To sell or not to sell?

[dreidesq]

Canon 5dmkII – 2 year Warranty Remaining (took out optional 3 year warranty)
Canon WFT-E4 II
BG-E6 Battery Grip
17-40mm f3.5L
24mm f3.5 TSEII (8 month Warranty Remaining)
50mm f1.4
85mm f1.2L
100mm f2.8L macro
24-70mm f2.8L
70-200mm IS f2.8L
580EX Pro II
72mm, 77mm, 82mm Ring adapters
Hahnel GigaTPro wireless shutter (Range 100m)
All boxed.

Now I'm thinking of keeping the body, 50mm and WFT. But don't know about the rest.

I want more resolution, any reason why I shouldn't sell?

[verysimplejason]

If you only want resolution, 5D3 isn't the answer.  What you have right now is enough.  If resolution is what you really need, you will want to switch to Nikon D800/E or go MF.  Other than that, @35mm sensor format, 5D2 is already one of the best in terms of resolution handling.  Also your lenses are very good enough reason.  Your lens lineup is a dream for me already.

Oh another thing, if you really want to boost your resolution, you can think of getting film.  I know it's not digital and it's harder to process and more expensive but really film has way more resolution than D800.

[nicku]

Canon 5dmkII – 2 year Warranty Remaining (took out optional 3 year warranty)
Canon WFT-E4 II
BG-E6 Battery Grip
17-40mm f3.5L
24mm f3.5 TSEII (8 month Warranty Remaining)
50mm f1.4
85mm f1.2L
100mm f2.8L macro
24-70mm f2.8L
70-200mm IS f2.8L
580EX Pro II
72mm, 77mm, 82mm Ring adapters
Hahnel GigaTPro wireless shutter (Range 100m)
All boxed.

Now I'm thinking of keeping the body, 50mm and WFT. But don't know about the rest.

I want more resolution, any reason why I shouldn't sell?

I am in the same situation.... i want more resolution. The only reasonable solution is Nikon D800.... or wait a little for the Canon MP monster ( but this camera my be in a 1D series body and cost a fortune).

[verysimplejason]

Canon 5dmkII – 2 year Warranty Remaining (took out optional 3 year warranty)
Canon WFT-E4 II
BG-E6 Battery Grip
17-40mm f3.5L
24mm f3.5 TSEII (8 month Warranty Remaining)
50mm f1.4
85mm f1.2L
100mm f2.8L macro
24-70mm f2.8L
70-200mm IS f2.8L
580EX Pro II
72mm, 77mm, 82mm Ring adapters
Hahnel GigaTPro wireless shutter (Range 100m)
All boxed.

Now I'm thinking of keeping the body, 50mm and WFT. But don't know about the rest.

I want more resolution, any reason why I shouldn't sell?

I am in the same situation.... i want more resolution. The only reasonable solution is Nikon D800.... or wait a little for the Canon MP monster ( but this camera my be in a 1D series body and cost a fortune).

Are you printing billboards? or cropping so much?

[nicku]

Canon 5dmkII – 2 year Warranty Remaining (took out optional 3 year warranty)
Canon WFT-E4 II
BG-E6 Battery Grip
17-40mm f3.5L
24mm f3.5 TSEII (8 month Warranty Remaining)
50mm f1.4
85mm f1.2L
100mm f2.8L macro
24-70mm f2.8L
70-200mm IS f2.8L
580EX Pro II
72mm, 77mm, 82mm Ring adapters
Hahnel GigaTPro wireless shutter (Range 100m)
All boxed.

Now I'm thinking of keeping the body, 50mm and WFT. But don't know about the rest.

I want more resolution, any reason why I shouldn't sell?

I am in the same situation.... i want more resolution. The only reasonable solution is Nikon D800.... or wait a little for the Canon MP monster ( but this camera my be in a 1D series body and cost a fortune).

Are you printing billboards? or cropping so much?

Is not about the personal print size or cropping.... take my example:

I am in the stock photography business; i try to provide pictures at the highest resolution possible ( with my gear) ... the client decide what to do with the image ( large prints, heavy cropping, simple small prints etc.).

[scrappydog]

I often take fast shift panos with my tilt-shifts.  You could do the same, as you have the TS-E 24.  Frame your shot, shoot -8mm, 0, +8mm on the shift.  Import into Photoshop via Automate>Photomerge.  The resulting shot will be relatively large, the resolution will be there, and no parallax issues.  Example shot that was cropped to about 5,600 x 7,500:


Lincoln Monument Sunrise by scrappydoggy, on Flickr

[dreidesq]

Thank you for your replies.

I have thought about film. Which I think maybe the way I'm going.

No I don't do billboards but I have been requested about cropping and I had to suggest that blowing up a small area of my files would not result in good quality prints. The clients went elsewhere. Personally I tend not to crop unless I want to produce some square frame artwork. Which would be more intentional than poor composition.

I'm stitching most of my landscape/architectural shots with the 24mm TSE, but I'm finding I'm spending a lot of time stitching and would love to not be sat in front of my computer faffing with photoshop, mostly because it's my job to do that already.

I think I will sell my lenses but keep the camera, the 50mm and go medium format and use the medium format lenses with the Canon. I'll use the 50mm when I need autofocus for quick event shots, though I tend to shoot most of my stuff manual focus so I would only be losing live view with the medium format.

Though I did buy a mini Wifi camera for house security which has enough resolution and can be used via my iPhone so I think I may have found my Live View solution.

[Kuja]

Oh another thing, if you really want to boost your resolution, you can think of getting film.  I know it's not digital and it's harder to process and more expensive but really film has way more resolution than D800.

Before I got my old EOS 1Ds MkII (16.7 mp),
I was shooting with medium format Hasselblad V series cameras and Zeiss CF lenses for years.

1Ds MkII file has more resolution than Hasselblad slide (100 ASA) scanned with Heidelberg drum scanner @ 3000dpi.

If you increase scanning resolution you don't get more detail, you only get more enlarged film grain.

25 ASA Ektar negative film could be a different story, but you can not buy it these days.

[dreidesq]

Would adding a Digital back help?

[scrappydog]

I'm stitching most of my landscape/architectural shots with the 24mm TSE, but I'm finding I'm spending a lot of time stitching and would love to not be sat in front of my computer faffing with photoshop, mostly because it's my job to do that already.

Importing 3 shots via Photomerge takes about 15 seconds.  It's not time consuming.  The software does all the work.

[unadog]

Before I got my old EOS 1Ds MkII (16.7 mp),
I was shooting with medium format Hasselblad V series cameras and Zeiss CF lenses for years.

SAME HERE!

Until I got the Canon 1DsII, I was shooting 6x7 color negative film, Portra 160NC, then scanning.

That cost me $1 per frame, and I was spending at least $5,000 per year on film and development alone for personal projects. Plus a $2,500 medium format scanner, all of the time and hassle of scanning. etc.

So that $8,000 Canon 1DsII, which had depreciation of about $1,500 per year, paid for itself in 3-4 montsh each year, and saved me $3,500 or more per year in film.

Now you can buy the 36MP D800 for $2,650 or less used.

After the 1DsII, I sold all of my film equipment other than 4x5.   Now I have also sold the 4x5 equipment.

The strongest "anti-digital film bigot" from those days - who only shot on 4x5 film and hated digital - sold his equipment to get a Canon 5DII a few years ago and never looked back.

There are some people who still like film. I worked with film for 20 years. You could not pay me enough to go back!

Good luck.

[Halfrack]

Would adding a Digital back help?

Doing a 645D or a H4/H5 setup would help, whole new world, but it comes down to what you're trying to accomplish.  Chances are you'll have it happen still, where a client wants a zoom of a small area, and even at 40-80mp, blown up doesn't look good.

[dreidesq]

This is the kind of thing I do.

I have a love of B&W and square framing and I keep cropping the 5dII or taking two shots and stitching. Would love to be able to take one shot and make a print from it.

[scrappydog]

These are dynamic shots, which take a little more thinking out using the technique I suggested, but it is still doable without excessive hand stitching.  The shot with the model would require a different tilt-shift (i.e., the TS-E 90) because of the narrow field of view.

[dreidesq]

Thank you for the advice. I've gone and bought a Hassleblad and have been offered a CFV-50 for £4500 so I think my Canon gear will now go up for sale.

Regards
David