Image Quality of 1D MK II vs 5D

[samoksner]

I currently own a 5D and a 28-70 f2.8, 17-35 f2.8, and a sigma 12-24 f4.5-f5.6. I absolutly love my 5D, espiecially the colors and tones i get out of it, i know it's not the greatest way to describe it, but it's like slides. I need something with higher frames per seconds, weather proofing and a vertical grip. So after considering a 40D or 50D, which i'm not found of because of the 1.6x crop, I looked at the 1D mkII.


My question, how do the images LOOK compared to a 5D, i don't mean in size, i understand the crop factor and the lower resolution and the slightly less good high ISO, but i mean the look and feel of the images, particularly the tone and colors and the depth of the image. Do the images look flat? Is it very close to the 5D? Not at all? The best would be for someone who's shot both to have a couple images to compare them...


Thanks so much!

[Daniel Browning]

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

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.

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.

[samoksner]

Wow Daniel,


That is a great response, thank you so much. I do shoot raw so I'm confident to here that the tones will match, but the 2 elements you adress after, the contrast and the aliasing artifacts are spot on the information i wanted to know about. Because their is that thing about 5D images that just make them pop, and I think that you've put your finger on it. Thanks so much.

[Daniel Browning]

You're welcome. I didn't mention the difference in depth of field because, for some reason, I got the impression that you already knew the 5D would have thinner DOF. But that, too, is another factor that makes the 5D pop.

[Dallasphotog]

Dan,


I think you're on target. I have the 1DMKII and occasionally I shoot weddings with a colleague who uses the 5D. When we are in the same room, I generally like the 5D images better. It always seems slightly better at AWB and slightly better at color rendering, especially flesh tones.


On the sidelines, hello 1DMKII and its better autofocus and high frame rate.