Pondering Canon Again - Shopping for 5DMIV's

cjwolff

cjwolff

Well-known member
I was a Canon stills shooter for a long time until I discovered video with the 7D many years ago.

I thought it would be a great idea, in 2015, to go the Sony FS7/A7R route; however, due to creative frustration with the platform I'm coming back to Canon.

I've put all my Sony gear up for sale and am getting ready to buy Canon again.

I see that 5DMIV are pretty reasonable on the used market...~$2100 for a body with <1000 snaps, USA model.

I need a stills camera (now) since I have the Ursa G2 on backorder for video.

My thought is to find a reasonable used body now rather than wait for whenever the 5DV comes out.

Are there any disadvantages to my logic other than taking the risk on an unknown body?
 
We are few and far between but I love the image I get in 4K on the Mark IV. The 1.7+ crop isn't as bad as micro 4/3 and the colours are fantastic. I had mine updated to c-log and its a huge jump in image quality. I use a Sign 12-24mm for my wide shots and use all my canon glass for everything else.
 
If I were starting from scratch, I'd go with the EOS R and get the new RF lenses. They're the future of the Canon platform.
 
Remember, this is for still use. Picking a stills camera kind of relies upon what kind of use you need for shooting - casual, landscape, studio, fast paced events... In my mind and after watching some comparison videos it seems the 5DMKIV is the preferred choice from a stills point of view. The lack of buttons on the top is a real deal breaker for a lot of stills shooting situations. Canon is a very direct company. If they want to pigeon hole a camera to a market they do and the EOS-R in my view is aimed at the middle imho. I expect a "pro" version sometime in the future.

If you already have a comfort with Canon then the 5DMKIV is the choice imho. The Fuji system gets good reviews, especially for video use but I have never used one or know about its overall stills performance. If you can use "backwards" turning lenses the Panasonic S1 is looking really nice.

I think the new RF lenses are very nice and it looks good for the future of the system. But the entire system is well into the future so I think it is best practice to buy used what is here now and wait for the system take shape.
 
Bassman2003 said:
The Fuji system gets good reviews, especially for video use but I have never used one or know about its overall stills performance. If you can use "backwards" turning lenses the Panasonic S1 is looking really nice.

I think the new RF lenses are very nice and it looks good for the future of the system. But the entire system is well into the future so I think it is best practice to buy used what is here now and wait for the system take shape.
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Good points Bassman. I've also been looking at the Fuji but I don't want to get trapped in another lens ecosystem. I want to spend once on glass.

As far as purpose I do a lot of building and landscape photography. I need the extra pixels the 5D offers so I can crop etc in post.

I'm coming from shooting an A7RII and didn't care for the color science. For videos, the EF lenses will adapt to the Ursa EF mount so I'm covered there too.

As I get older I have an urge to simplify :)

Thank you,
CJ
 
The Panasonic S1/S1r has an EF adapter coming out from Sigma but the overall cost plus the new body would be quite a bit more than the used 5DmkIV. Mirrorless might be good for WYSIWYG viewfinder viewing for building and landscaping photography. Hard to go wrong these days. Personal preference is more of the end determination.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwZ9tCcGNFw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL7YojU2LFE
(vs. A7 III, which is better than 5DIV for video (other than color science))

EOS R has behind-lens ND option, can also use EF-S lenses. For video, EOS R appears better, for stills looks like slightly better noise performance on 5DIV. EOS R can also use newer RF lenses: overall, EOS R looks more versatile and is better for video (also includes Canon Log standard).
 
jcs said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwZ9tCcGNFw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL7YojU2LFE
(vs. A7 III, which is better than 5DIV for video (other than color science))

EOS R has behind-lens ND option, can also use EF-S lenses. For video, EOS R appears better, for stills looks like slightly better noise performance on 5DIV. EOS R can also use newer RF lenses: overall, EOS R looks more versatile and is better for video (also includes Canon Log standard).
Click to expand...

JCS thanks for sharing these! They are really game changers! I didn't think about the EOS R until now.
 
cjwolff said:
JCS thanks for sharing these! They are really game changers! I didn't think about the EOS R until now.
Click to expand...

You're welcome! If you want to use Canon lenses with the highest quality AF, want/need a flip out screen, like Canon color, can deal with the 4K crop (or find the FF 1080p good enough), the EOS R looks like the best deal right now.

The Fuji X-T3 and A7 III have superior 4K detail and slomo, however you'll need native glass to get the best AF (which approaches Canon's DPAF, where the evidence from watching many reviews appears to show Canon still has the overall lead. The A7 III and X-T3 have recent firmware updates for AF, so would be worthwhile to check latest demos on YT to see how they work). I'm confident that with sufficient post work, these cameras can look as good as Canon (especially if using a Canon camera for reference: I did this with the A7S II (matched against C300 II and 1DX II fairly closely)). Some people prefer Fuji color: I'm not yet a fan; prefer ARRI (or Sony VENICE) color over (stock) Canon :)
 
jcs said:
You're welcome!
Click to expand...

JCS, here's an update.

I stopped by Best Buy this evening to play around with the EOS R plus kit lens. Let me say I was astonished.

No matter what i did with my A7RII I couldn't get a decent view through the viewfinder. The viewfinder display is of excellent quality. It took a little while to get used to the touchscreen focus and programmable lens rings but I did manage.

I see than an EOS R Pro is on the horizon. Just the overall function and feel of today's EOS R was a huge improvement. Note to self...test out the A7RIII just to recall how much I loathed it.
 
cjwolff said:
JCS, here's an update.

I stopped by Best Buy this evening to play around with the EOS R plus kit lens. Let me say I was astonished.

No matter what i did with my A7RII I couldn't get a decent view through the viewfinder. The viewfinder display is of excellent quality. It took a little while to get used to the touchscreen focus and programmable lens rings but I did manage.

I see than an EOS R Pro is on the horizon. Just the overall function and feel of today's EOS R was a huge improvement. Note to self...test out the A7RIII just to recall how much I loathed it.
Click to expand...

I really like the build quality of the EOS R vs. the X-T3 and A7 III. The ability to use Canon glass natively is another major value. That said, I could make the X-T3 and A7 III work too, just need to invest in native glass (or manual focus Canon glass (for video) with an adapter like I did with the A7S I & II (I mostly used native Sony lenses though)). For a dual use stills + video camera with a lot of Canon glass, the EOS R is an easier choice.

A higher end EOS R with less RS (as good or better than the 1DX II), no crop full readout FF (downsampled) to get detail parity with the X-T3 and A7 III + 10-bit 422 would make a lot of people happy for sure! :)
 
This is Canon though... Getting what we would want on the video side was left dead on the road a long time ago. I also did not care for the A7RIII when I tried it. I will be watching and waiting to move from the 5DMKIII when the time comes.
 
There's rumors of a speedbooster for the EOS R. That could mean a close to FF crop with full DPAF performance in 4K (e.g. 1.8*.56 = 1.0), providing wide angle support with the SB attached, then extra reach when using the non-SB adapter. This is better than having a FF sensor and a 2x teleconverter, as the teleconverter mode has no light or resolution loss, and the FF wide mode gains light and improves quality (provided the optics are decent).
 
jcs said:
There's rumors of a speedbooster for the EOS R. That could mean a close to FF crop with full DPAF performance in 4K (e.g. 1.8*.56 = 1.0), providing wide angle support with the SB attached, then extra reach when using the non-SB adapter. This is better than having a FF sensor and a 2x teleconverter, as the teleconverter mode has no light or resolution loss, and the FF wide mode gains light and improves quality (provided the optics are decent).
Click to expand...

This would be amazing. Would a speedbooster help reduce rolling shutter jello effect at all?
 
Alexander.M said:
This would be amazing. Would a speedbooster help reduce rolling shutter jello effect at all?
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No, but a gimbal/steadicam would (which we all need anyway for stable moving shots). I'm sure RS will get fixed as a future upgrade (all part of the business plan...).

The EOS R does have a digital IS, which crops in further and reduces RS (multiple modes = higher stability = more crop), so in that sense a SB would indeed be even more useful.
 
have you tried an EOS-r in 4k? - the wobble is indeed horrible as is the crop. I would look elsewhere until Canon take video in their stills camera at least somewhat seriously and release a 'pro' version (will be very expensive I'd imagine), or at least try and compete with what everybody else is offering. Until then they don't deserve your hard earned cash
 
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