I guess I\'ll comment since I\'ve owned all three bodies:
1D Mk2 is a professional camera and its strength is for sports/wildlife - but ONLY if you are shooting with fast autofocus lens. If you do not need to crop a picture then 8mp is adequate - and they are pretty fat pixels. It shoots fairly clean up to ISO800 and cleans nicely at 1600 using a noise remover.
The 50D, with 15 mega pixels, 1.6 crop factor, 6.2 frames per second and its clean high ISO had convinced me to retire my EOS 1D Mark 2 as my primary wildlife camera. NOTE: crop factor is a good thing for us wildlife shooters - especially for birds. It has live-view which is GREAT for shooting with alternative lens and I found the 50D autofocus almost as good as the 50D.
However, a tripod accident shattered my 50D and had it been my 1D Mk2, most likely I would have just picked up the camera and kept on shooting. For a multitude of reasons I sold my 1D Mk2 and bought the 1D Mk4.
My primary FF camera use to be the 5D. The same fat pixels (same size/density except on FF chip) with fantastic IQ - one of the best out there for natural light shooting. Shoots clean to ISO1600 and cleans nicely at ISO 3200 with noise remover. Weakness is autofocus - its not bad but some times you need to use center point. Weakness for alternative lens is its big mirror and mirror slap - see http://www.pebbleplace.com/Personal/Contax_db.html.
My primary FF is now the 1Ds Mk2 and I\'m eying the 1DsMk3 as its replacement - but only because of wanting live-view for shooting alternative lens. I did NOT sell the 5D. It just shoots too good and is a great travel camera when I want to travel light.
Hope that helps...Dave
Feb 12, 2011 at 09:16 AM
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