Disappointed with Canon?

[Admin US West]

I hear so many people griping about AF in the 5d mkii... can anyone elaborate on that? is it the tracking that is bad? what about single shot AF?

I've had a 350d and now a 40d and I've never been dissapointed really. Even in near pitch black, the AF is fine to me. If I'm doing night landscapes it will often fail to AF -- but then again, those really are times to use manual focus anyway.

also: people who talk about nikons AF being better --- yes, they tend to have way more AF points. But for those of us who use only the center point 90% of the time... does that matter?

Also, note to those saying nikon has leapfrogged canon right now: just keep in mind, it all depends what you are talking about. For video and megapixels, canon is clearly ahead.

Not to mention, as nikon ups its megapixel count (which it will), its gonna start losing that edge in noise performance.

I actually have a 5D MK II, I received in in early December 2 years ago. I also have a 1D MK III, and bought / returned a 7D.

Every camera has its strong points and its weak points. The 5D MK II is strong at autofocusing with the center point, and weak with the outer points. It is particularly good at focusing in low light, and mine beats out my 1D MK III in low light AF.

Here is a example taken at a local school play where lights were out except for dim colored ones.
5D MK II, 50mm f/1.8 MK I

 

[revup67]

The D300s colors are closer to the reality, the Canon is a little bit reddish.
Zs

Try using Custom White Balance and never rely on the camera's built in presets for AWB (especially indoor light). Use a WhiBal card (or similar) to achieve accurate color which any decent camera should offer the option of Custom WB. You should be shooting in RAW also vs. JPG which pre-bake's the settings and much more difficult to manipulate. In RAW you will have full control over your entire image. You can convert to JPG after proper tweaking in DPP if you like. JPG's are included in each RAW image by the way.

Revup67

Digital sensors only detect black and white. The color is guessed at by the jpeg in camera processor or the raw converter, and can be set to pretty much any color you want. I am not much concerned by the color rendering of a camera, I have lightroom set to render color the way I like it as images import.

Every person perceives color differently, and has their preferences. Thats fine and as it should be. Thats why I don't place much stock in the gushing descriptions of how a particular lens renders better color. Its all in the perception of the photographer.

Digital sensors weren't actually part of the discussion it was the camera's photos appearing more red. And sure, you can make the camera more green, magenta etc. however this can be time consuming and provide terrible results for other scenes you may be shooting especially if you forget to re-adjust. Also, why go through "extra" post production in Lightroom or other s/w when you can get it accurate (or closer to accurate) the first time around with custom White Balance and a White Balance card? If the camera is guessing as you say, why not make the guessing more accurate? It is true "it's in the perception of the photographer" but it's also important to have a good starting point as well.