Is 5D IQ that much better than 30D?

I have both the 5D and a 20D. At a glance it is hard to distinguish IQ between the two. Uncropped at 8x10 or smaller ... impossible to determine which was shot with a 20D/30D and the 5D.

The 5D holds a few advantages over the 20D/30D:
1) The wide field of view is great;
2) Crop Ability (5D gives better results on crops);
3) To a trained eye, the 5D seems to have a bit better color saturation and IQ (just a slight edge).

20D/30D Advantage:
1) 5 FPS;
2) Crop factor on telephoto lenses a big plus;
3) $$$ much more Cluck for the Buck (IMO).

Gary

Permagrin wrote in post #2266399
I know...it really makes a big difference for what one uses it...for landscapes and detail shots (architecture), even animals and portraits...the larger pixels, the more light, the better detail....it's incomparable. For sports, or racing I'd want the 30D or even more, a 1 series...(not the ds) for the speed and the crop. I'd love the ds but for the same reason I love the 5....

If you don't need reach, the 5D is superb in every category save one: burst mode. During my recent 3-day shoot (swimming competitions), the 5D was outstanding with my 70-200 f2.8 and made a huge difference in the keeper rate.

If Canon will ever deliver a 1.6 crop that performs equally as the 5D (especially in focus speed), I'll buy it. No question, the 1.6 crop has a role to play in the skeme of my photographic requirements.

In my opinion, of course the image quality of the 5D is going to be superior to a 30D/20D etc.
Lets face it, if DSLR's had first been introduced as full frame, and the 1.6 had just been introduced, who would want one? The statement of "I like the 1.6 crop" just wouldnt come into it as you can crop the image from your 5D with similar effect if you want to. Its only the cost that is stopping me from obtaining one at the moment. My time will come............... In the meantime I am perfectly happy with my 30D & 350D

steveathome wrote in post #2267540
The statement of "I like the 1.6 crop" just wouldnt come into it as you can crop the image from your 5D with similar effect if you want to.

Yes, you can crop a 5D image, but because the 20D/30D/XTi have sensors with greater density of photocells, the net effect is greater reach.

steveathome wrote in post #2267540
In my opinion, of course the image quality of the 5D is going to be superior to a 30D/20D etc.
Lets face it, if DSLR's had first been introduced as full frame, and the 1.6 had just been introduced, who would want one? The statement of "I like the 1.6 crop" just wouldnt come into it as you can crop the image from your 5D with similar effect if you want to. Its only the cost that is stopping me from obtaining one at the moment. My time will come............... In the meantime I am perfectly happy with my 30D & 350D

If you crop a 5D image to the size of a 20D/30D image you get about 5 MP, not 8. The 20D/30D sensors, scaled up to FF, would be about 22 MP. That's more than even the 1Ds II has. And the 400D is 10 MP, which would scale up even higher.

Thats interesting Jon, thanks
I am forever cropping my final images, so I suppose you could say that if I could frame my images better on my 30D, then the quality would be as good as my current poor framing abilities on a 5D?

I would still like a 5D very much.

5d images do not need much, if any, sharpening. 20d/30d most definitely do need it.

5d can take very clean images at ISO3200. The others, well, nowhere near. At all ISOs the 5d gives cleaner images than the smaller cameras, as long as the images are enlarged to the same FOV and print size.

5d gives you back your wide angle lenses.

5d images allow far more cropping.

For the same FOV (note - not the same FL) 5d images have 25% greater linear resolution.

For the same lens FL, 20d/30d images have smaller FOV and higher pixel density for that FOV, so they have some advantage in IQ when "reach" is important for a given lens. But if you choose two lenses which give the same FOV on the two bodies e.g. a 200mm on the 30d and a 300m on the 5d, approximately of course, the 5d image will have higher resolution.