30D or 5D?

morgan

morgan

morgan

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ok so my hunt for a new camera to replace my 20d (which i just sold 20 mins ago) is fully underway.

I have the opportunity to go for the 30d or the 5d. Immediately the majority of people say full frame is best, but is it really? Sure the 5d is more expensive, but does this make it better?

I love the fact that the 5d has a larger bright viewfinder, and its full frame sensor means i wont have to swap lenses as much at the lower end, but there is a flip side which I've only discovered after reading up in many reviews - something that I didnt think about before.

APS sensors use the sweet spot of a lens (the centre) so image quailty is pretty much great at all part of the image. FF sensors use the extreme edges of a lens and therefore suffer from fallout and CA at the edges - sometimes severely when wide open.

I'd really appreciate anybodys experiance and thoughts of the 5d. it does sound great having a full frame camera but at £700 less, the 30d has an awful lot going for it.
 
Joe T said:
What are you going to be shooting?
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I went from a 300D to 20D last year.

I like the extra reach of my zoom lenses when I'm shooting sports - badminton & tennis, but miss the wide end, especially during group and party photos - annual badminton club group portrait, socials and wedding.

If the 5D had been available last year I would have bought that instead. With the FF it's possible to get some of the 1.6x 'teleconvertor' effect of the APS by copping the picture.
 
In my opinion selling a 20D for a 30D is silly anyway.
Go for the 5D to make the whole thing worthwhile
 
surely if you go for the 5d, you have a couple of megapixels to play with anyway when cropping, as long as you take that into account when taking the picture.

The real issue is whether the 5d is worth the extra cost. To be honest, I don't really feel like I can comment on that, given that I am still bumbling along with my £150 s5500!

Kimmett
 
Tomsk said:
I went from a 300D to 20D last year.

I like the extra reach of my zoom lenses when I'm shooting sports - badminton & tennis, but miss the wide end, especially during group and party photos - annual badminton club group portrait, socials and wedding.

If the 5D had been available last year I would have bought that instead. With the FF it's possible to get some of the 1.6x 'teleconvertor' effect of the APS by copping the picture.
Click to expand...

have I missed something
the 300D isn't full frame is it...??

a client of mine liked his 350D but loves his 5D
uses L glass on it and HSM sigma's..he's a big fan
I've heard that technically the 20D is a better camera. but if you want wide then 5D is the way forward in some respects, so much light
you can get wide on a 20/30D with EFS, so it all depends upon how much you want to spend
 
SDK^ said:
In my opinion selling a 20D for a 30D is silly anyway.
Go for the 5D to make the whole thing worthwhile
Click to expand...

i dont agree. selling a 20d now means that you dont loose more if i sold in a years time. I just sold for £675 (body only). In a year to 18 months this will be the equiv to what a 10d sells for now (£375 ish). I can get a 30D Body for £815 so it makes perfect sense. Add into the mix that I bought my 20d body for 650 and its all pretty straight forwards.


Tomsk said:
I went from a 300D to 20D last year
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both have 1.6x crop so there isnt a difference in 'reach' of your lenses?!! d you mean an EOS 300V? ie film?

I have wide on my 20D/30D as I have the 10-22. What I am hoping for is to change lenses less..ie use the 24-70 for wider stuff possibly.

Has anyone looked through the viewfinder on the 5d or other FF digital?..its supposed to be awesome...
 
morgan said:
i dont agree. selling a 20d now means that you dont loose more if i sold in a years time. I just sold for £675 (body only). In a year to 18 months this will be the equiv to what a 10d sells for now (£375 ish). I can get a 30D Body for £815 so it makes perfect sense. Add into the mix that I bought my 20d body for 650 and its all pretty straight forwards.
Click to expand...

In 18 months time (when the next xxD is released) a 30D is going to be worth about a much as a 20D, give or take a few ££'s.
For all you or anyone else knows Canon could release a 1D or 5D equivalent in 12 months for the price of new 30D+grip today (RRP). Now that would really shake things up.

I suppose your situation is slightly different in that you got your 20D amazingly cheap in the first instance.
 
DizMatt said:
have I missed something
the 300D isn't full frame is it...??
Click to expand...

morgan said:
both have 1.6x crop so there isnt a difference in 'reach' of your lenses?!! d you mean an EOS 300V? ie film?
Click to expand...

The first camera I bought for myself, 25 years ago, was a Practica B200 35mm SLR. I had that for nearly 20 years before switching to a Canon EOS-IX (APS SLR), then 300v (only for about 6 months), 300D, 20D. Thats 20 years worth of cheap lenses - I used my dads Pentax 42mm screw thread lenses with adaptors ;)
 
morgan i cant help but think this was a little premature. i would've kept the 20D to be honest.

As said before you must get the 5D to justify the p/x in all honesty. I would have just waited for a 2nd generation FF DSLR as it gives them time to use the feedback from real users to produce not just a model that delivers FF but one that does it even better.

that said you will have a lot of fun no doubt it looks like a great camera. i wish you well with your decision
 
Raymond Lin said:
It would serve you best in the long term, since eventually you will get a full frame anyway, what is the reason for the delay? Getting a 30D and then a 5D later means you'll spent more in the long term.
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I'd disagree with the bit about going full frame eventually.

There's no evidence to suggest that Canon or Nikon intend to standardise eventually on full frame and for some of us the crop factor is beneficial. For me the 30D is a far more attractive camera than the 5D in every way but it's not enough of an improvement to sell my 20D. A 1D MkII is the only thing I'd even consider upgrading to in the current line up.

This really depends on what Morgan wants the camera for.
 
Ghost in the Shell said:
I would have just waited for a 2nd generation FF DSLR as it gives them time to use the feedback from real users to produce not just a model that delivers FF but one that does it even better.
Click to expand...

canon have been using FF digital sensors for years. Dont quote me on this but this is maybe thier 4th or 5th FF model?....

what I have realised is that the EF-S / 1.6x crop is actually very very clever. firstly you get the best shots from your glass as you always use the centre of the lens, meaning not everyone needs L glass to get a good quality image. and secondly as the chip is smaller its cheaper to manufacture, which means that we see the benefits.

I personally cant see the ef-s standard ging away....why would it?
 
There is a new 18-55mm EF-S F2.8 lens being released later this year, so Canon are continuining to support that format of lens for the cameras.

Onto the question of 5D or 30D if I had the choice I would go for the 5D out of the options but this would depend on how many of my lens were supported. As there isn't enough of a change from the 20D to the 30D to justify the upgrade hence my choice of the 5D.

As dod said earlier I also wouldn't upgrade my 20D unless it was for a 1D MkII.

SCM
 
I have a 5D and cannot comment on the differences over the 20D as I jumped from the 350D to the 5D.

From what I have read, the 5D's main advantage over the 20D is the FF sensor. If you wish to shoot wide without changing lenses very often then this maybe for you although you do loose some reach.

Yes, as it is a full frame model you do get some problems with cheaper glass. I ended up replacing my 28-135mm f3.5-5.6 IS lens for the 24-105mm F4 IS L and have never looked back. My 80mm F1.8 looks ok but a little soft straight out of the camera especially wide open while shots with the L lens are pretty sharp and I find I either do not need to sharpen or only use unsharp mask on around 50% rather than the standard 100%. Sharpening had been turned off on both cameras.

The grip is improved and with an indentation for the second finger makes holding the camera a lot more secure than my 350D. It is much heaver but the bigger LCD was another reason I moved to it. The viewfinder is very large and I find I have to look around in it to make sure there is nothing I don't want in the frame rather than being able to see everything in frame just by looking forward.

I specifically bought it for the FF sensor as I am shooting protraits in a limited space and found the APS sensor and crop of the 350D very restrictive.

Anyway if you want to know more I have a thread elsewhere. Have a look at the last few pages for shots from the 5D.

If you want to know any more specifics then just ask.

RB
 
great thread there RB...very good reading. 2 things:

1) you must be the worst compulsive buyer I have heard of :)
2) how on earth did you manage to get so many girls to your studio? ;)

great to see how your work improves and its superb that you have chosen to document your voyage. One thing I would like to ask is how do you set white balance in the studio? in many of your shots the colour temperature was very different (under what I assume is the same lighting rig).

Regarding the 5D, how do you find the 24-105 at the wide end and at wide aperatures? I use my 24-70 quite a bit at F2.8. I am worried about the light fall off at the corners. Would it be pssible for you to email me a pic that shows vignetting at the corners, just so I can try to use cs2 to solve the issue in the raw import. my email is 'ocuk at f2s dot com'

I also have the 85 f1.8, which i love. I do find it a little bit long on the 20d so I imagine that on the 5d its a very useful focal length.

In your opinion would you say that the viewfinder size increase makes a big diffrence to your photography?

thanks again for your reply
 
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