Comparison of 7D and cropped 5D2

A friend of mine shot some quick raw files to compare the 5D2 and 7D in the case where the 5D2 is cropped to the same angle of view as the 7D (such as in a lot of wildlife photography). Here is the analysis of the test (with raw files):

7D compared with cropped 5D2

Some notes about the comparison:

• The JPEG compression is very light, but if you prefer completely uncompressed PNG files, just remove "-jpg" from the URL.
  
• The 100-400 and 100mm macro lenses were used, but I only ended up analyzing the macro shots in the above URL.
  
• The color temperature was very low, 2800K, and white balanced back to neutral, so the blue channel has quite a bit of noise even at ISO 100.
  
• Same 100mm f/6.3 settings on both.
  
• There was a bit of a brightness difference that required equalization in the raw converter. I didn't bother to preserve highlights while brightening with nonlinear EC or highlight compressing curve.
  
• dcraw was used to demosaic the files to ensure both were given exactly equal conversions.
  
• In the first two sets of comparisons, I upsampled both cameras to 36 MP so that the effect of the upsampling wouldn't unfairly penalize the 5D2. In the third set, both are downsampled to 8 MP
  
• ImageMagick was used for resizing and sharpening (same parameters for both).
  

Wow. The difference is more significant than I thought it would be. Thanks for taking the time and sharing your findings.

neat stuff, but I still prefer the images from my 5D vs my 7D - to the point that I actually traded the 7D away. Good info though.

Pretty much the expected result to me, a 18MP APS-C sensor is way more dense than a 21MP FF sensor so when looking at a cropped 5D2 to a 7D, the 7D is going to have way more resolution!

Glad I got rid of my 5dII.

Daniel Browning wrote in post #11337335
......so that the effect of the upsampling wouldn't unfairly penalize the 5D2. In the third set, both are downsampled to 8 MP......

You are comparing about 8mp from 5D2 with 18mp from 7D. Do you think that's fair?
Also, none of the results are directly from the camera, all cooked with some magic routine. Sorry, but your results are very flawed.

pasm365 wrote in post #11337529
You are comparing about 8mp from 5D2 with 18mp from 7D. Do you think that's fair?
Also, none of the results are directly from the camera, all cooked with some magic routine. Sorry, but your results are very flawed.

He has gone at length to even the playing field, I think you need to re-read and analyze the work.

I have owned and sold 100-400 and 100L. To me I do not think these two lenses have a good match with 5D2. Too bad I did not have them anymore to test with 7D.

When I first viewed the photos I was thinking that theres some MA required on the 5dmk2.

I'm not certain if the methods here have provided proper grounds for comparison.

I think a good test is to shoot in the city and take photos of office buildings from a distance. This may be more challenging for achieving more details in a photo.

It is nice to have a built in 1.6x factor in the body I do think a full frame has its benefits too.

Nice comparison to show the advantage of a crop camera for things like birding.

Also nice to have all the editing steps listed.

mikeassk wrote in post #11337537
He has gone at length to even the playing field, I think you need to re-read and analyze the work.

His work is almost pointless. Forget about camera model, same view, 8mp vs 18mp, blown up, which one looks better? Isn't that obvious?

I'm not sure that people who are looking for more reach, or consistently use super telephotos, would ever really find themselves having this debate in the first place. I could have told you that the 7D is better at getting more reach for a given focal length than the 5DII without any tests at all.


How about this test:

100mm on the 7D,
70-200 zoomed to 160mm on the 5DII.

I think the results would be a little bit different than with this test.

If you want more reach, APS-C is a clear choice, sports, wildlife, astronomy....

Now lets see a test comparing 35mm on a 7D, cloned onto a canvas sized to match the FOV you get from 35mm on a 5DII

pasm365 wrote in post #11337569
His work is almost pointless. Forget about camera model, same view, 8mp vs 18mp, blown up, which one looks better? Isn't that obvious?

He is simply showing under certain circumstances, there is a benefit to APS-C sensors over FF. At a given focal length and given distance from subject, the APS-C sensor has more resolution if we assume that is the framing we want over the FF framing.

Once they make a camera with a FF sensor with the same pixel density as the 7D, then the test should yield the same result for both. But by then, they will no doubt make a APS-C sensor that is even denser.

NatDeroxL7 wrote in post #11337572
Now lets see a test comparing 35mm on a 7D, cloned onto a canvas sized to match the FOV you get from 35mm on a 5DII

Wouldn't this clearly favor the 5d2 since you are now comparing 21MP to 18MP?

I think the point is frequently the lens you have is the lens you have and the distance you have is the distance you have, if you can't change these two factors (which you frequently can't in situations where the 7D excels like birding or sports) the 7D is the winner since you would have to crop the 5D2.

Regardless of what people think about the test, I think this is a good way to show FF is not the holy grail of photography. I think the reason APS-C gets hated on is due to a bunch of photographers (most likely previous film shooters) spouting their gospel online.

themadman wrote in post #11337579
I think the reason APS-C gets hated on is due to a bunch of photographers (most likely previous film shooters) spouting their gospel online.

FF and APS-C are just different formats, I doubt anyone would "hate" APS-C. APS-C has more pixels for the save FOV, it's preferable in certain situations. For a casual shooter, the difference of FF and APS-C are not as meaningful as to a professional, for whom every single bit of performance counts. Pictures from FF are slightly punchier.

Will this interminable contest between the 7D and 5D2 never end, both are excellent cameras and I daresay a 16x12 print from each would be indistinguishable to 99.9% of viewers, isn't it time we dropped these silly arguments.