5DI vs 7D

Home · Register · Search · Software · Hosting · Software · Join Upload & Sell

FM Forum Rules
Canon SLRs, primes, and zooms lenses reviews

FM Forums \| Canon-mount SLRs \| Join Upload & Sell
1 2 end

5DI vs 7D

folsomwg
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #1 · 5DI vs 7D

Sorry to post another comparison thread, but I'm curious. I want to put the "fun" factor back into my photography, but I've tasted the FF bug. I am an enthusiast, and by no means a pro. I usually try to shoot at most ISO 800 and below (supposedly the human eye resolves at ISO 800 and below, so I try to stay photo-realistic in that sense).

5D classic and 16-35mm F/2.8 II L, or 7D and 10-22mm EF-S?

Nov 29, 2012 at 03:13 AM

samwise
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #2 · 5DI vs 7D

5D with a wide angle of course...

Nov 29, 2012 at 03:26 AM

jcolwell
Online
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #3 · 5DI vs 7D

Any time is a good time to buy a 5D.

... or a 5DII.

Nov 29, 2012 at 03:48 AM

StillFingerz
Online
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #4 · 5DI vs 7D

5Dc and either the 16-35 or the 17-40. There are a lot of 5Dc shooters on FM, check out 15Bit's work, his images are amazing...Imagemaster's 7D images are stunning as well!

I have the 17-40 for my film bodies and the 10-22 for my crop bodies, both lenses are killer with the 10-22 just a bit sharper and with less distortion. From what I've seen the 16-35 II is even better!

What ever kit you get have fun, ultra wides are a kick

Jerry

Nov 29, 2012 at 04:03 AM

snapsy
Online
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #5 · 5DI vs 7D

Both cameras are capable of great results. The 5D's UI and feature set is bare-bones compared to the 7D; it's a camera only a photographer can love

5D (FF) advantages are:

* Better lens performance when shooting at large apertures (lower magnification factor)
* 1/2 to 2/3 a stop better High ISO performance, even greater when using large aperture lenses
* More DOF flexibility
* Better color separation
* Less obtrusive low ISO banding than 7D

7D advantages are:

* Higher resolution, esp when shooting at the IQ sweet spot apertures of lenses
* Live View
* Faster everything - shutter lag, FPS, menus, etc..
* More feature-rich and flexible AF system
* VIdeo

Nov 29, 2012 at 04:27 AM

mttran
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #6 · 5DI vs 7D

I like the magic look of 5Dc when you use it with any fast lenses such as 35L, 50L, 85L and 135L. Imo, 5D2 is good for landscape and 5Dc is better for people portrait. Maybe just me

Nov 29, 2012 at 04:33 AM

mikesjo
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #7 · 5DI vs 7D

+1 with what mttran said. Sort of miss my 5Dc.

Nov 29, 2012 at 07:38 AM

marko1953
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #8 · 5DI vs 7D

The 7D is a better camera, the 5Dc makes better pictures.

Nov 29, 2012 at 07:52 AM

dhphoto
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #9 · 5DI vs 7D

marko1953 wrote:
The 7D is a better camera, the 5Dc makes better pictures.

I have both and that simply isn't true.

Yes you can get traditional full frame benefits from the 5D but in terms if actual printed image quality (not 100% pixel peeping) there is hardly anything between them and if you shoot anything that moves you may well prefer the 7D with it's bigger file, better focusing, LCD and other newer features

Nov 29, 2012 at 09:58 AM

15Bit
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #10 · 5DI vs 7D

Jerry is very generous in his praise of my shots, but it is certainly true that i do like my 5Dc a lot. However, i'm not such a big fan of FF when it comes to wide angles. In order to get decent DOF with a 17-40mm (or 16-35mm) you need to drop to f/13 or smaller, which pretty much requires the use of a tripod. With a crop camera you can get the same DOF at maybe f/7.1 with the equivalent 10-22mm, and that can often be done handheld. I am a bit lazy with these things, and generally don't have the patience to interrupt my skiing / walking to set up the tripod. Much of the time i can't be bothered to carry it even.

Also, whilst i can't comment on the 16-35mm, i think my 10-22mm is a better lens than my 17-40mm L. It has lower distortion, less vignetting and sharper corners.

If i were printing large i'm sure FF has ultimately greater quality, but i don't print large, and for my uses crop factor quality is indistinguishable from FF and is more convenient.

If you want to see what a 7D can do, look through Rob Dickinson's posts here.

Nov 29, 2012 at 12:02 PM

anthonygh
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #11 · 5DI vs 7D

i have just bought a 5D and use it with the 17- 40L a lot......but also the f1.4 50mm lens.

I bought it as a reserve to my 40D and to match my 35mm bodies.

I would have to say that if there is any difference between A3 prints from either camera I can't see it......I haven't tried pixel peeping however. So I suspect the 7D will, as a total package, be the better choice. I suspect my 40D is in my particular circumstances as well.

Nov 29, 2012 at 12:58 PM

nburwell
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #12 · 5DI vs 7D

My opinion is a little biased since I have never owned the 7D, but the 5Dc is a wonderful body which produces great pictures (I'm sure the same can be said for the 7D as well).

If I were in your shoes, I probably would give the slight edge to the 7D. The one thing that reall frustrated me about the 5Dc was it attracted a lot of dust, which in turn meant that I had to clean up my images more in post due to dust spots. Not that that took away from the quality of the camera, but I really longed for a self cleaning sensor in my camera body. And as many times as I shipped my 5Dc to Canon to have the sensor cleaned, it just accumulated dust the very next week since I changed my lenses a lot.

However, the 5Dc + 16-35 II is a killer combination.

-Nick

Nov 29, 2012 at 03:20 PM

ISO1600
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #13 · 5DI vs 7D

If you care at all about video, 7D.

If you don't- 5D for all other reasons!

Nov 29, 2012 at 04:02 PM

dhphoto
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #14 · 5DI vs 7D

I love the old 5D, I really do, I've had four and I still have one. I have probably earned more money with 5D's than any other dslr over the years.

But a good deal of the almost religious zeal which surrounds the 5D isn't deserved.

It was a fine full frame body in its day (read the only prosumer full frame body) and it has a pixel count which suited it's sensor size at the time. It's images are clean and clear with good colour and nice gradation of tone and of course the 'full frame effect' with fast lenses wide open. This was and is an attractive quality.

But it was and is slow in use, clunky with few modern features, a single reliable focusing point, no sensor cleaning, live view and a poor LCD. It is the VW beetle of dslr's, sturdy and reliable (when the mirror isn't falling off) and it will get you to your destination, but slowly and in modern terms, ponderously. It's almost a modern Rollei or Mamiya twin-lens reflex - it benefits from taking a bit of extra time. No bad thing.

The 7D might be a crop camera, but it's a crop camera with a massively improved (albeit crop) sensor and a great feature set. The 5D and 7D are completely different types of camera. Which one is better for you is really dependent on the type of shooter you are.

The comparative IQ isn't really a worthwhile way of choosing the model you need IMO

Nov 29, 2012 at 04:06 PM

artsupreme
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #15 · 5DI vs 7D

5D no contest

Nov 29, 2012 at 04:13 PM

StarNut
Online
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #16 · 5DI vs 7D

dhphoto wrote:
I love the old 5D, I really do, I've had four and I still have one. I have probably earned more money with 5D's than any other dslr over the years.

But a good deal of the almost religious zeal which surrounds the 5D isn't deserved.

It was a fine full frame body in its day (read the only prosumer full frame body) and it has a pixel count which suited it's sensor size at the time. It's images are clean and clear with good colour and nice gradation of tone and of course the 'full frame effect' with fast lenses wide open. This was and is an attractive quality.

But it was and is slow in use, clunky with few modern features, a single reliable focusing point, no sensor cleaning, live view and a poor LCD. It is the VW beetle of dslr's, sturdy and reliable (when the mirror isn't falling off) and it will get you to your destination, but slowly and in modern terms, ponderously. It's almost a modern Rollei or Mamiya twin-lens reflex - it benefits from taking a bit of extra time. No bad thing.

The 7D might be a crop camera, but it's a crop camera with a massively improved (albeit crop) sensor and a great feature set. The 5D and 7D are completely different types of camera. Which one is better for you is really dependent on the type of shooter you are.

The comparative IQ isn't really a worthwhile way of choosing the model you need IMO

Hear, hear!

Religious zeal aside, I cannot imagine why one would want to buy an ancient (in tech terms) camera, rather than a more current one.

If full frame is very important to you (and I can certainly understand why it might be), you might consider getting a 5D2 from the Canon Loyalty Program. It's worth the wait for them to have it in stock; just call every day. It should cost around $1200 in the CLP, $1400 in the Canon refurb store.

The 7D is a fine camera (especially if you're shooting things that move), but its image quality is not quite up to the 5D2. That doesn't mean, by any stretch, that it's bad (just look at Imagemaster's photos), but in less expert hands (mine) I can tell a subtle difference (pre-processing) in the quality of the images between the 5D2 and the 7D.

JMO

Nov 29, 2012 at 04:27 PM

dhphoto
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #17 · 5DI vs 7D

StarNut wrote:
dhphoto wrote:
I love the old 5D, I really do, I've had four and I still have one. I have probably earned more money with 5D's than any other dslr over the years.

But a good deal of the almost religious zeal which surrounds the 5D isn't deserved.

It was a fine full frame body in its day (read the only prosumer full frame body) and it has a pixel count which suited it's sensor size at the time. It's images are clean and clear with good colour and nice gradation of tone and of course the 'full frame effect' with fast lenses wide open. This was and is an attractive quality.

But it was and is slow in use, clunky with few modern features, a single reliable focusing point, no sensor cleaning, live view and a poor LCD. It is the VW beetle of dslr's, sturdy and reliable (when the mirror isn't falling off) and it will get you to your destination, but slowly and in modern terms, ponderously. It's almost a modern Rollei or Mamiya twin-lens reflex - it benefits from taking a bit of extra time. No bad thing.

The 7D might be a crop camera, but it's a crop camera with a massively improved (albeit crop) sensor and a great feature set. The 5D and 7D are completely different types of camera. Which one is better for you is really dependent on the type of shooter you are.

The comparative IQ isn't really a worthwhile way of choosing the model you need IMO

Hear, hear!

Religious zeal aside, I cannot imagine why one would want to buy an ancient (in tech terms) camera, rather than a more current one.

If full frame is very important to you (and I can certainly understand why it might be), you might consider getting a 5D2 from the Canon Loyalty Program. It's worth the wait for them to have it in stock; just call every day. It should cost around $1200 in the CLP, $1400 in the Canon refurb store.

The 7D is a fine camera (especially if you're shooting things that move), but its image quality is not quite up to the 5D2. That doesn't mean, by any stretch, that it's bad (just look at Imagemaster's photos), but in less expert hands (mine) I can tell a subtle difference (pre-processing) in the quality of the images between the 5D2 and the 7D.

JMO

Well when I upgraded my 5D's to 5D2's in about 2009 there was nothing, but nothing that I missed except smallish RAW file sizes and their impact on my computers.

It's great that the 5D has such a following, it keeps the resale value up and gives Canon a dslr 'classic', but honestly the 5DII is better in every way. The 5DIII is better still

Nov 29, 2012 at 04:33 PM

snapsy
Online
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #18 · 5DI vs 7D

StarNut wrote:
Religious zeal aside, I cannot imagine why one would want to buy an ancient (in tech terms) camera, rather than a more current one.

Price for some - a used 5D is still selling for 1/2 what a used 5DM2 goes for.

Nov 29, 2012 at 05:07 PM

15Bit
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #19 · 5DI vs 7D

StarNut wrote:

Religious zeal aside, I cannot imagine why one would want to buy an ancient (in tech terms) camera, rather than a more current one.

Value. You can get decent used 5D's for the equivalent of 750 USD here. A used 7D is around 50% more and a 5DII about twice the price. Despite its limitations in comparison to more modern bodies, i don't think you can buy a camera with better image quality for the price.

Nov 29, 2012 at 05:21 PM

Jeff Nolten
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #20 · 5DI vs 7D

I'll agree with and summarize the gist of this thread so far. Any of the cameras mentioned take great photos but to get the best image quality for general photography, get the most recent 5D you can afford. Crop cameras are a compromise to keep cost down and performance (i.e. frame rate, reach) up. Since I got my 5Dc I've used my crop cameras almost exclusively to increase the reach of my 100-400 since the 500 and 600 mm lenses are beyond my budget (and weight carrying capacity

). Unless I need reach, I reach for a 5D.

StarNut wrote:
The 7D is a fine camera (especially if you're shooting things that move), but its image quality is not quite up to the 5D2. That doesn't mean, by any stretch, that it's bad (just look at Imagemaster's photos), but in less expert hands (mine) I can tell a subtle difference (pre-processing) in the quality of the images between the 5D2 and the 7D

I shoot raw and post process so I'll go beyond StarNut here and say that 5D images are just easier to process and 7D images (more so than my 40D) require a lot of post processing to get their best. There have been many threads devoted to this subject. But, even if I carefully PP a 7D image and reduce it to 5Dc resolution, the 5D image will usually look slightly sharper and cleaner with less shadow noise. The 5D2 images are just as clean and easy to work with as 5Dc's, but give you more resolution to work with. If you shoot JPEGs, this PP effort difference is irrelevant and the IQ differences may be subtle as StarNut says.

Nov 29, 2012 at 06:15 PM

1 2 end
FM Forums \| Canon-mount SLRs \| Join Upload & Sell 1 2 end