5DMkii AF - Will I notice the difference?

Coming from a 60d, I'm wondering if I will be disappointed by the 5dm2's AF system. I do find myself using the center AF point on my 60d 90% of the time and recomposing. But AF issues really get on my nerves. The main reason I'm looking at the 5Dm2 is better high iso performance as well as having a micro adjust capable body.

Obviously I'd love to have the Mk3, but the price is just too far out of my price range. I shoot mainly family activities, church events and portraits for friends and family. Not a lot of vertically fast moving subjects, I'm hoping that it might be just as good as the 60D, what do you think?

Well if you use the center focus you'll feel like home to be honest. I wish it were better than that but it is not. With what you describe you should be just fine.

If you're a center point fan, the 5D2 does fine, especially for your subject matter. The outer points aren't horrible, but they aren't up to modern standards, either, so don't be afraid to occasionally try them out.

Ive never had issues with the AF on mine, im more than happy so far. Maybe once i learnm the camera better i may change my mind, but so far it does everything i need it to.

cputeq007 wrote in post #14543519
If you're a center point fan, the 5D2 does fine, especially for your subject matter. The outer points aren't horrible, but they aren't up to modern standards, either, so don't be afraid to occasionally try them out.

I think this sums it up fairly well!

I have been shooting mainly center point on my 5Dc (same AF) since I got it because of everyone saying the outers suck. Well, the last few weeks I've been playing with the outers...and they're not all that horrible. They're definitely usable...especially if you're conscious of choosing points with a decent amount of contrast.

The 60D has better AF performance on the outer points, but if you use the center point most of the time, then you have nothing to worry about. I hate the AF on the 5D2 only because I know how nice it is having a great AF system from a 1D. I use center point 99% of the time on the 5D2 only because I don't want to deal with the outer points. When there are horizontal lines, the outer points work very well.

I went to 5D2 from the 40D and yeah, was pretty disappointed. It was a definite step backward unfortunately. But you get over it when you see the improvement in image quality!

Even the 5D2 centre point is worse than the 60D. The 60D's point is dual cross type (+ with X) and more sensitive than the 5D is, which is only a single cross type (+).

While I only knew the Eos-3 and 30D prior to the 5d2, I see no difference. It's done everything I've asked of it in the 7 months I've owned the 5D2.

The Eos-3 was and is still a very good body, I might have expected it to outperform the 5D2 if that really has "issues".

I came from the 500D to the 5D Mk II and since I know no other, I can't see what there is to complain about. I do mostly use center point, but do use others. Not a problem. Did pictures at my 6 year old granddaughter's ball game this week and it was fine. I do bird shots - nice, clear crisp pictures. It does everything I want it to, and probably a whole lot more!

Stealther wrote in post #14543474
Coming from a 60d, I'm wondering if I will be disappointed by the 5dm2's AF system. I do find myself using the center AF point on my 60d 90% of the time and recomposing. But AF issues really get on my nerves. The main reason I'm looking at the 5Dm2 is better high iso performance as well as having a micro adjust capable body.

Obviously I'd love to have the Mk3, but the price is just too far out of my price range. I shoot mainly family activities, church events and portraits for friends and family. Not a lot of vertically fast moving subjects, I'm hoping that it might be just as good as the 60D, what do you think?

Moving to the 5D2 will net you about 1 stop better ISO noise. Depending on where you are now at your 60D ISO settings, this might be helpful. Also though, you might be able to better process your images for high ISO shots, which could tide you over until the 5D3 prices come down. The same 7D techniques in one of my mini-reviews would help with the 60D as well. Click the link in my signature and look for the 7D high iso thread.

The AF system is very similar with respect to speed and accuracy on the centre point, but the 60D just about nicks it on the outer points. I've shot allsorts with the 5D2 including sports and BIF with great success on both cameras, but the 5D3 is better by miles.

Using center point for the subject matter you describe (little action, mostly portraits) 5DII will be fine for you and feel pretty familiar. Especially if you are mostly using One Shot (I'll assume you are, since you mention focus and recompose techniques). Using a 5DII that way will be very similar.

If you were shooting sports/action, then the 60D would have an advantage, would do a better job tracking (AI Servo shooting). You'd see your "keeper rate" drop significantly, if that were the type of subject matter you were shooting. But it's not, from your description.

Before someone flames me... Yes you can use a 5DII for action shooting... You'll get some great shots with it. Just don't expect the same percentage of "keepers" if you do. With 50D or 7D I get 95% + shots acceptibly within focus. With 5DII, using the same lenses and techniques and shooting the same subjects, it drops below 50%. Now, I don't make a habit of using 5DII for sports and might get a little better with practice (some of misses are always due to the user, some to the camera... hard to really say which is which). But why force it when I have other cameras that serve the purpose better. I use the 5DII for it's strengths: gobs of fine detail, slightly greater dynamic range, lots of potential for enlargement, higher usable ISO (about a stop more than 7D/60D... two stops more than 50D), wide lenses that are truly wide, more control over depth of field and a few other reasons. I don't use it for it's weaknesses: mostly its slower AF, lower frame rate, noisier shutter (actually mirror slap), less "reach", somewhat more limited lens selection. 5DIII does address some of these very nicely... at fairly hefty big price.

Both cameras have the 9-point AF system. A key difference is that the 60D has cross type points throughout, all 9 of them, with the center one is further enhanced.

The 5DII also has 9 points in the viewfinder, but only the center one is the more sensitive cross type and roughly equal to the center point in the 60D. And even that isn't as good tracking movement,. However, it does continue to work in a bit lower light than most of the other cameras...It's slow, but can still focus about 1EV lower light than 7D, 60D, 50D, 40D. (7D is superior for moving subjects because it also has a discrete AF processor, while all the other models short of 1-Series share AF processing and image processing through a single processor). The Rebel/xxxD models that have 9 points and 30D, 20D are more similar to the AF system in the 5D/5DII. EOS-3 is radically different... it was the first iteration of the 45-point system used in 1-series cameras... very fast and configurable.

And, 5DII actually have 6 additional "hidden/assist" AF points on the 5DII, clustered close around the center point. Can't see them in the viewfinder, they are also the plain single axis type and they only work in AI Servo, but they can be enabled with a Custom Function and are intended to help shooting moving subjects. I find them to be of limited usefulness and rarely bother. I'll just work harder to keep the center point on a moving subject, if using the FF camera for moving subjects for some reason.

Thanks for all the great input, I was (maybe still am a little bit) concerned that I would get it and be frustrated with the AF system. I haven't been able to actually use one in person but there seems to be across the board agreement that there is a noticeable improvement in IQ over the 60d and when that is combined with better high ISO performance it gets harder to not pull the trigger on one.

That said, for the price I could also buy a decent studio strobe setup... Ahhh decisions...

Teamspeed: Great writeup, the difference isn't as great as I heard it was, at least in your examples! I'm curious if the 60d is comparable, better or worse than the 7d in terms of ISO performance

smorter: I'm looking forward to see that IQ difference myself!

amfoto1: Yes I am using one-shot while using the center point only. I pretty much stay center point only unless I'm shooting a moving isolated subject (all points/servo). Most of my shooting is available light and it seems like the events I shoot are always in less than ideal lighting so I find myself rarely shooting larger than f5.6 which is why I tend to use the center point/recompose however the fact that the spot metering is based on the center af point is complicating things for me for some shots, I need more practice locking focus and exposure then recomposing because right now I'm too slow!

Why not aproach your local photo shop? Mine will happily lend me things knowing that I will never harm things. It's one way to try the camera for yourself.

Stealther wrote in post #14545480
Teamspeed: Great writeup, the difference isn't as great as I heard it was, at least in your examples! I'm curious if the 60d is comparable, better or worse than the 7d in terms of ISO performance

In everyday shooting, the differences could be more, because you can push a 5D2 underexposed image a bit more than you can a 7D (or 60D) image. If you are OCD and watch your histograms so they are always centered or to the right, then the differences in ISO performance at the upper end will be somewhat consistently 1 stop between a 60D and 5D2.

The 60D is at least the same as the 7D, some people have speculated that Canon tweaked the JPG engine on the 60D just a bit to product OOC cleaner images. I haven't seen anything that suggests the raw images are also better though, so I would be conservative and say that the 60D is almost identical to the 7D output in raw format.