5D III, or 6D+7D combo - your thoughts?

[Richard8971]

I have both the 5D2 and the 7D and I find myself grabbing the 7D more when it comes to wildlife/action shooting. The 5D3 is a great camera, but I have friends who shoot with the 5D3 and honestly, it's not 100% an all time use camera. It also has gives and takes like ALL equipment does. One friend even suggested that in certain conditions her 5D2 was better for focusing. There are times you need the 7D and there are times you need the 5D2/3. I love the reach the APS-C sensor gives me and the 8fps.

I have no reason to buy the 5D3... I have speed and exceptional image quality already at my fingertips. Each camera offers something the other CANNOT.

Consider one thing, is the "upgrade" from 3.9fps (5D2) worth the $3499.99 for the 5D3 (6fps) That is a HARD pill to swallow... You can buy a 5D2 (or 6D) AND a 7D for the same price as a 5D3, and you do not get the reach the crop sensor (and +2fps) the 7D gives you. (Yes, I know the 5D3 has SEVERAL upgrades over the 5D2!)

D

[Act444]

If you're anything like me, once you start capturing FF images, you'll start making excuses not to use APS-C.

I'm probably just beginning to make baby steps towards this realization...

It's crazy, though- the step up in IQ is very similar to the jump from my P&S to the T2i (once I got a decent L lens for it).

I still don't want to let go of the 7D though, having two cameras can be useful. I don't feel having a 5D3 and 7D as redundant. Knowing I still have the 7D around if I need it feels reassuring.

I feel the same way about my 60D, after acquiring the 5D3 last week. It will still make a solid backup/travel camera when necessary. The only situation I can foresee letting it go is if I find myself needing the extra reach often enough & I get spoiled enough by the 5D3's AF that I'd try to pick up a used 7D, etc. or something...

[rpt]

If I were you, I'd let the 7D go and get the 5D3. You seem to have the lenses anyway...
Unless the extra 2 fps is a big deal for you...

[Tcapp]

Not sure if anyone else has said it, but the "reach" of the 7d vs a 5d3 is BS. Crop into the 5d3 frame and it will still be sharper than the 7d. I did lots of testing myself to confirm this. The only time I touch my 7d is as a backup. Go for that glorious 5d3 and you will love it.

[candyman]

I just recently upgraded to a 5D MK III and upgraded some lenses too (70-200MKII, 135L and sigma 85 - instead of Canon 85 f/1.8.)
I still have my 7D but already see that I am using it less in favour of IQ of the 5D MKIII. I have the 70-300L as well. Works good for outdoor sports as you would like to use it. It works good with the 5D MK III.
I may trade the 7D in favour of a 7D MKII ONLY if it will add something that the 5D MIII will lack of.
 
 
 

[RC]

So for all of you suggesting to dump the 7D, at what price point do you think it's worth getting rid of it?   As I mentioned in another post, I don't think l could get $800 for my low shutter count 7D.   How many of you are willing to "give" it away for a few bucks?  For me, that is not worth it, I'll keep mine as a second body. 

[Nishi Drew]

So for all of you suggesting to dump the 7D, at what price point do you think it's worth getting rid of it?   As I mentioned in another post, I don't think l could get $800 for my low shutter count 7D.   How many of you are willing to "give" it away for a few bucks?  For me, that is not worth it, I'll keep mine as a second body.

For as a second body/backup sure, if you're not potentially getting much out of selling it then the body is far more valuable sitting there in a bag for the in-case-emergency. Or, you're with someone else and you want them to have a body (I feel that way quite often), or you might as well gift it to someone, friend or family.

[DB]

So for all of you suggesting to dump the 7D, at what price point do you think it's worth getting rid of it?   As I mentioned in another post, I don't think l could get $800 for my low shutter count 7D.   How many of you are willing to "give" it away for a few bucks?  For me, that is not worth it, I'll keep mine as a second body.

+1 The 7D is probably the best value Canon DSLR on the market right now. I paid €1,000 for mine new in 2011 and would still have to cough up almost 2x for a new 5D2 and 3.5x for a 5D3, even a the Rebel T4i is only 200 euros cheaper, thus for the speed, mag alloy body, and unique AF system, it's worth every cent.

[pdirestajr]

I actually like carrying around 2 bodies with different crop factors. Gives me more options mixing my prime lenses.

[K3nt]

Back to what the original question was: Keep the 7D for sports and get a 6D for landscapes/portraits?
I'd say yes. Based on what you stated the use would be I'd say you don't need 600 AF points for landscapes, you want a good sensor and the 6D's AF points are well sufficient for that. The added bonus of GPS when doing landscapes is something I would like too.
I might be wrong, if so, I stand corrected but it is what I would do.

For sports the 7D is one of the best there is, and yes, while high-ISO shots (3200+) are noisier than I'd like them to be most are usable through decent post.

[Daniel Flather]

I got these primes as an affordable way to get to a decent shutter speed for indoor sports within the ISO range of the 7D.  It barely does that.

Get the 5D3.  But, we have no idea what the 6D's iso/noise will be like.

[dtaylor]

Not sure if anyone else has said it, but the "reach" of the 7d vs a 5d3 is BS. Crop into the 5d3 frame and it will still be sharper than the 7d.

Sure it will. If you compare out of camera images with no sharpening or the same sharpening. The problem is crop sensors utilize lenses at a different point on their MTF curves and therefore require different sharpening amounts. It amazes me how many reviewers and testers fail on this single point. Failure to understand this also leads to much of the "huge, just huge difference" claims by FF fans.

Crop cameras put more pixels on target, period.

Having established that...the resolution differences are only apparent at large print sizes or with extreme cropping. Really it's only when doing both that the 7D pixel density advantage becomes clear, but you don't often have to do both. I have 20", 8-10 MP cropped 7D surfing prints that I could not have made with a 5D3 and the same lens, but that's the rare print. The subject matter you're typically trying to reach just doesn't stress MP like a wide angle landscape, and you typically don't have to crop that much for additional magnification.

I love the 7D for telephoto action (sports; wildlife). But...I could probably do >95% of what I do in those areas with a 5D3.

6 of one, half dozen of the other.

[dtaylor]

Here is my dilemma.  I want to buy a FF camera to do more portraits, landscape, etc.  Do I sell my 7D and get a 5D III, or keep my 7D and get a 6D for a second body? (I couldn't justify the cost of the 5D III unless it could replace the 7D as well)

There's going to be very little difference between the two for landscape and portraits, contrary to the unsupported claims of people infatuated with FF. (I say unsupported because we never see photos or crops that illustrate any real difference at low ISO.) That said...

With the 5D III, I really only give up a couple of FPS vs the 7D and some reach which I would probably only miss in football.  I gain much better ISO performance for the indoor sports like volleyball, where the 7D can struggle (even with an 85mm f/1.8 I need ISO 3200 which honestly is poor on the 7D).

You can gain the reach back for football with a 1.4x tele, assuming your telephoto lens is compatible. While I do not concur that 3200 is poor on the 7D (if it is, you're processing it wrong), I think the 5D3 will show you the greatest difference with indoor sports. 3200 is excellent on the 5D3, and it's not the limit like it is on the 7D. (I will concur that by 6400 the 7D isn't doing so well.) For indoor sports the 5D3 is the camera to grab.

I love the 7D. I think it is one of the most well rounded bodies ever released by Canon, and still the king of crop 3 years later. But now that the 5D3 has a real AF module, a 5D3 + 1.4x can do the things that used to require a 7D.

[funkboy]

Personally, my ideal setup would be either the 5DIII or 6D and a really nice small portable camera.  The type of small camera you get depends a lot on what you want to be shooting with it when you don't have your FF camera around.  It also depends on what lenses you already have for your FF setup.

There are some really sweet smaller cameras out there at the moment from Fuji, Panasonic, Olympus, and of course Canon.

Just as an example, it might not have the greatest IQ or AF in the world but the Pana FZ200 has a 25-600 f/2.8 constant-aperture zoom on it.  I don't have a lot of need for long telephotos but owning an S5 IS has completely put me off the desire to buy SLR lenses longer than about 200mm.  It's easy to bring in to a stadium/arena concert in a small bag and shoot decent video from really far away.  If you need better IQ, Panasonic also makes a load of stabilized μ4/3 supertelephotos that fit in a handbag.  A GX1 with one of those would be a sweet compact stadium setup.

BTW you didn't really mention what lenses you have (other than the 85mm f/1. or whether you have any EF-S lenses like the 17-55 f/2.8 that would influence your decision to keep the 7D...

I agree that if you do primarily sports & action keeping the 7D is probably a good bet, a compact camera won't hold a candle to it in terms of IQ and AF.

[dtaylor]

I don't want to get flamed by 7D lovers, but I always found my 7D images to have a rough quality to them. I'm not talking about ISO noise -- that body let me make lots of great images at 3200, but a general granularity of the images even at ISO 400-800 (which should be very smooth these days).

Crop sensor shots can be a little more "rough" due to pixel size. But I never had any trouble killing this and making them FF smooth...without losing detail...with Noise Ninja. (Just not with the default settings.) At least not at low to mid ISO. High ISO is a different story, and where FF truly distinguishes itself.

The images are beyond compare to the 7D images, though.

Comments like that are what cause flames  "Beyond compare" quickly becomes "I can't tell the difference" when asked to identify unlabeled, processed crops and 24" prints. That means it was never "beyond compare" to begin with.

That said, at high ISO the 5D3 is "beyond compare" vs. any current crop camera.

Bodywise, your hand will fall onto the 5d3 controls instantly. Not sure about the 6.

The 6D takes its design from the 60D. Another reason to be annoyed with it