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5D II+7D vs. 5DIII

I think your answer will depend on how much you need the extra reach. You have a 100-400 so that already gives you lots of reach, but you know best whether the subjects you shoot are going to be covered by 400mm or whether you need more. Personally, I would think carrying 2 cameras around all the time is not worth the hassle, so I would cetainly go for the 5DIII option, but I'm sure many people carrying 2 cameras and having different lenses ready on each.

Simplistically, the 5DIII is better than the 5DII in every way (except price), and the 5DIII is better than the 7D in every way (except price and reach). Therefore if you're considering the 5DII and 7D against the 5DIII, then the only question is reach.

Final consideration is potential resale value down the line. I'd have thought that once the 7DII comes out, the 5DIII would be more valuable, but that's pure speculation and will depend on whether the price of the 5DIII drops.

I'd go with the 5D3, AF is excellent on it.

5D3 and 7D.. Too bad you forgot that one in the poll.

Silly me, never considered resale value of the bodies. But then and again, I am not planning on selling them either. You should never consider the costs of the bodies, imo, as an investment- after all- they just depreciate- unless you are making money from them. If you are looking for investments- then you might want to talk to your stock broker or financial advisor.

Well, I had the option of buying the 5d3 or the 5d2+an extra lens. I went with the 5d2 and the glass. I find there is quite a bit of room to crop 5d2 images for normal web/small print images..

The 5D3 will do everything the other two combined will do and more. Unless you really need the crop factor, go with a 5D3.

On a side note, I was in the camp of "the outer AF points on a 5D2 are good enough" until I saw it fail horribly in a situation where it should have locked on. To me, using a 8 year old AF system is like throwing money away (unless of course you manual focus most of the time).

I sold the 7D and 5D2 to get the 5D3 and it's excellent. The advanced AF alone is worth the price for me, and the level of advancement over the 7D even is massive. I was never truely happy with what the 7D could do, it seemed to have too many little bugs in the system (don't get me wrong, it's a great camera as long as you get EVERYTHING right when you take the shot), whereas the only downfall with the 5D2 was the AF for action shots, for me anyway.
I did kind of get insecure about not having a second body though, so I got a 60D just for backup. I think I've taken about 30 shots so far, at least it'll hold it's value if I do sell it I suppose.

The 5DII is a world class landscape/still life camera. The 7D's AF makes it a better choice for wildlife.

You already have a very good L lenses collection. So I would stay with a FF 5DIII. You can rent a 400 2.8 when you plan to go somewhere like Yellowstone that will have long distance shooting. With that lens and the 5DIII body you should be able to add a 1.4TC or 2.0 TC to significantly extend the reach.

My 5DIII is on order. I hope it arrives before we head out in June.

There's not a lot of benefit to getting the 5D3 for landscapes - up to 1600ISO the noise floor is hardly different and you're likely to be using manual focusing and magnified live view. The 5D3 is reportedly not all that good at this.

On the other hand, the 5D3 is probably a better camera for wildlife than the 7D IF you can afford lenses to suit it. (I base this on my experience that most wildlife is active in the early morning and you're going to need a low noise, high ISO camera.)

All things considered though, two excellent cameras is a far better deal than one excellent camera at the same price.

On the financials - I think you stand to loose far more in resale value when you buy a camera at the beginning of it's run. Suppose you bought a 1D3 now, it would cost around $1800. In a year or two it'll go for $1400-$1600... so it costs you $100-$200 per year. Of course, you might expect a larger drop if you buy a pair of new cameras but I'd be astonished if the 5D2 doesn't fetch $1500 in a couple of years. This translates to $250 a year...

Does anyone want to guess what the first cut to the 5D3 price will be? My guess is it'll bring it down to less than the price of a D800. Maybe I'm wrong but I think a lot of folk are going to be mighty unhappy.

As much as I loved my 7D, I can't imagine ever going back after using 5DMKIII. AF is so much more reliable and IQ is head and shoulders above even at base ISO and it gets more drastic when you venture into higher ones.

Can't afford it, but, local camera store had me try out the 5DMIII. Probably wanted me to purchase it. AF is fantastic compared to my 5DMII. If the price ever comes down, I will think about it. In the mean time, I am happy with my 5DMII.

5Diii sounds like your best best. You're lens line up give you plenty of reach. You can always get a tele-converter if you desire more.