As you know, I bought a 5D Mark II a few days ago from a store which I won’t be naming names ‘cos frankly I’m annoyed at their stinginess. I mean, I’ve spent a LOT of money with them buying the body and a new lens and they refuse to price match a measly little (overpriced) battery for me. Also when the camera just came out, their mark up was just so ridiculous. They were really taking advantage of low stock level. Yes, it’s just business and they’re not doing anything wrong at all, it’s just that I knew them since they were just a little tiny store in somebody’s apartment and now the bigger they got the less pleasant they and my shopping experience became. Anyway, I’m not the only one with that feeling.
Usually when you want to purchase a big ticket item, you talk to the sales guy, you ask for advice, you have a look at the stuff and you ponder about it, you might negotiate price, you might even go away and come back later. This was different ‘cos I knew exactly what I wanted and so when I stepped into the store and the sales guy go “Can I help you?”, I had nothing to say or chitchat about, all I said was “Can I get a 5D Mark II please?”. Just like that, as casual as if I was buying for a bottle of milk at a convenient store. It just felt so wrong!
The 5D Mark II is veerryyy niceee…melikey!!! I came from the cropped frame world so the full frame effect is really impressing me. I took some shots around my desk and golly I nearly fell out of my chair. The shots are a lot wider and the DOF more shallow, even my humble 50mm 1.8 looked good! I have also upgraded my 50mm to the 1.4 version and my bank account has since filed for divorce on the grounds of splurging =(
“I would never need to go full frame”, I stupidly and naively said that years ago when I started getting into photography. My friend thought it was the most ridiculous statement and now I know why he laughed at me. (BTW Es, I *knew* you were going to remind me of that when I told you I bought it…your memory is annoyingly good hehe =p)
So here’s how much frame real estate you really lose when using crop vs full frame. Photos taken at same distance to subject
For this one, the shot done with the 40D had to be taken further away in order to get the two photos framed roughly in the same manner. The same settings were used but the DOF is less shallow on the 40D due to the distance.
Sorry, none of this is really new info but I was just testing it all out for myself.
One of the best thing about the 5D Mark II is the screen. OH MY LORD, the screen is fricken amazing especially compared to the atrocious rectangular blueish thingy they call a screen on the 40D. Thank you Canon for the lovely lovely screen.
The high ISO is really great too. Here’s a couple of quick shots (in dark condition obviously):
100% crop of the shuffle:
So yeah, love the 5D Mark II. It’s hard not to when you’ve always used a cropped frame! Oh the downside would be the file size. I shoot RAW.
As for the 50mm 1.8 vs 1.4, the 1.4 has better build quality for sure, however, the images don’t look hugely different to me but I’ve only done a couple of close up test shots though – definitely not a throughly tested expert opinion there =)
