What Camera for Wedding Photography?

[dital]

Having just had my 5Dm2 stolen on holiday :cry: I was wondering what people consider to be the best Canon camera for wedding photography and why?

[tim]

That sucks :( Hope you have insurance. 5D2 or the new 7D, depending on if you like full frame or not. I have 2x40D and a 20D, but i'll grab a 7D when they're available. I'm not a full frame junkie.

[dital]

Hiya Tim and thanks for the reply mate. Yeah it sucks big time, my camera insurance had expired but I've got some home that covers some of the kit, with a max single item limit of 1.5k though ;(

TBH I've not heard much about the 7D, what camera is that replacing if its not full frame?

Any used the 1D's?

[FrontStageLeft]

I use a 1DIII, but since I bought the 5DII the 1D is mainly back up. In fact I am selling it because it is under used now.

[tim]

TBH I've not heard much about the 7D, what camera is that replacing if its not full frame?

It's like a pro 1.6X crop camera. Information here (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_eos7d.asp). It's kindof a mini 5DII, i'm going with it instead of a 5D as I love the 17-55 ef-s lens, and I don't have lenses for full frame.

[picturecrazy]

If I were to start fresh right now, I'd probably get in line for a 7D, and pair it with the 17-55. That looks like it would be a killer wedding camera setup. The AF point spread is awesome, and I'm hoping it will have excellent tracking abilities. The speed is great too. If my 1D mark III ever dies, I probably would replace it with a 7D rather than another 1D.

The 1D mark III is really really awesome as a camera and with it's feature set. It really doesn't have significant weaknesses to speak of, except it's only achilles heel is the ultrawide and normal range zooms. 24-70 and 24-105 are your main canon choices for a normal zoom. They are not quite wide enough on a 1.3 crop for some. And the L ultrawides 17-40 and 16-35 aren't quite ultrawide on a 1D either. I use the 11-16 and 10-22 on the 1D; they do a better job (as in they get really WIDE!).

Now the 1Ds mark III... now that's a killer camera... if you can afford it and make it worth your dollar business-wise. It does everything really well except it has an ISO ceiling of 3200. Sometimes I wish it had a 6400, but 99% of the time 3200 is more than enough. It's high ISO isn't as clean as the 1D or 5D2, but it's plenty clean enough to make huge prints from ISO3200 shots.

What I don't like about the 1Ds3 is that your only canon lens choices are the 24-70 and 24-105. One is F/2.8 but no stabilizer, and one is F/4 but with a stabilizer. To me, neither of them really can take the place of the 17-55. The 17-55 has the perfect range for a normal range zoom. Honestly, 70mm on full frame isn't very long at all. I find I really need to switch between the 24-70 and 70-200 a lot, whereas if I have the 17-55, I can happily shoot with much less lens/camera swapping.