Canon 5d vs 30d for landscape photography with large prints 11*14 or bigger

I print 13X19's all the time with my 30D... No issues at all..

I currently have the 30D. Its pretty good for landscapes, but I want my 17-40 to actually be 17 mm. So I'm buying a 5D as soon as the Aussie Dollar hits 91 US cents :P. On the pint size thing, I have printed great looking 16x24's from the 30D using up-sampling software.

A bit off-topic, but relevant to landscape photography, with whatever camera:

what postprocessing do you most often use with landscape photography, and how does that vary from one camera to another?

Tony

AVIgh wrote in post #4192132
JohnB
Your comments are most interesting. As you have used both cameras,what situations do you find the 5D to be superior?
AV

AVIgh,
When compared to my 40D I only find the 5D superior when I need wider then 27mm (my 17-40L on my 40D is like a 27-60mm on my 5D). Of course this could be different if I picked up the Canon 10-22 (might happen) The 40D has been a great improvement to there DSLR line (to my eyes and hands).

I currently own a 5D. My previous camera was a D60 (still have it). I shot plenty of landscapes with the D60. Some of which I've had printed 20x30 with some careful up-rezing. How good are they at that size? On one image alone I've sold just over $1000 (USD) worth of prints, many of them 20x30s.

Here's my thought on the noise issue... the 5D is better, yes (1D Mark III is even better yet). But here's the kicker... I don't know about you but when I shoot serious landscape I am on a tripod at ISO 100 with mirror lockup and a cable release. I don't care how slow the shutter gets (usually), even in very low light, so why not use the lowest ISO where the noise is low? How does the 5D compare to the 30D or 40D at ISO 100? I think most people would be hard pressed to see the difference in a side-by-side. Sure we can see the diff at ISO 1600, but who is shooting landscapes up in that range? So I think the noise issue is a non-issue when it comes to landscapes.

As far as resolution goes I do not think that diff between 30D and 5D alone warrants the extra cost. My D60 is 6.2 MP and it did alright.

There is an issue with the sensor size/crop factor. Your wide lenses will have 'blinders' on with the 30D/40D when compared with the 5D. So that is a consideration. Is it worth the extra $ ? Tough call. I seemed to do just fine with the D60 (same sensor size as 30D/40D) and would often use my 15mm fish for the wides. The fish distortion was less obvious due to the sensor only capturing the center of image.

5D

/end thread

I started with a 20D and have just recently purchased a 5D(after thinking about buying the 40D).
I used the following logic.

Lenses I own (Canon 17-40mm f4 L Canon 70-200mm f2.8 L Canon 50mm 1.8 MKII)

Will the 40D let me make full use of my lenses? (no)

Will I want to upgrade in the future? (yes)

Do I want to buy new when upgrading? (no)

Next possible camera? (1DS MII)

Easy decision for me.

Think of what you want longterm and make your decision based on that.

Once I get my 1DS MKII I'll be happy and won't buy any more cameras for quite a while.

either will do the job just fine. you don't need a 5d by any stretch of the imagination of the imagination. but if you really want to take advantage of some nice wide glass, the 5d will do the job nicely. But if you're on a budget, your just shooting for yourself, a 30/40d with a 10-22 efs will do the job splendidly.

I have both a 5D and a 30D. For landscape photography, the 5D wins hands down. With the 5D, you get much cleaner, much sharper, much more detailed images that allow printing up to 20x30. Images this big look good even close up. With the 30D, printing past 12x18 is a challenge and quickly detail falls apart at 16x20. People who print larger with their 20D/30D images either don't have very detailed images to begin with or have a different standard than I do. In either case, the 5D would be my choice for landscape for both it's image quality and it's wide assortment of lenses suited for landscape photography.

With 5D versus 30D it's a fairly significant megapixel difference; versus 40D it's much closer and I believe the differences will be relatively subtle. Plenty of people have made excellent prints at those sizes and larger from the xxD cameras; don't forget the larger prints are usually viewed from a greater distance. Obviously there will be some differences with higher megapixel cameras; you could take the argument to the next level and get a scanning medium format back! It is relatively cheap to find out what meets your needs - take some of the multiple full size sample images from either camera available from comparison sites and print them at the size you are contemplating - I know for Costco 12 x 18 is like $ 2.99 so it's not a huge investment. See if the difference to you is worth the price.

The 5D will show lens limitations to a greater extent vs. a cropped sensor