5D Mark 2 Viewfinder

I worried a lot about this when I got my 5D.

After months of shooting with it (almost a year now), the point spread really doesn't bother me at all. I guess it's just an "adaptation" thing. The spread was better on my XSi, but I still get the shots I want, and when I'm stuck using the center point only, when re-compose isn't a good option, I'll crop the image slightly for improved composition.

Plus, the rule-of-thirds is a bit overblown, IMO. I was turned on to the diagonal method last year, and I think it's improved my compositions.
http://www.diagonalmet​hod.info/

In fact, Lightroom has a crop overlay for the diagonal method.

Brett wrote in post #9382488
I worried a lot about this when I got my 5D.

After months of shooting with it (almost a year now), the point spread really doesn't bother me at all. I guess it's just an "adaptation" thing. The spread was better on my XSi, but I still get the shots I want, and when I'm stuck using the center point only, when re-compose isn't a good option, I'll crop the image slightly for improved composition.

Plus, the rule-of-thirds is a bit overblown, IMO. I was turned on to the diagonal method last year, and I think it's improved my compositions.
http://www.diagonalmet​hod.info/

In fact, Lightroom has a crop overlay for the diagonal method.

woah.... the diagonal method does seem to make a lot of sense actually...

When i tried cropping with a rule of thirds mindset, i felt like the composition was odd... with people specifically. Landscapes, as the article mentioned, still work pretty well with the rule of thirds it seems.

.mark. wrote in post #9379570
So I guess the point of this topic, apart from to express my surprise, is to ask 5d users how they manage with this and if it's limiting or am I overreacting? Bear in mind I've only ever shot with my 450D.

Not over-reacting at all. The spread is utter crap, but you can't do much about it besides upgrading to a 1Ds III, if you want to retain full-frame with Canon. Personally, I just switch to the closest point and recompose, although that doesn't really work in low-light since the peripheral points on the 5D-series is fairly mediocre in bad light. In other words, there have been situations where I have been forced to focus and recompose - quite annoying. But overall, the 5D-series gets quite a bit of bad rep for the speed of its AF (particularly the performance of its peripheral points), but I never found this to be that terrible. The spread, however, definitely leaves much to be desired.

Now the general concensus was that users were quite happy with the 5D's AF, so the 5D II was released with a similar AF system. Of course, the D700 took everyone by surprise, so I'm expecting Canon to overhaul the 5D III's AF system. I look forward to that with great enthusiasm.

professoryeti wrote in post #9380504
Seems like you could "crop compose" with a center point focus and 21mp. Of course if you want or need all of that resolution it wouldn't work, but for those with more flexible requirements that could be a simple solution.

Crop compose is the method I generally use with the 5D for street photography. I don't print particularly large for my candids, so it works perfectly fine.

Shot with the 5D, subjects focused with the centre-point (and then cropped in post). No recompose at all.

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Collin85 wrote in post #9382694
Crop compose is the method I generally use with the 5D for street photography. I don't print particularly large for my candids, so it works perfectly fine.

Shot with the 5D, subjects focused with the centre-point (and then cropped in post). No recompose at all.

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Nice shot, good for illustration.

It was another deciding factor in the 1D3 purchase. There are times when I want to use the outer points and don't have time to MF. If you now add that I want to do this in dark conditions, this is one of the limitations of the 5D. The center point is awesome. Outer not so much. 1D3 just locks on.

.mark. wrote in post #9379570
It barely seems worth switching from the centre point.

You mean the 5D2 has more than one focus point?
With fast primes the outer points are generally unreliable (useless w/ 85L) and on zooms the DOF is wide enough to focus/recompose without trouble.
I don't remember the last time I used anything other than the center point on my 5D2.

As someone else has already said, because of the size of the FF viewfinder, it emphasizes how close the AF points appear to be towards the centre. In fact the actual spacing of the AF points in all Canon cameras are pretty similar due to manufacturing limitations.

This is how the 5D AF points would appear to be distributed if viewed through a 1.6 crop viewfinder.

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Kolor-Pikker wrote in post #9384638
You mean the 5D2 has more than one focus point?
With fast primes the outer points are generally unreliable (useless w/ 85L) and on zooms the DOF is wide enough to focus/recompose without trouble.
I don't remember the last time I used anything other than the center point on my 5D2.

Collin85 wrote in post #9382694
Crop compose is the method I generally use with the 5D for street photography.

Brett wrote in post #9382488
when I'm stuck using the center point only, when re-compose isn't a good option, I'll crop the image slightly for improved composition

So, the consensus seems to be to "crop compose". I'd say most of my shots don't have the main subject/in focus area bang in the middle so if I'm going to be shooting, and then going through most of my pics and composing them by croping them, why not just get a crop camera (7d) in the first place and use the superior outer AF points?

.mark. wrote in post #9386812
So, the consensus seems to be to "crop compose". I'd say most of my shots don't have the main subject/in focus area bang in the middle so if I'm going to be shooting, and then going through most of my pics and composing them by croping them, why not just get a crop camera (7d) in the first place and use the superior outer AF points?

Well, in my case I'm talking about very slight crops.

Perhaps you should stick with the crop camera if you are uncertain.

I used the outer points on my 5D all the time, indoors and shooting concerts. I haven't put the 5DII through any repetitive lowlight shooting yet but with the 5D, I am going to take some heat for this, I rarely missed. I will say you just can't blindly put one of the outer points on just anything and get it to hit all the time in lower light but you CAN get it to hit with some thought about how the outer points work. An eye is a perfect target.

Now, I do not or rarely shoot in lighting lower than about ISO3200, 1/125s, f4 so won't comment about lower light than that with the 5D. With the 70-200 F4 IS at 200, camera in Servo, it works for me, reliably. I should be able to do better with any of my other, faster, lenses.

So, to put things in perspective, if you don't shoot in lower light then my example above, then you shouldn't be having any real issues with the 5D/5DII's outer points, imo. If you do, then maybe you need a different camera.

I just finished a workshop a couple of hours ago with Tim Kelly, one of the top portrait artists in the world (both in accolades and bucks). He's pretty happy with the millions of dollars he's grossed in one year with the 5D2.

About 12 months ago I did a comparison.

I scaled up the 1D3 and the 40D to fit the 5D to see the difference in the placement of the focus points with respects to the image frame.

1D Upscaled, 40D Upscaled
Brown=1D MkIII Yellow=40D Red=5D (original not mk11)

Greg_C wrote in post #9388056
About 12 months ago I did a comparison.

I scaled up the 1D3 and the 40D to fit the 5D to see the difference in the placement of the focus points with respects to the image frame.

1D Upscaled, 40D Upscaled
Brown=1D MkIII Yellow=40D Red=5D (original not mk11)

See the full thread here.
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=629759

that's really useful thanks. The diff between the 5d and the 40d doesn't look *that* much there.