5d ii or 7d for portraiture and macro

Hi all

I am in the position of buying either a 7D or a 5D ii refurbished from the eBay canon outlet, I would like to know which one of the two would guys advise me to get for portraiture ''mainly children at studio'' and Macro Photography in my spare time.

I know 5dii has focusing issues but how much of a problem would that really cause when doing macro photography.

Many thanks in advance.

well all i can say... i dont own a 7d... or 5d...but i want a 7d and lust for the 7d ii if it comes...

each camera does a certain thing well.. low light go for 5d ii.... portraits id say 5d ii also.. macro i dont know...

for me.. sports.. sports.. fast cars.. action.. and distant objects... i want a 7d for the 8fps... not to take a ton of snaps and get the best one but i want to do collages and stuff... plus weather sealing and the sort...

so go compare what each does and what it does well and see what you need..

id personally say... write down your NEEDS on a piece of paper.. then your WANTS.. then go compare.. dont compare before you do that...

For macro you'll most likely be using manual focus, so that doesn't matter. With the 7D you'll be getting slightly more DOF though, which is useful. But with the 5D you can stop down more before encountering diffraction.

For portraits, the 5D will be better.

Between the 2, if you don't need the AF of the 7D, go with the 5DII.

I had a 7D and a 5D2 and I used the 5D2 for almost everything. I ended up having to remember to use the 7D cause it hardly ever came out the bag. The only thing I really did do with the 7D that I couldn't with the 5D2 was macro, but that was only because my 100 2.8 L macro was perfect with the 7D and it was so far out with the 5D2 that I couldn't MA it.
I've since sold both of my bodies and got a 5D3 and so far I've tried 4 out of 5 lenses on it and I'm happy that none need any MA and only my nifty fifty to try.
To answer you're question directly, in your position of shooting portraiture and macro the 5D2 will be the best thing you could ever do. The IQ, low light ability and high ISO beat the 7D everytime.

5DII IQ, hands down

If I recall, the 7D has a setting in the AF that caters well towards macro photography (with a canon macro lens attached to it of course).

The 5D2 does not have a setting like that in the AF modes though.

I would say 5D2. The 2 reason I would even lean towards the 7D is for low light composition (cross types are a life saver), but you could just focus and recompose on the 5D2. The other one being that in AI-Servo the 7D works with the 100L to give a special macro mode type of AI-servo the 5D2 does not have.

5DII without a doubt.

It's not so much that the 5Dii has 'focus issues', it's that the 5Dii is using the same focus system in alot of the earlier cameras whereas the 7D is using a (at the time) new and improved focus system.

Long story short, for portraits or even macro, I'd go 5Dii. The only reason I keep my 7D around is because I want to get into doing more action / sports stuff (though it's definitely a capable camera).

I had a 7D, and decided to get a 5D II because I mostly take pictures of cars, family, etc. So far, I like my 5D II comparing to 7D. The only thing I regretted was that I had to sell my Sigma 30 and Canon 10-22 lenses.

I have both.. For portraits the MkII w/o a doubt indeed. For macro I'm not sure yet since I have the 100L for 2-3 days and I'm still trying it with both bodies with great results.. I'm liking though the reach of 7D and the AF which can surely help much more in macro..

Those who have voted the 5d2 has not ever tried the 7d in macro. Or at least fully realized how bloody good the AF system is.

With the 7D you can use spot AF for precision focusing. The spot AF can be used on all AF points. Something even the 1d4 can't.
Dial in the AI Servo mode and you can compensate for slight sway or breath.

There was a video on this over at BH.

Sure the 5d IQ is great. But that is only if you are limited to available light. IIRC macro fanatics use additional lighting. In this regards there are no difference.

I have both and have no problem using 7D for what your stuff. I'd prefer the 7D's precision control when it comes to tricky situations.

I prefer the 5D II over the 7D. The 5D II's central AF point is quite good and is what I'll use.

With a matte focus screen, the 5D II is a joy to manual focus, especially with fast glass.

Do you have any good crop only lens? I can see that factoring in.

Also, I can see getting the 7D if you do sports/moving subjects, if you shoot telephoto a lot, or if you like using the joystick to select AF points when composing (I love that feature with my old 40D).

But, having used the 7D and 5D II extensively, I know I prefer the 5D II.

It should be clear by now 5d mark2 for portraiture. I have owned both. I covet the 7d again for sports, kids playing soccer etc.

delhi wrote in post #14198749
Those who have voted the 5d2 has not ever tried the 7d in macro. Or at least fully realized how bloody good the AF system is.

With the 7D you can use spot AF for precision focusing. The spot AF can be used on all AF points. Something even the 1d4 can't.
Dial in the AI Servo mode and you can compensate for slight sway or breath.

There was a video on this over at BH.

Sure the 5d IQ is great. But that is only if you are limited to available light. IIRC macro fanatics use additional lighting. In this regards there are no difference.

I have both and have no problem using 7D for what your stuff. I'd prefer the 7D's precision control when it comes to tricky situations.

Yes, I did recall reading about the cool AF feature on the 7D with Macro, (I need to try it) however dont you manual focus when doing macro? I guess its cool for flowers macro though, which might sway in the wind, where AF would be helpful.