Upgrading; 5D Mrk II or 50D

[Fallacy]

Hello,

I'm looking at replacing my Canon Rebel XSi with a new body.

The rebel has served me well, but it's time to upgrade. I am, however, confused as to which model I should go with. The Canon 5D Mark II and the Canon 50-D both seem like excellent bodies, but I can't decide which one I should go with.

Money is not an issue... if I go with the more expensive one it means I simply have to wait a bit longer to buy it.

Would anyone be able to shed some light on both cameras and / or which, in their opinion, they believe I should go with?

Cheers!
-Sean

[Colin Southern]

Hi Sean,

It really all depends on what it is you'll be shooting. The 50D has a higher frame rate and a crop-factor that'll get you, essentially, 1.6x more reach from whatever lens your using.

On the other hand, the 5D2 will give you a wider field of view (in comparison with crop-factor cameras) and the ability to shoot HD video.

Neither is the "better camera" - just a case of helping you work out which is the best camera for the job

[Fallacy]

Hi Collin,

Thanks for that info.

Perhaps if I tell you what I'm using the cameras for you would be able to shed some light on which is more appropriate for my needs?

I'm a semi-pro photo enthusiast, and I'm mainly shooting wildlife / landscapes. I'll often travel to the Rocky mountains to catch some shots of bears, wolves, and then the mountains themselves.

From what you told me in your last post it seems that the 50D may be the better choice, as I'm finding getting a good-close-up shot on bears isn't always easy. They're not the friendliest subjects.

One more question; will the 5mega pixel difference between the 50D and the 5DII make a huge difference, or will it only be noticeable if I'm printing larger shots?

Thanks again, Collin.

Cheers,
-Sean

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Sean,

Your suppositions are correct:

I'd say if you move to the full frame 5D2, all your bears and wolves are going to appear further away and you'll be cropping more agressively to compensate, so yes, the 50D is almost certainly more appropriate.
Or you will end up wanting 'longer' glass, which for FF could be even more expensive, unless you are used to L prices already.

5MP difference won't even be noticeable at bigger print sizes if you sharpen your shots well.

Cheers (and welcome),

[Fallacy]

Hello Dave,

Thanks for confirming that. Seems like I'll be going with the 50D then.

Thanks for the information to you both, and thank you for the welcome.

-Sean

[Colin Southern]

One more question; will the 5MP difference between the 50D and the 5DII make a huge difference, or will it only be noticeable if I'm printing larger shots?

Hi Sean,

Images are two dimensional - so increasing resolution becomes a square-law function. Or to put that another way, to double the resolution of a 15MP camera you'd need a 60MP camera; the difference between a 15MP camera and 21MP camera is approx zero in real-world terms.

But wait, there's more ...

... The other issue is resolving power ... if for example your shooting a bear with a 400mm lens and a 15MP 1.6x crop-factor camera and a friend has the same lens but on a 21MP full frame camera your field of view will be 1.6x narrower, but also "zoomed in" by the same amount - but when you compare the shots in Photoshop, the 15MP 1.6x crop-factor camera won't contain 1.6x the amount of detail because the FF camera has a higher pixel count (albeit with reduced pixed density), and that higher pixel count reduces the resolving power advantage of the crop-factor camera for that field of view.

If the pixel counts are similar (eg 15MP -v- 21MP) then it doesn't make a lot of difference and the resolving power of the 1.6x crop-factor camera for that field of view really is approx 1.6 better than the FF camera, but if the crop-factor camera is - say - an 8MP 20D -v- a 21MP 5D2 then the resolving power at the 20D's FoV is about the same.

If you compare a 1.3x crop-factor 1D3 and a 21MP 1Ds3, the 1Ds3 actually out-resolves the 1D3 at the 1D3'a FoV by around 30% (or put another way, if you crop a 1Ds3 image to the same pixel dimensions as a 1D3, the cropped image will contain about 30% more information that the native 1D3 shot).

In your case - for a given lens - you can be about 1.6 times further from the bear with a 50D, for the same shot ... which would be all the reason I needed to get the 50D!

Hope this helps

[Fallacy]

Hi Colin,

Wow, that's a ton of information. I'm going to copy and paste all of that onto a new word doc. so I don't forget it. That definitely made it much clearer, thanks!

Cheers,
-Sean