garyvot wrote:
... I would add that for a people photographer like me, it is the eye tracking in particular that makes mirrorless a step up.
I reluctantly agree after using my OG 1Ds for a decade as my studio cam, often with manual-focus lenses and often for portraits. Critical eye focus even @ f/5.6 with posed subject requires constant vigilance that is mentally taxing after awhile. I recently acquired a MILC body that has functioning Eye AF and, after a brief headshot session, determined it works like magic. Works so well that it feels like cheating. Why did I suffer all those years?
Canon TS-E 135/4L, wide open, handheld, manual focus of course.
I no longer shoot professionally, but I picked up a pretty good condition 5D III for $250 last year and ultimately decided to give it to a friends kid (high school student) for use in his photography/film electives.
I had previously shot a 5d mk II and then a mk III but I had forgotten how unwieldy those older dslrs could be. Especially now that I have a 1.5 year old and need to worry about carrying a stroller, snacks, drinks, extra clothes, etc. These days I'm sporting a compact a6400 wayyyy more often than my higher end gear.
But I agree that dusting out the old gear and giving it a second life/chance can definitely be fun and worth while, it's just not always practical .
Mike_5D wrote:
The big problem I had with DSLR AF was that all of the AF points, especially the ones that actually worked, were all clustered in the middle of the frame. To reliably track a moving subject required their head in the center of frame which isn't very good composition. So that meant shooting wide and cropping to improve composition. The R6 with its subject tracking lets me compose much better in-camera and crop a lot less, effectively increasing the megapixel count of the final product.
While all of that is true, unless your Canon mirrorless body is the R1 it has no cross AF points. I find that a nuisance sometimes, for example if the subject is architectural. It’s one of the reasons I still use my 1Ds Mk III, although much less often than before due to not being able to mount my RF lenses on it.
(Canon are not alone in this. AFAIK the only other manufacturer offering cross AF points is OM System.)
melcat wrote:
While all of that is true, unless your Canon mirrorless body is the R1 it has no cross AF points. I find that a nuisance sometimes, for example if the subject is architectural. It’s one of the reasons I still use my 1Ds Mk III, although much less often than before due to not being able to mount my RF lenses on it.
(Canon are not alone in this. AFAIK the only other manufacturer offering cross AF points is OM System.)
My 5D3 had a column of double-cross type AF points in the middle, flanked by columns of cross-type points. There were some additional line-type points, but I disabled those since I found them too unreliable. So it could focus and track well as long as your subject was pretty much smack in the middle of the frame because none of the AF points were very far from the center. Focus and recompose worked well as long as the subject didn't move and the DOF was sufficient.
Pixelpuffin wrote:
Anyone else enjoying giving these old DSLR’s another run??
All of my stuff is "old" or "ancient" as far as camera technology is concerned. All of it still works fine.
Even a R5 is 6 years old at this point, and a R5II would not offer any substantial benefits for my intended uses.
I haven't dusted off much of the really old stuff for a while, and even though I bought it used, much of it is hardly worth selling due to the possible aggravation if something breaks after the buyer receives it. I doubt that selling absolutely everything would cover even a used R5, much less the newer one.
I am kinda off in left field with (also old) Sigma cameras, which I use more than the Canon stuff at the moment.
Obviously I’m not as serious as you fellas…I just take snaps.. jpeg snaps!
I’ll get my coat 🤣👍🏻
Count me in! I have a few old DSLR'S, mostly Nikon D200's, but I also have a Canon 300D/Digital Rebel from 2003! It still has those "Canon colors" and can captpure images quite well! Only issue with it is that the small side panel that covers the video out ports disintegrated. I'd love to find a replacement panel for it.
Also, I've been buying old film cameras whenever I come across good deals (a bit more difficult now that film cameras have increased in price for whatever unknown reason).
I’m still playing with this 60D
Yesterday I was out with both 24stm and original Arc drive 100/2.8 macro -I have both later models usm & L versions plus the faster F2 version.But for some strange reason I’m opting for the older stuff. I also had in the bag the R50 with EF adapter fitted, but I kept reverting back to the 60D ?? The 70 & 80D never ever see use they are stored away.
The more I use this 60D the more I’m asking why I need all the other stuff. Off to Scotland in 2weeks I’m thinking of leaving the mirrorless at home and instead taking 60D & 6D with 70-300is ii nano and possibly the 24 is usm -the 24stm won’t fit the 6D. Also a short zoom
So 2 bodies/3 lenses
It’ll be left in the car, I’ll just pull out what I think I’ll need rather than dragging it around.
I picked up a 5D2 from the B/S board, and have been using that & my Fuji X-T20 more then my R6. The last picture I took with the R6 was back in Oct of '25. I've decided to sell the R6. The 5D2 is larger, heavier, definitely older, but I like the dials/layout on the back, not to mention the pictures it creates. I'm definitely keeping my R100 and 'long' lenses since there is nothing like them in the EF mount.
Jim
tomba8tomba wrote:
Every Canon EF lens works well on any Canon DSLR or DSLM. There's still plenty for you to buy and to compare.
Correction, if I may. Every Canon EF lens works well on any Canon SLR, D or not. I used my entire EF collection on: 1D, 1D2n, 1D3, 1D4, 40D, 50D, 70D, 80D, 90D, 7D, 450D, 500D, T41, and now the R100 and R10. I can't remember all my film bodies, but these come to mind: 620, 650, T2, K2 (or is that a mountain?), Elan 7, Elan 7Ne, EOS 1N, 1V, 3, 5.
If I had to rate my Canon bodies: film 1v, digital 1D4, APS-c 80D. Worst of the bunch: 70D.
I took my 5D II out for some shooting yesterday, and was very pleased with how it still performs. Even with its lesser dynamic range there is still plenty to work with - I was particularly shocked at how well it handled the scene with the church and the sun - that's a a single exposure and shadow noise is minimal. (In other shooting, it certainly doesn't handle pushing shadows a lot very well, but even if you do need to do a deeper shadow push, modern tools (such as DxO Photo Lab) even can handle that exceptionally well.) These are all with the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III. First image is a 2 frame focus stack.
Pixelpuffin wrote:
I’m still playing with this 60D
Yesterday I was out with both 24stm and original Arc drive 100/2.8 macro -I have both later models usm & L versions plus the faster F2 version.But for some strange reason I’m opting for the older stuff. I also had in the bag the R50 with EF adapter fitted, but I kept reverting back to the 60D ?? The 70 & 80D never ever see use they are stored away.
The more I use this 60D the more I’m asking why I need all the other stuff. Off to Scotland in 2weeks I’m thinking of leaving the mirrorless at home and instead taking 60D & 6D with 70-300is ii nano and possibly the 24 is usm -the 24stm won’t fit the 6D. Also a short zoom
So 2 bodies/3 lenses
It’ll be left in the car, I’ll just pull out what I think I’ll need rather than dragging it around. ...Show more →
So glad the "asteroid" that extinguished the dinosauer's didn't get you "Double P"!!!
MY 1st digital camera was a 20D.....I have the 90D now..ANY of the xxD models produces a fine image and I LOVE that it has "on board" flash!
When doing macro, the "fill" feature is a a finger's touch!
Dan
Danpbphoto wrote:
So glad the "asteroid" that extinguished the dinosauer's didn't get you "Double P"!!!
MY 1st digital camera was a 20D.....I have the 90D now..ANY of the xxD models produces a fine image and I LOVE that it has "on board" flash!
When doing macro, the "fill" feature is a a finger's touch!
Dan
You are so right about the pop up flash for macro fill in
I have a empty pot noodle carton that I slip over the flash, it directs the light beautifully and the best bit is I don’t need to carry additional flash guns nor AA batteries
Win Win 👍🏻
Pixelpuffin wrote:
You are so right about the pop up flash for macro fill in
I have a empty pot noodle carton that I slip over the flash, it directs the light beautifully and the best bit is I don’t need to carry additional flash guns nor AA batteries
Win Win 👍🏻
A "pot noodle carton"? Now that is new to me Double P!
Have to "research" that....
Dan
Pixelpuffin wrote:
You are so right about the pop up flash for macro fill in
I have a empty pot noodle carton that I slip over the flash, it directs the light beautifully and the best bit is I don’t need to carry additional flash guns nor AA batteries
Win Win 👍🏻
..Got it!!!
I must try this!! I wonder if my "Raman noodle" box would work..."Improvise, adapt, overcome....."
Learn something new everyday here on FM!
Thanks Double P!!
Dan
My newest camera is a 5D III. As someone who cut their teeth on a 30D and 1D II, the 5D III's capabilities at high ISO simply leave little to be desired.
I jumped into R mirrorless in 2019 (RP + RF 24-105L) while keeping the 5D mk3 and a slew of EF lenses from 11-24L to 100-400L mk1 and some primes. I had no issues of image quality, colors or focusing with the 5D, but it quickly became confusing to travel with both bodies and an assortment of mostly EF lenses. The RP, at that time the simplest R camera available, had numerous levels of additional complexity in its controls, but also some really useful features associated with the EVF, such as active histograms, levels, WYSIWYG exposure, bright viewfinder in low light conditions, seeing the picture just taken in the EVF rather than having look at the back screen, etc... After about 9 months of this dual system I sold the 5D and bought a second RP body, to reduce confusion and improve proficiency on mirrorless shooting. So the transition away from DSLR was not about image quality at equivalent settings, so much as being able to improve the number of properly exposed keepers in complex lighting situations, more efficient QC of images, etc. Now with IBIS in the 6Dmk2, there is no going back, being able to use e.g. the EF 135mm f:2 L with stabilization is a whole new game.
So for some reason, I've felt the tug to dive back into DSLRs, and after picking up some nice EF glass and my 5D II, I wanted a more modern serious body to use, and I was thinking I'd eventually get a 5D IV. But after looking around for a while, it's quite hard to find low mileage bodies in excellent condition for reasonable prices. Every once in a while one pops up (like one that sold here before I had traded in a few older items to free up cash), but overall, it's a challenge.
But then I started looking at the 5Ds / 5DsR. I had dismissed these earlier because I remembered them as still being dynamic range challenged, which they are a bit compared to modern bodies, but I downloaded some RAW files that were taken in very high contrast situations and ended up loving the look of the files - and modern software helps tremendously.
So I went around to my local shops, and Midwest Photo had a near mint 5DsR with just 27,000 clicks on it, for a reasonable price. I haven't had a chance to really put it through its paces yet, but in my shots around the house, the improvement over the 5D II is very evident, with much more flexibility in the files, and of course a lot of creature comforts. I think I'm really going to enjoy using this body. Not sure when I'll really get to stretch its legs, but I'm going to use it quite a bit.
I have a soft spot in my heart for the 6D. The one I had performed very well at high ISOs is fairly compact and made a trip on an Alaskan cruise with me and I got some very nice photos. I'm tempted to buy the one that listed buy and sell right now because I do have some EF glass and you put an EF 85 1.8 on there and you're going to get some good pictures. And this is even though I have a brand new Canon with 24-105 F4
