Macro 5DmkII , 7D or 50D

Need your advice on a camera for macro photography "only". Would the FF of the 5DmkII and its great IQ be the way to go or would the 7D give macro an advantage. How does the 50D rank compared with the 5DmkII and the 7D "for macro"?

I realize all three are capable of a great job at macro but considering that they are different cameras and I have not owned any of them, I thought perhaps insight from experience on the forum could be very useful and might bring up points that I have not considered.

Your comments are greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

The 5D2 & 7D have live view. Not sure about the 50D. This feature is very handy for macro. You can zoom in and manual focus much easier than through the viewfinder. The 5D has higher resolution, IQ and higher ISO capabilities over the 7D, so if you can afford it, that would be my recommendation.

5dm2, would provide the best macro body out of the 3, can't go past the 21.1 megapixels and the full frame for that extra resolving power needed in macro photography. I routinely crop my 24-105mm to produce a macro like image, just imagine the sharpness if I had a dedicated macro lens.

Cropped

much appreciated,

5DmkII + 100L 2.8

Advantages of the crop bodies: greater magnification effect (1:1 in full frame equals 35mm, 1:1 in crop equals 22mm) and greater working distances.

The 50D does have live view as well. All of these cameras would be fine.

lannes wrote in post #10099155
I routinely crop my 24-105mm to produce a macro like image, just imagine the sharpness if I had a dedicated macro lens.

The second lens I bought was a macro lens.

I could go either way with FF or crop.
FF does have the resolution, but you are not going to get in as close "looking" with 1:1 as a crop and may find your self cropping more often than not. If you frame it with 1:1 with FF and equal framing on a crop you will be a little farther back which would net you a bit more DoF as well.
If it were me doing a lot of stuff in the 1:1 range then I would probably go with the 7D. If I was doing more general use with some macro at 1:1 and some at 1:3 and etc. then I would go 5Dmk2.

how about the 60mm macro with the 7D? good combo?

I would guess the 5DII is better on all counts but I just want to add an honourable mention for the 7D's AI Servo ability - it's been a big help to me for close-ups/macro on a breezy day.

7D has macro AI Servo with Canon Macro lenses. Kicks in anytime focus reaches 1:3 or better i think. BTW the 60 efs and 7d Work great!

They will all work well. The 7D has that fancy new AI Servo if you use it with Canon USM macro lenses at 1:3-1:1+

Kyles wrote in post #10101805
how about the 60mm macro with the 7D? good combo?

The 60mm is a great lens, but you need to work very close with it to get 1:1 shots. The 100mm allows you to work at about 12 inches and the 150-180mm lenses gets you more distance. This helps when you have skiddish subjects.

They will all work (I have my Tokina AT-X 100mm f/2.8 Pro Macro Lens mounted on my old 20D and it still serves up fantastic images). As I was considering your question I started to wonder about the video capability on the 5DII and 7D bodies... paired up with a macro lens it could be a winner, something I'll have to test out.

The AI servo, as was mentioned in a previous reply is something to think about as an advantage however I find myself manually focusing my Tokina 95% of the time because of the way their focusing motor works.

It it were me I think I'd go with the 7D and save a little money, it has almost all of the capabilities of the 5DII and for macro I don't see FF being a significant advantage.

Kyles wrote in post #10098853
Need your advice on a camera for macro photography "only". Would the FF of the 5DmkII and its great IQ be the way to go or would the 7D give macro an advantage. How does the 50D rank compared with the 5DmkII and the 7D "for macro"?

I realize all three are capable of a great job at macro but considering that they are different cameras and I have not owned any of them, I thought perhaps insight from experience on the forum could be very useful and might bring up points that I have not considered.

Your comments are greatly appreciated.

Thank you,