Quote Originally Posted by samoksner
how do the images LOOK compared to a 5D

I've shot the 5D1 and 1D mark 3, but not the mark 2. I think my advice still applies, but you should definitely take a look at Bryan's sample pictures:



Byran's 1D Mark II samples pictures


Bryan's 5D sample pictures


Quote Originally Posted by samoksner
i mean the look and feel of the images, particularly the tone and colors

Tone and colors are just a product of the raw conversion. It can have such a strong effect on contrast, tone curve, color, etc. that it is
the most significant difference between any two pictures, more than the
difference between 5D and 1D2, IMHO.


If you don't shoot raw, then you'll definitely need to investigate the different in JPEG conversion between these two cameras.


Quote Originally Posted by samoksner
and the depth of the image. Do the images look flat?

There are many possible meanings to these words.


Do you mean lens contrast? 1D2 is not favored here,
because the MTF of Canon lenses benefits full frame greatly; the
contrast is so much higher at lower spatial frequencies. The crop
factor uses a higher spatial frequencies that have lower contrast on
Canon lenses. Your mention of "tones and colors" makes me think you were referring to
lens contrast, because many photographers use those words to refer to
what I call "contrast".


Do you mean perspective? 1D2 has less flexibility with perspective. With the same lenses, the 1D2 will not be capable of the same angle of view, so if you back up for the same framing you will have different (more distance) perspective. This removes one of the "3-D" effects of a lens and "flattens" perspective.


Do you mean aliasing artifacts? 1D2 has less aliasing artifacts. This is one of the things that many photographers love about the 5D: it has a weak OLPF, so it can turn out images with very high "pixel-to-pixel sharpness", which is another way of saying aliasing artifacts. For the photographers that like the artifacts, the 1D2 will be disappointing.


If you meant some of the above definitions of "flat/deep", then I can tell you that the 1D2 will be different in those ways. The difference will be huge for some, but probably totally unnoticable for others. I can give you numbers for the difference, but I don't know if that will help.


I would suggest a rental so that you can quantify the difference for yourself.