How 'bad' is the AF in the 5d MK II

Hogloff wrote in post #13724601
As the world turns. Hey...I got a question for you guys. Do you ever take a photo, or do you just get onto forums and complain?

Nope. I quit because apparently the AF in my T2i sucks, and it isn't worth using

kcbrown wrote in post #13723854
How much of the keeper rate with the 5D2 is the result of you intentionally limiting your use of it to those things where you know from experience that the autofocus will do the job?

None really

How many of the missed shots you get with the 7D are the result of using it in situations that would be very demanding of any autofocus system?

probably about 10% usually my error

Since you have both bodies, it stands to reason that you'd intentionally limit the use of the 5D2 to situations where you know it won't be hampered by its autofocus system, and that you'd use the 7D for everything else, no matter how demanding.

The other way around, I had the 7D first, for wildlife. I use it more for the speed and the reach, generally use 5DII for everything else. I got the 5DII as an upgrade for the weddings I do. I don't do enough weddings a year to justify the expensive of the 1Dseries latest camera

And just as 5D2 owners can be critical of the 7D's image quality because it makes you work harder to get good results, so too can 7D owners be critical of the 5D2's autofocus because it makes you work harder to get good results.

does not apply to me as I have both and will stick up for the 7D any time, great camera, to be honest the reason I like the 5DII is more about the effect of shallow depth of field and the way my lenses work with full frame as opposed to image quality/ better noise control etc


Tell me something: would you own a 7D if the 5D2 had the 1D series autofocus system and the 7D's speed, for the price you paid for the 5D2? My bet is that you wouldn't, because you wouldn't need it. And that, ultimately, is the point here. Canon has artificially limited you in terms of what you can do with the 5D2. We all have to accept that, but we don't have to be happy about it.

probably would still own these because I like the fact that the crop sensor gives me reach with my 100-400L where with full frame Id have to go and buy a very expensive longer focal length lens if I only had full frame.


Perhaps we should call the 5D2 what it really is: a Rebel with a full frame sensor. You can take that as pejorative or not, as you choose. But it is accurate.

My last rebel (a long time ago) would not touch the 5DII

and that's the last Im saying on this thread, this argument just goes around in circles and is useless

Hogloff wrote in post #13724601
As the world turns. Hey...I got a question for you guys. Do you ever take a photo, or do you just get onto forums and complain?

The latter.

What now?

smorter wrote in post #13724842
The latter.

What now?

Just keep it up. Makes for good entertainment on a slow day.

aladyforty wrote in post #13724836
and that's the last Im saying on this thread, this argument just goes around in circles and is useless

If you want try a 1D series, join CPS. They're very good about lending bodies to try out. And what's up with all the red text? :/

Hogloff wrote in post #13724865
Just keep it up. Makes for good entertainment on a slow day.

How about we share some oof focus shots from the 5D 2?

jdizzle wrote in post #13724879
How about we share some oof focus shots from the 5D 2?

or some noisy low-light shots from the 7d (yes I went there lol)

I kid, I kid.

mystik610 wrote in post #13724894
or some noisy low-light shots from the 7d (yes I went there lol)

Kcbrown will have your head!

We could all share OOF stuff from any camera. How 'bout the fact all this technology (bells and whistles) its seems that the quality of work has gone down in the past few years. More images have been made in the past 10 years than in the entire history of two dimensional work with all this technology but yet the vision and the work has not increased with the level of technology. No one seems to have the time to learn to use what they have. Instead most are on the gadget train (fueled by the manufactures by the way) chasing the so called latest and greatest. They rely on the gadget so instead of trying to be the best they want their gear to be the best. Instead of trying to find the moment they want to blast through it with FPS. Instead of learning and mastering their gear, the first time they take it out, they're not taking so called "perfect images" its the gears fault and they move on to the next magic bullet.

The focus on the 5DII works fine if you just take the time to learn how to use it. Again I prefer the 5D & the 5DII over the 1d series. I prefer Hasselblad 500 C/M to the 5DII. To bad they don't make a real square low light really high res back thats affordable for those great old blad bodies. But with those type of cameras its the photograpers brain that needs the magic, not the gear. but thats to hard for most now.

airfrogusmc wrote in post #13725338
We could all share OOF stuff from any camera. How 'bout the fact all this technology (bells and whistles) its seems that the quality of work has gone down in the past few years. More images have been made in the past 10 years than in the entire history of two dimensional work with all this technology but yet the vision and the work has not increased with the level of technology. No one seems to have the time to learn to use what they have. Instead most are on the gadget train (fueled by the manufactures by the way) chasing the so called latest and greatest. They rely on the gadget so instead of trying to be the best they want their gear to be the best. Instead of trying to find the moment they want to blast through it with FPS. Instead of learning and mastering their gear, the first time they take it out, they're not taking so called "perfect images" its the gears fault and they move on to the next magic bullet.

The focus on the 5DII works fine if you just take the time to learn how to use it. Again I prefer the 5D & the 5DII over the 1d series. I prefer Hasselblad 500 C/M to the 5DII. To bad they don't make a real square low light really high res back thats affordable for those great old blad bodies. But with those type of cameras its the photograpers brain that needs the magic, not the gear. but thats to hard for most now.

Well put. Hard to argue any of this.

Veemac wrote in post #13723567
Start a fresh thread about it - you can get 20 more pages of the same bickering from the same people. These threads never fail to satisfy.

lol, so true, but overall The 5d it is. No going back unless I truly don't like it.

jdizzle wrote in post #13724879
How about we share some oof focus shots from the 5D 2?

You first - you should have more than anyone else.

I looked for some, but I don't have any. Sorry.

CDI should have a bunch too.

I've yet to have any oof images from mine either. Surely if the image is not right, reshoot and delete the junk?

Glenn NK wrote in post #13726025
You first - you should have more than anyone else.

I looked for some, but I don't have any. Sorry.

CDI should have a bunch too.

Here we go. Shot with the 5D MK 2 with the Zeiss 100 f2. Bear in mind the Zeiss is a MF lens. These were shot in over cast light. Does it look oof?

airfrogusmc wrote in post #13725338
We could all share OOF stuff from any camera. How 'bout the fact all this technology (bells and whistles) its seems that the quality of work has gone down in the past few years. More images have been made in the past 10 years than in the entire history of two dimensional work with all this technology but yet the vision and the work has not increased with the level of technology. No one seems to have the time to learn to use what they have. Instead most are on the gadget train (fueled by the manufactures by the way) chasing the so called latest and greatest. They rely on the gadget so instead of trying to be the best they want their gear to be the best. Instead of trying to find the moment they want to blast through it with FPS. Instead of learning and mastering their gear, the first time they take it out, they're not taking so called "perfect images" its the gears fault and they move on to the next magic bullet.

The focus on the 5DII works fine if you just take the time to learn how to use it. Again I prefer the 5D & the 5DII over the 1d series. I prefer Hasselblad 500 C/M to the 5DII. To bad they don't make a real square low light really high res back thats affordable for those great old blad bodies. But with those type of cameras its the photograpers brain that needs the magic, not the gear. but thats to hard for most now.

I'm gonna leave this here for you.