We say glass before body.... interesting twist:

5D/85L...the 5D2 is nice but the 85L is a special piece of glass.

How about a 5D and 85/1.8 and pocket the extra... Or that's $1000 towards a 5DIII.

An 85/1.8 will not depreciate more than an 85L.

newphoto wrote in post #10644015
Unless there is something that your 7D doesn't do, that a 5DII would why not get another 7D? I have two 7Ds and it is very helpful to have the controls and settings exactly the same as I switch camera bodies.

this:

TeamSpeed wrote in post #10644169
It is fun to have two different formats (and versatile).

I shoot primes in the middle so it's very nice having 2 sensor sizes. The question is do I want their bells and whistles to match or will an older 5D be good enough? I know when I had mine for over a year, the sensor cleaning DID get old... The 5Dii meant I cleaned it MUCH less often....

toxic wrote in post #10645389
How about a 5D and 85/1.8 and pocket the extra... Or that's $1000 towards a 5DIII.

An 85/1.8 will not depreciate more than an 85L.

Hrm, that's a GREAT point! I might even be able to go with an 85 and 135 then?

jacobsen1 wrote in post #10646060
Hrm, that's a GREAT point! I might even be able to go with an 85 and 135 then?

That's exactly what I was going to suggest... 5D, 85 1.8, and more glass of your choosing. I personally don't think the 85L is THE portrait lens. I didn't like it, I thought 1.2 looked goofy and overdine with the ridiculous amount of blur. I found myself stopping down to around 1.8 on FF anyways, which was just right. Some people love to blur the living snot out of everything and call it "magic", but there are a billion other ways to isolate your subject without crazy blur. And the 1.2's focus, to me, was piss poor slow. So now I have the 1.8 and couldn't possibly be happier. Fast focus, brutally accurate (this lens gives me a ridiculously high keeper rate), first-rate image quality, and wonderfully small. No brainer. Don't miss the L one tiny bit.

picturecrazy wrote in post #10646592
That's exactly what I was going to suggest... 5D, 85 1.8, and more glass of your choosing. I personally don't think the 85L is THE portrait lens. I didn't like it, I thought 1.2 looked goofy and overdine with the ridiculous amount of blur. I found myself stopping down to around 1.8 on FF anyways, which was just right. Some people love to blur the living snot out of everything and call it "magic", but there are a billion other ways to isolate your subject without crazy blur. And the 1.2's focus, to me, was piss poor slow. So now I have the 1.8 and couldn't possibly be happier. Fast focus, brutally accurate (this lens gives me a ridiculously high keeper rate), first-rate image quality, and wonderfully small. No brainer. Don't miss the L one tiny bit.

yeah, I got the 1.2 only for shooting on crop. When I had FF I had the 1.8. But I got 1.2 on crop because it looks identical to the 135 f/2 look on FF when used wide open on a crop....

but if I swap, I'd likely pair the 24 on the copper for ~35mm and keep the 85 on FF most of the time. If I need wider or longer, THEN switch them. I'm looking to go to a 2 prime setup with 2 bodies so both are ready to go and only if they're WAY off FL wise, then swap them.

picturecrazy wrote in post #10646592
That's exactly what I was going to suggest... 5D, 85 1.8, and more glass of your choosing. I personally don't think the 85L is THE portrait lens. I didn't like it, I thought 1.2 looked goofy and overdine with the ridiculous amount of blur. I found myself stopping down to around 1.8 on FF anyways, which was just right. Some people love to blur the living snot out of everything and call it "magic", but there are a billion other ways to isolate your subject without crazy blur. And the 1.2's focus, to me, was piss poor slow. So now I have the 1.8 and couldn't possibly be happier. Fast focus, brutally accurate (this lens gives me a ridiculously high keeper rate), first-rate image quality, and wonderfully small. No brainer. Don't miss the L one tiny bit.

While I like 85mm f1.8 a lot but what you said could be true for any lens that has a golden ring or even the cheaper ones and you can avoid all "L"s. For me just the better color/contrast/saturat​ion with the 85L was good enough reason to upgrade. Also, AF is slow only if you are going changing between extremes.

picturecrazy wrote in post #10646592
That's exactly what I was going to suggest... 5D, 85 1.8, and more glass of your choosing. I personally don't think the 85L is THE portrait lens. I didn't like it, I thought 1.2 looked goofy and overdine with the ridiculous amount of blur. I found myself stopping down to around 1.8 on FF anyways, which was just right. Some people love to blur the living snot out of everything and call it "magic", but there are a billion other ways to isolate your subject without crazy blur. And the 1.2's focus, to me, was piss poor slow. So now I have the 1.8 and couldn't possibly be happier. Fast focus, brutally accurate (this lens gives me a ridiculously high keeper rate), first-rate image quality, and wonderfully small. No brainer. Don't miss the L one tiny bit.

I agree with most of this...

The 85L is a unique piece of glass. I love it on the 5DC. When you nail everything, it is magical (and I am not talking about the blur). Playing around with a 1.2 lens is fun, and there are times when it looks great to shoot a portrait at 1.2. If I were trying to eek out a living shooting weddings???? I would probably own both. I would shoot the 1.8 during the ceremony for it's speed...then use the 1.2 for all the special detail shots.

It took me almost 3 years to get the 1.2...and I love it. It really is all that....but it is all that for the way I like to shoot. I had the 1.8 and it was great....just wasn't the L...and that is what I wanted...

I'm with the 5D + 85 1.8 + another lens crowd.

toxic wrote in post #10645389
How about a 5D and 85/1.8 and pocket the extra... Or that's $1000 towards a 5DIII.

An 85/1.8 will not depreciate more than an 85L.

This. Though, I have never used the 85L. And I would like to see what Sigma's 85 can do (and it's final price after 6 months).

5D2 is nice, but not enough benefit over the 5D.. for me. I don't need 21MP.

I'm also on the fence about 5D -vs- 5Dii -vs- 1DsII... Basically, do I want the lease expensive option that gets the IQ I need (I don't need more than 12mp and I love the 5D's AA filter), do I go with the camera that shares batteries/menus/functi​ons with the 7D I have, or do I go with the best FF AF available in this price range which also have VERY similar pixel counts (just to keep them similar)?

I don't really like 1 series bodies, and a 1DsII is the older/heavier battery, so that's a turn off. If I could get a 1DsIII I'd likely try it but they'll be out of my price range w/o switching to a single body... I also really like the smaller size of 5s. I also don't want to regret which one I go with and end up switching.

I think though, I'll sell the 85L, get the 5Dii, then see how I like it. If I don't end up using it a ton I'll swap to the 5Dc. If I use it a ton I'll stay there. It's just that I have to get either a 7D or 5Dii coming out of the program, each have similar cost to used value (ie what I'd make selling it to get a 5D or 1DsII) so I think I'll get the 5Dii and go from there.

The other question is the second lens. I'm on the fence between the 85mm 1.8 or sigmalux...

I'd take into account whether the AF speed of the 85mm f1.2 lense would be acceptable to what you shoot.

I sold mine as I found the AF too slow for wedding candids. Yet to buy the 85mm 1.8 but it's on my shopping list.

alpha_1976 wrote in post #10646803
While I like 85mm f1.8 a lot but what you said could be true for any lens that has a golden ring or even the cheaper ones and you can avoid all "L"s. For me just the better color/contrast/saturat​ion with the 85L was good enough reason to upgrade. Also, AF is slow only if you are going changing between extremes.

I'm not quite convinced about the colour/contrast/satura​tion thing. If you do any kind of PP to your images whether RAW or jpeg, you adjust those parameters. I've not really heard of anyone saying they don't PP their 85L shots because the lens renders everything 100% perfect. If shooting with the 1.8 means pushing to saturation slider to 10 instead of 5 with the L, then really, what difference does it make? It's no less work.

And the AF is brutally slow. I'm not talking about full sweeps through the range, I'm talking about catching moving people. The 1.8 is one of my favourite wedding dance floor lenses. Erratically moving people in the dark. One of the reasons I got rid of the 1.2 because it got me something like a 5% keeper rate in that situation, which is pathetic. By the time the 1.2/s lens elements move into position, the person has already moved too much. The 1.8 snaps into focus fast enough to catch them before they've moved too much to mess the shot up.

jacobsen1 wrote in post #10641767
5D & 85L II

-or-

5Dii and 85mm 1.8

which would you choose and why? That's my current dilemma... I have the 7D, 10-22, 24L, 100-400 and the 85L II right now. With the money I have left from my switch, if I swap the 85L out for the 1.8 version, I can afford a 5Dii. If I just buy a back up body, I can afford a 5D (or second 7D) right now. I don't see much reason to have 2 identical bodies, why not double my FLs, at least of my primes right? So FF is going to be in my second body. I'll also consider a 1Ds or 1Dsii as I don't need any bells and whistles in this body as the 7D has it all covered.

So, which would you pick and why?

Personally I'm leaning towards the 85 1.8 simply because I shot at a family wedding Friday night and the slow AF on the L made me miss some shots I don't think I would have with a 1.8. I also have some CA issues on a few shots (right on the hairy edge of being OOF).... The 1.8 is a good lens and AFs quite quick which would be very nice...

Just an amateur opinion but, my vote is for the 5DmkII and 85mm f/1.8. I've shot the 50mm f/1.2L and 85mm f/1.2L and just didn't see enough improvement over their non-L brethren to justify their cost. Build quality was great and they felt great as MF lenses. But I was surprised (as others have noted) to find the 85L was actually a little slow to focus in AF mode. The 85mm f/1.8 has been better for me when shooting candids for company events which always seem to happen in low-light.

On the 5Dc versus the 5DmkII, I cannot put my finger on it but, shooting with the 5DII is a much more pleasant experience overall. It helps that it uses the same batteries as my 7D so that simplifies my kit a bit too compared to running a 7D and 40D. I guess I'd say the old 5D just feels clunky and slow. That said, the image quality still beats any crop-body. And while the newer 5D is no speeddemon, I actually prefer shooting with it over my 7D. I wish it had the 7D's AF system and controls but, the larger, full-frame viewfinder makes manual focus possible for me and is simply less fatiguing to use for a day of shooting. That's just my $0.02...You all my decide I'm completely full of it but, it's my opinion.

jacobsen1 wrote in post #10647070
I'm also on the fence about 5D -vs- 5Dii -vs- 1DsII... Basically, do I want the lease expensive option that gets the IQ I need (I don't need more than 12mp and I love the 5D's AA filter), do I go with the camera that shares batteries/menus/functi​ons with the 7D I have, or do I go with the best FF AF available in this price range which also have VERY similar pixel counts (just to keep them similar)?

I don't really like 1 series bodies, and a 1DsII is the older/heavier battery, so that's a turn off. If I could get a 1DsIII I'd likely try it but they'll be out of my price range w/o switching to a single body... I also really like the smaller size of 5s. I also don't want to regret which one I go with and end up switching.

I think though, I'll sell the 85L, get the 5Dii, then see how I like it. If I don't end up using it a ton I'll swap to the 5Dc. If I use it a ton I'll stay there. It's just that I have to get either a 7D or 5Dii coming out of the program, each have similar cost to used value (ie what I'd make selling it to get a 5D or 1DsII) so I think I'll get the 5Dii and go from there.

The other question is the second lens. I'm on the fence between the 85mm 1.8 or sigmalux...

85/1.8 vs sigmalux, both are great lenses so I'd let the focal length be the determining factor. I find that the 85 focuses faster and more accurately, especially in low light. In bright conditions it has a lot more CA at times and the bokeh is harsher.

^ yeah, AF is the issue for me. Flat out speed isn't crucial, but the ability to get it right sure would be nice. The CA issue on the 85 is also true. I've owned on 85 1.8 in the past and sold it BECAUSE of the CA but also because I wasn't using it much as I had a 50 at the time and a 135 (24 50 85 and 135). I LOVE the siggy if I could trust the AF, but I've only owned ONE copy of 4 tries that could AF accurately repeatedly. Sold it when I switched from canon to nikon, it was also my first copy or I never would have sold it..... lol

but in looking at FLs and 2 sensors sizes, it's 24/36 and 50/85 or 24/36 and 85/135... I also have a MF olympus 50mm that's awesome, just no AF. But I think I'll stick to my 24 and 85mm guns...