Second Body! Full Frame or not? 5d Classic? Help!

Hello guys and girls. I am in the need of a second body.

Right now I am looking at a year of photography, I have atleast two weddings to shoot and alot of marketing coming up in the early months of 2011.

Right now I am considering what options I have, budget wise I am looking at an income of around 14 000 swedish kronor in January. For simplicity say 1400 USD.

I have been considering either a 5d Classic with a low shutter count or a 5d Mk2.
Right now I am trying to justify buying a 5d Classic instead of the mk2 to save some money and so that I can abuse it.

Other options are another 50d, 60d, 7d or perhaps a 1d Mk2.

Leaning towards the 5d classic so that I can buy it at the end of this month. How does it perform in low light situations? What lens should I couple it with in case I go for it?

Do you ever use the outer focus points on your 50D? The 5D's outer points aren't very reliable in darker situations. As for ISO performance, the 5D out performs my T1i and 7D.

Sometimes, I'd say on the weddings I usually improvise and that is actually the only place where I might need it. So the 5d classic actually outweighs the 7d in ISO performance?

I have been looking at the 7d which seems to be a great camera but I can't really justify a purchase since I already have a 50d with high fps and I don't really shoot sports.

The 5D classic is slightly better than the 7D in high ISO. Even after resizing.

Overall how does the 5d feel compared to the 7d. Is the IQ still acceptable or has age notably affected performance? Simply put, does it still take excellent pictures with todays standards? Could you perhaps post a 100 crop high ISO?

Take a look at the 5D user thread. The images there still hold up well. Since I got mine I never use my 40D other than for sports. Its a great wedding camera, plus going to full frame will breath some new life into a couple of your lenses.

I bought a 5D to have in addition to a 40D.....and shortly thereafter sold the 40D.

Thanks guys, I was doubtful at first but a 5d seems to be the way to go. I'm gonna see if I can get my hands on one and maybe try it out before I decide though.

I think the 5D will become your primary body after you buy it It's a really nice camera. I've used a 40D (shortly), XS, 550D, 7D (long enough), and have tried some Noinks. The 5D outperforms every single one of those cameras. Only at iso 3200 I find the 550D/7D could begin to rival it but the it still looks better in some way.

Bang Bang Boy wrote in post #11565958
Overall how does the 5d feel compared to the 7d. Is the IQ still acceptable or has age notably affected performance? Simply put, does it still take excellent pictures with todays standards? Could you perhaps post a 100 crop high ISO?

The 5D's IQ is great if you are happy with 12MP.

Here is a 100% crop with no noise reduction at ISO "H" which is suppose to be 1600 pushed to 3200.

^ nice kitteh

Thanks for the kittey pic. Looks like it handles the noise pretty darn well at high ISO's.

I had the classic 5D for 3 years and beat it up quite a bit (fallen 2 times, once from a height of 4 feet onto concrete) - but it has been going strong without needs of repair. It is sharp, bokeh is great, and full frame will beat any APS-C sensor in high ISO situations even if it's a generation behind. Yes, I say get a 5D classic and save the extra budget for more flashes and gear.

I have had a 5D classic for about 4 years now and I am quite happy with it, the IQ is great, of course that depends a bit on the glass - most of mine is L glass, but I would say that unless you need the extra things that come on the Mk II, e.g., the ability to shoot video, go with the 5D classic. As far as "low-light" situations goes, a lot depends on what you mean by "low-light". I shot a few of the lunar eclipse in December and the images I got at an ISO of 1600 were quite good, at least I thought so. For other "low-light" situations, I use a tripod and a flash - works for me. I would also say - go with the 5D classic and save the money for more good glass. HTH.

Cheers, and good luck with your choice.

WesternGuy

I find that I typically get better image quality from my 5D than my 7D. I use DxO Optics Pro to process my raw files though which really does a great job of handling the 5D and the lenses. Noise ends up being very fine grained that basically disappears on resizing down or printing. DxO can even match the colours and tones to to 5D MkII for a more modern look.

The drawback to the 5D is that the LCD isn't great for judging colour and exposure. But if you are watching the histogram and shooting raw then it doesn't really matter.