5DII Vs 5DIII for my needs

[Lance James]

By the way, in your original post, why did state that you did not photograph anything of "super speed?" Car racing, especially drag racing is definitely super speed for a camera.

My 30D is okay at shooting the drags, not perfect but okay. I would hope the 5D II would be better than my 30D.

[helpful]

By the way, in your original post, why did state that you did not photograph anything of "super speed?" Car racing, especially drag racing is definitely super speed for a camera.

My 30D is okay at shooting the drags, not perfect but okay. I would hope the 5D II would be better than my 30D.

That's what I hoped, too. The 5D II is not better. Sometimes it seemed even worse.

[Lance James]

By the way, in your original post, why did state that you did not photograph anything of "super speed?" Car racing, especially drag racing is definitely super speed for a camera.

My 30D is okay at shooting the drags, not perfect but okay. I would hope the 5D II would be better than my 30D.

That's what I hoped, too. The 5D II is not better. Sometimes it seemed even worse.

Wow, really, thats significant information.

[Ryant]

Lance, I would go with the Mark iii. I have owned the 5d, 5d ii and the 5d iii. Some of those expressing their opinions are telling you to not get it based on the price but they have not owned one. Having owned both the 5d ii and the 5d iii here is my opinion.

I found that the 5d ii was extremely frustrating sometimes with its focus system. Your only option for focus with the 5d ii is the center it does not track well even in the center because the focus points around it are poor. All of the other focus points just dont work if you move your focus point. I tried doing something that would be simple with my 5d iii like take a picture of my wife and kid while they were walking and I would get miss focused shots if I used a low f stop.

The 5d iii has a great autofocus system. You can set the joystick to in the menus to let you move the focus points around on the fly while shooting. All of them just seem to work. If you set your focus to a zone the focus tracking will do a darn good job at staying on focus by tracking between the points. I found that the servo only tracks between points while in zone mode for some reason. The sensor is just better in general if you shoot anything other than 100 ISO you will notice a slight difference at first and then more difference as your ISO gets higher. There are tons of little things I like to, like having the ability to show a grid in the viewfinder or not. The viewfinder is 100% of your view the 5d ii is not. The lcd on the back is nicer and bigger. I found the lcd on the 5d ii seemed less bright than the iii when outside. It shoots faster and I thought I wouldnt care about that but I sometimes use it to take a quick burst of frames. Just note that if you save jpg+raw or you will slow the camera down.

When all is said and done yes the price is higher but the camera is worth it. The camera also holds it value very well. I bought my 5d at 1000 bucks used and sold it at a 1000 bucks. I bought my 5d 2 on sale for 2000 and sold it at 1800. You dont lose much money on quality gear even if you turn around and want to sell it later. The reason it holds its value is the cameras are tough and made well.

Ryan

[Lance James]

Ryan, thanks so much for taking the time to respond. I bit the bullet tonight and ordered the Mark III =)

Can't wait to get it now and start learning how to use the dang thing. My next posts will be questions about how to use it.

Thanks everyone for your input.

Lance

[briansquibb]

The 5d2's AWB is abysmal.

Can't agree with that. I shoot hundreds of AWB shots every week and they take very little tweaking, until you get into a particularly low light tungsten situation.

Compare that to my friends d3s and it's night and day as the d3s is truly dreadful.

+1

I always have it set to AWB and sort it out in pp. Setting wb when shooting candids is never going to be accurate anyway

Who cares about white balance.... You guys should be shooting raw, the quality of the WB from the camera is totally irrelevant.

[te4o]

I have been using a 40D since 2008. As you, I was in that dilemma. I went for the mark 3. Imagine the price difference spread over four years and compared to your income. Does this help? It did for me. The MarkIII is not worse than the II.
Good luck,
I feel relieved now not to look for a new camera for many hopefully healthy years to come. (at least four

[PhilDrinkwater]

The 5d2's AWB is abysmal.

Can't agree with that. I shoot hundreds of AWB shots every week and they take very little tweaking, until you get into a particularly low light tungsten situation.

Compare that to my friends d3s and it's night and day as the d3s is truly dreadful.

Who cares about white balance.... You guys should be shooting raw, the quality of the WB from the camera is totally irrelevant.

I am. What concerns me is the extra 1/2 to 1 hour per wedding I need to spend in post if the WB's are all off.

This is a time concern not a quality concern. Every pro should care about the amount of time they need to spend.

[risc32]

racing... yeah, you are better off with the mk3 for sure. I feel that the 5d does fairly good with AF but ONLY with the center sensor. the mk3 is worlds better in that regard. Sure it still feels like a slow poke with it's operations, but the mk3's AF is very good. the question i guess is how important are those racing photos to you, because otherwise the mk2 will get it done.

[the-ninth]

Hi,

What made you wait for the 5D3 in the first place?

I was coming from a 30D as well, wanting to upgrade to fullframe and I was not happy with the 30Ds AF. I figured the AF of the 5D2 was not much better, so I waited, Canon delivered with the 5D3, which I am now shooting happily.

Cheers

[briansquibb]

I am. What concerns me is the extra 1/2 to 1 hour per wedding I need to spend in post if the WB's are all off.

This is a time concern not a quality concern. Every pro should care about the amount of time they need to spend.

That could explain why as an amateur I get such positive comments because to me quality is the overiding priority.

I would expect to take an hour for each of the key photos in the wedding.

[Lance James]

Well, I wanted newer and better but I wasn't expecting the price difference. That's what sparked the whole issue of which to buy. I was figuring on the new one coming it at the same price point. I thought wrong =)

What made you wait for the 5D3 in the first place?

[the-ninth]

Well, I wanted newer and better but I wasn't expecting the price difference. That's what sparked the whole issue of which to buy. I was figuring on the new one coming it at the same price point. I thought wrong =)

I'd take the AF as differentiator then. If you want a state-of-the-art AF, suitable for low-light and action, then you need the 5D3. In all other aspects both 5D2 and 5D3 will both be a big step up from the 30D, while the difference between them is comparably small. There is a lot of little things that the 5D3 is better in, but none of them weighs up the nice lens missing in your line-up that you could buy for the money saved.

Cheers, Robert

[briansquibb]

If you want a state-of-the-art AF, suitable for low-light and action, then you need the 5D3.

Not quite correct as the 5DII has class leading AF on the centre point in low light.

[prestonpalmer]

I am. What concerns me is the extra 1/2 to 1 hour per wedding I need to spend in post if the WB's are all off.

This is a time concern not a quality concern. Every pro should care about the amount of time they need to spend.

That could explain why as an amateur I get such positive comments because to me quality is the overiding priority.

I would expect to take an hour for each of the key photos in the wedding.

Exactly.  And remember, you can adjust WB post processing in bulk after they are in LR.  Fix one photo and apply the WB correction to the others.  Takes 10 seconds.  You should never waste your time with WB in camera.  Just leave it as AWB and go shoot. All else post processing.