now. But to share my enthusiasm I'm thinking about pointing out the differences between HDR images taken with a crop and a full-frame sensor camera. The interesting point would be a comparison of the raw output from an HDR-software after tone-mapping...

About this picture: I took it in Williamsburg, Virginia. The sky was very dark blue and the moon almost full. Other than that, it was very warm and smelled like spring - a beautiful night for picture taking!

Princeton killing Cornell

So here it is: the very first '5D Mark II' picture I'm posting. Let me welcome you to the full-frame/fisheye age on fluck.de with a slam dunk by Kareem Maddox of the Princeton Tigers.

About the lens: It's the Sigma 15mm 2.8 fisheye. It's a little less expensive than the Canon counterpart, but at the same time it's built nicer and produces a little bit better images - at least that's what I read.

I also read a lot about the 5D of course, so there were no surprises on that part either. This is an ISO 6400 picture. I'm all set, that all I need for now.

About my umbrella setup and going full-frame

The two pictures below show my latest construction. No, it's not a time machine. It's a 50D on a tripod with a Bogen Super Clamp attached to it, which is also attached to another Super Clamp that's holding a golf umbrella :-)

With this construction it should be easy to take pictures during rain and snowfall. It gives you more freedom with your hands while staying dry. I originally had the idea from Dave's blog without remembering the details on how he got the umbrella attached to the monopod. Anyway, I thought it was a very original idea. When I told it to a sales person at the local camera store, he knew exactly what I needed. Turns out that this is a common setup that is used by sports photographers. Compared to internet prices, I paid way too much for the Super Clamps by buying in that store, on the other hand I wouldn't know how to do it without their advices. There were not many good chances for me to try this yet, but once I do, I will let you know how it went.

About going full frame. I finally sold the 50D. Man, it's so much harder to sell a camera body than selling a lens. I didn't think it would be like this. Fact is, camera bodies are outdated quickly whereas lenses are kind of timeless. They don't update a lens often, and even if, what you mostly pay for is the glass, and glass doesn't wear out. I'm still getting requests for the 24-70mm 2.8.

So here is the thing: I only have the 20D left and I think I will keep it. The camera was outdated years ago, which would force me to sell it for almost nothing. I won't do that. It is an excellent digital SLR, so why throwing it out of the window?
Other than that, I'm pretty much ready to do the final step going full-frame and get the 5D Mark II. The problem is: this camera is not in stock anywhere. Canon seems not to be able to produce them as fast as they sell. Pretty amazing.

I'm currently using the 20D again.

A little update on the selling

What I still have available:

- Canon EOS 20D body + lens kit
- Canon EOS 50D body
- Tokina 12-24mm f/4.0 lens
- Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens
- Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens

I'm selling my cameras

My cameras and most of my lenses. I finally decided to go full-frame, namely the Canon 5D Mark II. My favorite lenses are made for APS-C sized sensors, so those need to be exchanged as well. If you are interested, I have a pdf-file ready for download with pictures and prices.

Anyway, here is a short list with everything I'm selling:

- Canon EOS 20D body + lens kit
- Canon EOS 50D body
- Tokina 12-24mm f/4.0 lens
- Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens
- Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens

I'm first owner of all items, some things are barely used.
Comes in original packaging and accessories.

For details: PhotoSale.pdf

The 341 West Lurker and "all that image noise"

Hello visitor, I hope you had some nice holidays.

The 341 West Lurker was taken last October, shortly after I started using the Canon 50D. The picture was taken with ISO 800, and was slightly underexposed. I corrected the exposure in Lightroom and applied noise reduction. After using the 20D for years, and now the 50D since a couple of months, I got to say that I have problems getting used to all that image noise the 50D produces.
Often photography enthusiasts who invest in a high resolution camera have in mind that it gives the freedom to crop images and still end up with a decent resolution. One should keep also in mind that this is only fun if the image was taken with lower ISO settings. Otherwise you will not only bring up interesting details in your pictures, it will show all that image noise in great detail as well.