Anyone switch from Nikon to Canon 5DMkII???

[Mindy H]

I'm shooting now with the D200 and I'm going to make the jump to full frame. When I do, I will need to purchase some new glass too which is why I'm even thinking about a brand switch at all.

The new 5DMkII is calling my name. And, I'm wondering how hard the switch is going from Nikon to Canon and how long it took you to get used to the new control layout.

[aerosolcheese]

I switched from a Nikon d200 to an original canon 5D just under two years ago. I never looked back. The control layout is a bit different, but you should be used to it in a day or two.

[Daniel Bates]

The D700 ain't bad... just sayin'.

[Mindy H]

Originally Posted by Daniel Bates

The D700 ain't bad... just sayin'.

I know. I keep wondering if I'll regret the stray.

And...you want to know the pathetic reason I'm thinking of switching? The movie feature of the MkII. I'm always lugging around camera equipment so I never carry a camcorder and I have very few movies of my kids. If my DSLR served both purposes, I would have so many more memories of my kiddos. So, this decision is completely not business related at all unfortunately.

Mindy H added 1 Minutes and 10 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Originally Posted by aerosolcheese

I switched from a Nikon d200 to an original canon 5D just under two years ago. I never looked back. The control layout is a bit different, but you should be used to it in a day or two.

Thanks Tarick - that's what I was wondering....if I would be fumbling for a few months, or just a few days.

[toverman]

If it were me, and I was shooting Nikon and really wanted to record movies, I'd stick with Nikon and get a D90. It's not a full-frame sensor, but it would get you HD movie capture. You could save money that way and maybe get a wider lens to somewhat compensate for the limited field of view on the cropped sensor. I imagine that it won't take Nikon too long to combine a full-frame sensor with HD movie capability.

You are also free to switch, but again, if it were me, I wouldn't jump ship just because of one camera body. Wait a little bit and both companies will up the ante.

[The Ben]

why make such a huge leap when the D700 is just as good and it won't require you to purchase glass? seems a little extreme to want to jump just because you want a FF camera.

[Mindy H]

Originally Posted by The Ben

why make such a huge leap when the D700 is just as good and it won't require you to purchase glass? seems a little extreme to want to jump just because you want a FF camera.

I have to purchase new glass whichever brand FF camera I choose. Right now, I shoot primarily with the Sigma 30mm 1.4 which is a DX lens which will need to be replaced when I go FF.

[DBC]

Well Mindy, it gets real complicated real fast! I upgraded from the full frame 5D to the 5DMkII last April. Primarily for the movies and higher ISO capability. Might be a mistake. The files are massive coming from the 5D2...like 25-30MB ea for RAWs. The movies are humongous and don't even play well in Quicktime, although it's a quicktime format. So I had to download VLC media player just to see the movies smoothly. Also installed a 1TB internal hard drive that is now 60% full. Since April. The only way to edit the movies is, you guessed it, buy more software! I'm using Sony Vegas Platinum and love it, but still...can't burn true high def movies! Have to have a blueray burner for that. So the moral of the story is, be prepared to spend quite a bit more after the purchase to be able to use the movie features you're looking for.

Worth it? Well, the movies are truly awesome on my Dell ISP 24" panel. It just takes about 2 hours to render a 6 minute clip to DVD. That said, it is a nice feature to be able to shoot movies in very low light using 4000 ISO and they look great. Also nice to shoot a semi-well-lit high school football game at 6400 ISO and have printable pictures.

Just get the pocketbook ready for depletion!

Dale

[Mindy H]

Thanks for the info Dale......I actually didn't jump ship. Not all that long after my orginal post, I decided the jump wasn't worth it and I purchased the D700 and haven't looked back. Great info about the vid's though and something for me to keep in mind when Nikon decides to integrate video into FF models.

[The Loft Studios]

I think people have to understand that when you make a jump to a BEAST of a camera like the 5DMII, you can't keep your OLD computer and OLD software and think you'll be O.K. When I made the upgrade to the 5DMII, I had the first version Intel Mac Pro and had the same problems with viewing the HD Movies in Quicktime..... I soon realized that it wasn't the software but my SLOW computer (YES, sloowww). With a 5DMII, a lot of things become slow. Since then, I've upgraded my computer to an Intel Based Quad Core Mac Pro with 6GB RAM and 1TB HD in each slot for a total of 4TB's and 2 External WD Dual 2TB HD's (as backup) for a total of another 4TB's..... which makes a GRAND TOTAL of 8TB of HD space. Now my Movies run smooth in Quicktime and I am able to edit them in iMovie. Also, I ONLY Shoot RAW and I shoot it at the Full Resolution at ALL TIMES along with Full HD Movies, so I NEED this type of setup. Others may not need as much, but my point is, if or when people decide to upgrade to these Full Frame High Res Cameras, understand that it won't be the only thing that you'll be upgrading..... So, I would advise, before you make the jump to any Full Frame Camera with a Resolution of 20mp or more, be sure that your current Computer Hardware, RAM, and Software can keep up. If not, be prepared to drop a couple more Grand.

[DBC]

You're welcome Mindy. Hope you're enjoying the D700!

Yeah Mark, if I'd only known all that then, I'd probably have gotten a second 5. My wife assists me with weddings and the whole idea was to up the quality from her 30D to comparative IQ with my 5. So I stepped up and she got the 5D. Now I won't say the 5D2 is waaay better than the Classic, but there is a noticeable difference..especially in the visible noise. Oh well, no complaints just a bigger learning curve! :)

Dale

[90 5.0]

None of these people are glad they had a 5dmk2 instead of a D700 i'm sure.

n a summary session on the last day at the Peninsula I asked everyone to report on any equipment failures. Here's the tally.

The top LCD on a 5D MKII spontaneously cracked; Another 5D MKII had a jambed on lens caused by a loose screw, a 1Ds MKIII reported intermittent problems; a 1D MKIII kept reporting Error 99; one Hasselblad reported electronic lens connection problems; two Canon G9's failed (no G10s had any reported problems), and a Nikon 80-400mm lens came apart. No Nikon bodies (mostly D700s) failed in any way.

The largest group of failures through were among the Canon 5D MKIIs. Of the 26 samples of this camera onboard, one quarter (six) failed at one time or another, and while three recovered, the other three never did. In all cases it appeared to be water or humidity damage. Of particular concern were two cameras which stopped working while completely protected within Kata rain covers during a light rain ashore. They came back to life the following day though and were mostly fine for the rest of the trip, but one died permenently just before the end of our voyage.

Several people noted that when returning to the ship after working in light rain 5D MKIIs with vertical battery grips tended to collect water in between the grip and the base – something that may have been the cause of some of the failures.

I should note that the 5D MKII's are not rated as weather resistant, but then neither are the Sony A900's. I deliberately allowed both of my A900 bodies be exposed to the rain for two days ashore to see how they would stand up. There were no operational difficulties. I also have used the Sonys back here in Toronto in snow storms, (unprotected), both before and after the Antarctic trip, with no ill effects. Though also not claimed as weather sealed, they appear to be as well protected as any other camera I've ever used.

As for the failed Canon 5D MKIIs, I hope that expedition members will report back to me with what Canon service has to say about what happened to them. As for the loaner that we had, Canon says that it was a unit that had been in circulation for testing prior to coming my way and it might have suffered some water damage previously.

I don't know what conclusions should be drawn from this high percentage of 5D MKII failures. All I can do is report on the facts of the matter. As for the weather during which most of the failures happened, it was no worse than a drizzly day in winter in New York or Berlin. Nothing Antarctic about it at all.

The whole article is a good read
Antartica What worked- What Didn't

Antarctica 2009 - What Worked

[e.omega]

I heard the D700 has better AF performance but that full hd recording on the 5D2 is really nice

[gmarblestone]

They are both really great cameras. Cant go wrong with either of them.

[dmora]

Originally Posted by The Loft Studios

I think people have to understand that when you make a jump to a BEAST of a camera like the 5DMII, you can't keep your OLD computer and OLD software and think you'll be O.K. When I made the upgrade to the 5DMII, I had the first version Intel Mac Pro and had the same problems with viewing the HD Movies in Quicktime..... I soon realized that it wasn't the software but my SLOW computer (YES, sloowww). With a 5DMII, a lot of things become slow. Since then, I've upgraded my computer to an Intel Based Quad Core Mac Pro with 6GB RAM and 1TB HD in each slot for a total of 4TB's and 2 External WD Dual 2TB HD's (as backup) for a total of another 4TB's..... which makes a GRAND TOTAL of 8TB of HD space. Now my Movies run smooth in Quicktime and I am able to edit them in iMovie. Also, I ONLY Shoot RAW and I shoot it at the Full Resolution at ALL TIMES along with Full HD Movies, so I NEED this type of setup. Others may not need as much, but my point is, if or when people decide to upgrade to these Full Frame High Res Cameras, understand that it won't be the only thing that you'll be upgrading..... So, I would advise, before you make the jump to any Full Frame Camera with a Resolution of 20mp or more, be sure that your current Computer Hardware, RAM, and Software can keep up. If not, be prepared to drop a couple more Grand.

8tb of capacity is moot. Total drive space has nothing to do with video playback. ;) Drive speed maybe, but CPU speed, memory, and video card are the bottle necks most people encounter.

I do live rendering video edits on a 250gb hd just fine. of course i have the cpu and memory to make it work.



Glad you didnt jump to canon Mindy. There's always greener grass. Having used nikon and playing with canons, i am happy to say i prefer the feel of nikons better. Technologically they're all the same give or take and isnt worth dumping everything just for 2 silly features. Full frame is basically an image dimension ratio. Tho the full frame sensors can print out bigger prints and usually have better high iso performance.

2 pesos.