# New Camera!



## shinycard255 (Sep 15, 2011)

So I ordered a new camera today and need to tell someone...

I've been using a Canon 30D ever since the summer 2006 and the 8.2MP just doesn't cut it for me anymore. I needed a camera with a bigger sensor and one that could produce bigger image files. 

So... I took the plunge today and purchased a Canon 5D Mark II. Should come in on Thursday! :bounce::bounce::bounce:

If you can't tell... I'm a little excited. First time having a full frame DSLR of my own (I use one regularly at the studio I work for).


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## Option (Oct 2, 2010)

That mark II is sick! You're going pro now.


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## shinycard255 (Sep 15, 2011)

I agree that the 5D Mark II is an amazing camera. If I had the cash, I would have went with the Mark III. I can't wait to shoot at ISO 800 and not have any noise in the photo!


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## shinycard255 (Sep 15, 2011)

It's here!!!


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## GraphicGr8s (Apr 4, 2011)

How large are you printing your photos that 8 mp isn't working? I've done 16 x 20 with 6 mp and they're sharp. You can't get that with 8?


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## shinycard255 (Sep 15, 2011)

Why bother upsizing from 8MP when I can almost shoot at 16"x20" SOOC? Yeah, it is possible to upsize and make it look OK from a distance until you get close and see that it's soft. Plus, I do freelance once and a while and clients do want the outcome of the photo to be 3'x4' (if not larger) if shooting a store sign or banner.

Plus, I want to experiment with video so this camera is well worth it to me.


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## Snowflake311 (Apr 20, 2011)

Lets see some shot you took with the new camera .


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## shinycard255 (Sep 15, 2011)

Snowflake, here's a picture of my wife at a wedding we were at last night


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## GraphicGr8s (Apr 4, 2011)

Shinycard, you're talking to a guy that looks at stuff with a loupe. Can't help it. It's my job. I know exactly what you're talking about. But there are correct viewing distances for all sizes. You never see a billboard at 3' If you did you'd see that the print is pretty low res. 
I paid damn good money for a soft lens for one job.

You print SOOC? You let the camera make color decisions for you?


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## shinycard255 (Sep 15, 2011)

Yes, I know there are proper viewing distances. I've taken photos that were blown up to 8' tall once and when you got real close to the banner, it was low quality, but from afar it looked awesome. You wouldn't look at it that close.

Come on... you really gotta ask those questions?


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## GraphicGr8s (Apr 4, 2011)

Guess I do. Don't really know your shooting habits at all. I shoot Raw+. Even on my "snapshots" (a technique I've had to relearn yet still have trouble with)
If I just want to send a shot if G4 to grandma it's the jpeg. If it's a shot I am printing it's raw + post. All the time. Every time. But I must also admit I am like the mechanic. Never buy the mechanic's car. Since I do PP for a living I tend to not want to do it for my own personal stuff. (Of course it still is nice to see my stuff on the higher end equipment I have at work) Unless of course it's a pano. Then I'll spend hours on it.


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## shinycard255 (Sep 15, 2011)

Always shoot RAW. Always do some sort of PP on it (levels, curves, retouch, dodge, burn, crop, whatever is needed). SOOC doesn't cut it. You need to add something in PP to help the photo out. Obviously if I spent that kind of money of a 5D Mark II, I'm not shooting JPEGs...


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## GraphicGr8s (Apr 4, 2011)

shinycard255 said:


> Always shoot RAW. Always do some sort of PP on it (levels, curves, retouch, dodge, burn, crop, whatever is needed). SOOC doesn't cut it. You need to add something in PP to help the photo out. Obviously if I spent that kind of money of a 5D Mark II, I'm not shooting JPEGs...


You don't hang with enough "photographers". 
You have no idea (or maybe you do) how many "photographers" I see that trust the camera to make their decisions. Then get paid for that crap.
I get it as close as I can in camera. Same as I did for film. That way my PP is minimal. And i still don't do it. I mean still have 5000 personal shots to PP.And I know all the shortcuts.

BTW if that camera let's you shoot both you should. You don't always need, or want to PP everything. Some shots are just fine SOOC. 
Enjoy the new camera.


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## sumer (Feb 6, 2010)

Wow..
What an awesome camera. 
I have many "unboxing" and "review" vids and I so want it. Maybe this thanksgiving. 
Enjoy the new cam


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## shinycard255 (Sep 15, 2011)

GraphicGr8s said:


> You don't hang with enough "photographers".
> You have no idea (or maybe you do) how many "photographers" I see that trust the camera to make their decisions. Then get paid for that crap.
> I get it as close as I can in camera. Same as I did for film. That way my PP is minimal. And i still don't do it. I mean still have 5000 personal shots to PP.And I know all the shortcuts.
> 
> ...


No I don't know many photographers. I have one that I talk to on a regular basis since I worked with him previously. We share freelance work with each other to date. My wife knows plenty of "photographers" and every time I see their work, I cringe, I can't help it. 

Getting the shot right SOOC takes a little bit of work to get at first. It's a pain at times to make it right in PP. I only use PP to enhance a photo. If I have to spend a lot of time on it in post, I know I did something wrong. I have some high standards for my work. 

For an example, all I did to the camera body in PP was levels and curves to bring in the whites and blacks and to boost contrast, a crop, took some dust off the plexiglass, and burned down the top left corner. 

Yes the camera does shoot RAW + JPEG, but I like to have the option to tweak white balance and exposure first before converting them to JPEGs (if need be). Plus then I have more space for RAW files. 

I don't mean to sound defensive with my posts, but I wouldn't drop this kind of money on just a hobby. 



sumer said:


> Wow..
> What an awesome camera.
> I have many "unboxing" and "review" vids and I so want it. Maybe this thanksgiving.
> Enjoy the new cam


This camera is awesome. I've been drooling over this camera for a while and am very pleased with my purchase this far.


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## GraphicGr8s (Apr 4, 2011)

try shooting raw +. I have found that in some cases the jpeg is good enough for certain things and can save time in PP. Not all subjects warrant PP. Shooting both gives me that option. SD cards for my camera are cheap. I've got a bunch of them. One hint about them. Never ever fill them up totally. 

Never thought you were sounding defensive at all. Just a discussion among a couple of friends.

About 6 moths before I got my Pentax I was ready to switch to Canon. I was about to stroke the check to replace all of my equipment in the Canon lineup. I was looking at over 25 large. ( read that as twenty five thousand and really closer to 32.)

One thing film teaches that digital really doesn't is to get it right in the camera.

And I do know many photographers. I do PP for a bunch of them.


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## shinycard255 (Sep 15, 2011)

Yes, I know not to fill up a card completely. That's how your card can either lock up or corrupt the images. Then it's good bye photos... not a good thing.

Why would you switch over to a different system if you already dropped so much money on the one that you currently have? Because honestly, it's not WHAT system you use to get the images, it's HOW you use the system. Anyone can have a great camera system, but without proper knowledge of how to use it, the images will still turn out crappy.

Getting it right in camera is the best way of doing it. Exactly why beginners should start with film over digital. Anyone can go in once the shot is taken and spend quite some time in PP to make it the way they want, but it's a hell of a lot easier to spend the extra time to get it right in camera (whether that be an extra 5 min or 30 min). It will save you a lot of time in PP.


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## GraphicGr8s (Apr 4, 2011)

At the time I didn't know about Pentax's digital lineup. Such that it was/is. Never regretted getting the K10D though. I've done event photography, food, and product photography with it. All on a par with the Canon and Nikon gear. 

To think the Canon 8 mp body was about 8 grand at the time. 

Some of my shots take weeks to setup. Only to have it rain the day it's supposed to happen.

Your last statement is very spot on. But that relates to a bunch of related fields also. 
I still like using my full frame Pentaxes. Keeps the skills up to par so I don't have to do as much PP with my K10. But it's been a while. Seems I don't own a FF that has auto focus and my eyes aren't the same as they were when I shot film all the time.

Have to say Shinycard this has been an enjoyable conversation. Hope it's the same on your end.


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## shinycard255 (Sep 15, 2011)

I believe when I first bought my Canon 30D when it first came out, it was around $1400. I can't believe I spent that same amount of money for a camera that has almost 3x the pixels and also shoots video. How times have changed...

So far, I'm really liking the Mark II. I love the fact that I can shoot at 800 and see a very minimal amount of noise. I still have yet to mess around with the video function. When I first got it, I learned how to record video, but that was all of my experimentations thus far. I'm sure I'll dapple in it eventually. But I still do like my 30D. I do sometimes miss the crop factor though. I loved shooting with my 50mm f/1.4 (80mm cropped) when I was shooting portraits because it was very similar to the 85mm f/1.2L lens.

It was a fun conversation. I don't have many people I can talk to about this stuff and actually understand what I'm saying.


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## GraphicGr8s (Apr 4, 2011)

Just blow the shot up to the same size as a crop sensor gives and crop it. Same exact thing. Remember it is a CROP either way. Whether the camera cuts out the border or you do it's the same.

If you didn't live so dang far away we could go shooting.


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## shinycard255 (Sep 15, 2011)

Little confused about what you mean... the way I looked it at it was that the crop sensor would magnify the effect in the lens. So if you were shooting with a 50mm, it's actually more of an 80mm and a 24-70mm lens is more of an 38-112mm lens. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that cropping a photo in PP will give the same effect.

I have family down in FL, but they are in Fort Lauderdale. Still a ways away from Land O' Lakes.


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## GraphicGr8s (Apr 4, 2011)

The sensor isn't magnifying at all. Let's say full format is 2 x 3. A "cropped sensor" can only capture 1 x 2. The lens still projects an image of 2 x 3 but only part of it is captured. To get the print of the cropped sensor to the same size as the full frame you have to enlarge the image.

Nothing has changed in regards to the lens. it is still projecting a 2 x 3 image. Your just not capturing all of it.


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## sumer (Feb 6, 2010)

Just adding what I learned when I was researching on 7D and 5D.
FF sensor has an area of 864 mm sq. And an APS-C has 337.5 mm sq. 

Initially I was thinking that why not buy a full frame and just crop the image to the size of image which would come out of an APS-C sensor. Both the images would be the same. 
But no. What I forgot was, if you calculate the number of pixels per mm sq, 5D has 24421.2 px per mm sq and 7D has 53333.3 px per mm sq which is just double of what 5D has. 
So if you'd crop a picture from 5D of the same size as an APS-C sensor, it'd lose 12.8 Mega pixels. And would remain only 8.3 mega pixel image. 

So what I could conclude is- Both the cameras have their diff uses. So comparing these 2 cameras is not a logical thing. If you're into wildlife and all 7D is a wise choice and if you're a studio person, 5D is the way to go 

Note- Noise problem of 7D is a whole diff story. Please correct me if I went wrong somewhere.


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## GraphicGr8s (Apr 4, 2011)

sumer said:


> Just adding what I learned when I was researching on 7D and 5D.
> FF sensor has an area of 864 mm sq. And an APS-C has 337.5 mm sq.
> 
> Initially I was thinking that why not buy a full frame and just crop the image to the size of image which would come out of an APS-C sensor. Both the images would be the same.
> ...


Sumer if you're a studio person a Pentax 645D is the way to go.


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## sumer (Feb 6, 2010)

Cool...
I'm not a studio guy though.. Fishes, bird and sometimes my girlfriend.. thats what my photography is all about. 

Shinycard- If you want mind me asking, can you please tell me where did you buy the cam from? I'm on the verge of buying 7D + 100-400mm + 100mm L. 
B&H looks like reputable but costly. Same with Adorama :/


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## shinycard255 (Sep 15, 2011)

Sumer, the camera was purchased from B&H. I've been shopping there for a few years. Adorama is also a good site. I've ordered from them before as well. Another one that I also visit once and a while is KEH. Purchased a wide angle lens from them. All are reputable sites and you have nothing to worry about. All the sites have their own rating systems for used equipment so make sure to double check the rating before purchasing.


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