Moved to Full Frame

saneproductions

saneproductions

Veteran
Hi all,

I figured I should give an update and mini review of the process since I post here a lot. FYI, my personal camera is mainly used for stills as we have lots of HPX 500s and a 5D II at work.

I shot a comedy show for a friend who produces shows around Seattle the other night. He had Tig Notaro coming in and asked me to capture some stills for him. I got some great shots, but I was disappointed overall with the seperation I was getting from the background. This was a really big week at work and I had worked a ton of hours so it was easy to convince myself that I "deserved" to get whatever camera I wanted :)

I sold my 60D with EF-S focusing screen for $800, my Tokina 11-16 for $560, my Canon 17-55 2.8 IS with Canon Hood, 77mm Horesman MC UV filter and 3 Sandisk Extreme 8GB cards for $1000. I bought a 5Dii refurb for $2000 +tax from Canon direct. I also picked up a 35 F1.4L used. I now have the 5Dii, extra battery, 24F1.4L II, 35F1.4L, 50F1.4 and Leica 90F2 Summicron. I may add a zoom later or something else. I am REALLY happy with my descision. I have no idea why I didn't get a 5Dii directly when I sold my T2i.
 
congrats on your new purchase. Hope to see some goodstuff from you. You do realize that for film our version of "fullframe" is basically the sensor in the 60d/7d/t2i which is basically super35mm size film. You are now shooting with a vista vision size sensor. I probably would have held out a bit longer till the 5dmark3 came out and held on to the t2i in the meantime. that said you have a good camera now...that can make really good images. Go shoot some goodstuff.
 
Yep, I get the sensor size coparo (and I think APS-C is "better" for video production in many cases). As to holding out, the issue is the 5Diii could be 9 months or more before general availability. It will also likely be very expensive (over $3k). I got a good deal on all my resale and good price on my refurb (with 37 clicks :)) so I don't mind depreciation. I can enjoy FF now!
 
The background blur you get is better, you get more high ISO performance, bigger better VF, better ergo and the images really really pop. I am talking about stills. I still say for DSLR cinematography, APS-C is better in most cases.

Shot with 60D: 17-55 2.8IS @ 55mm F2.8 (This kind of distracting BG is what I wanted to get away from on FF)

7e87da3c.jpg

The 60D also can take amazing shots if you are in close:
Shot with 60D: 17-55 2.8IS @ 55mm F2.8
69bc48d8.jpg
 
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I think that the 5d takes nice pictures, obviously, but with good lenses, there's not a huge distinguishable difference other than being a bit wider. If you're blowing things up to 100% and need to print billboard sized pieces, yeah, the 5d may be the better way to go but I definitely feel for video that the 60d is hands down a better video camera. I own both. I tend to use my 60d 95% of the time now. I do like the video coming off of my 5d, but the flip screen on the 60d is amazing (thought it was a gimmick until I used it) and the 5d overheats without you even knowing it and degrades image quality. Don't get me wrong, my 5d has a place, can't wait to see the mkIII, maybe it will be everything and more that I could hope for.
 
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I finally had a chance to do some tests with a 5D and 7D the other day as I was weighing the benefits of getting a full frame sensor 5D mkii(and its successor) to add to my 7D.

I realized that the sensor of 5D is still slightly better with lesser color aliasing distortion than the 7D.

Though I realize the gh2 is overall "better" in "HD sharpness" I still see the aesthetics of the 5D and to some degree the 7D(60D,550D) as closer to the organic-ness and "edge softness" of 35 film.
This is the reason why I'm not considering the gh2 for now as there is still something about its aesthetics thats kinda shows its "good HD video".

To get back on topic in relation to the OP on full frame, heres some charts to show the "little" advantage of the 5D sensor over the APSC sensor in the color aliasing department.

chart 5d 50L2pt8.jpgchart 7d 50L2pt8.jpg

a close up of parts of chart; the diff is little. The moire is there but lesser funky color aliasing on the 5D.
close up charts.jpg
 
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nice test, thanks!

edit: wild speculation:
the lesser moire on the 5D may come from the fact that it has to take one video pixel out of every 2.925 sensor pixels, which is a rounder number than the "one video pixel out of every 2.7 sensor pixels" on the 7D/60D/550D
it might be even better if it had 22Mpix (5760x3840 max resolution)
the next "nice&round" mpix count is 39Mpix (7680x5120)
 
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^ economist, so lots of math but little real-world experimentation, just theories... like on my previous post...
 
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