Help me with buying Canon 5D mark II

Seba Vuye · September 13, 2011

Hey,

I'm planning to buy a Canon 5D mark II in 2 weeks. My budget will be 3000 euros, and I know that a Canon 5D mark 2 body will cost me around 1800 euro's. That leaves me with 1200 euro for equipment and lenses. What kind of lenses would you suggest me to buy, and what is essential besides lenses, battery's and memory cards? Also i'm searching for a online store I can trust to buy from.

Cheers Seba

Damien Andre · September 14, 2011

a decent video tripod

Phil Rhodes · September 14, 2011

Also, consider a 7D or 550D (there's no point in a 7D unless you're sure you need the ruggedness or CF compatibility).

The 5D is great. Fantastic. But the focus will drive you blind; I like selective focus as much as anyone, but it is not universally a plus to have that little depth of field. Don't automatically assume the 5D is the way to go.

Just a thought, anyway.

Grant Babbitt · September 14, 2011

It really depends on what you are going to be shooting with it. If you are just starting out, there is nothing wrong with finding some old manual Nikon glass, and as you save up, possibly start investing in some Canon L Series glass. The best Canon EF lens you can get (for interviews) is the portrait lens 85mm II f1.2... its beautiful. A lot of your "extra" cash may need to be invested in shoulder support or a decent tripod. I have a Redrock Shoulder rig for my 5Dmk2, runs about $2,000 USD. I would also recommend a Sachtler FBS 6 or 8 tripod possibly. It will run anywhere from $1200 USD - $3000 USD, but its a good little tripod for DSLR work.

Seba Vuye · September 16, 2011

Hey thanks for the help :^-)

Today I spoke with a friend of mine, who seems to know a lot about camera's. Basically what he said was that i will be overpaying if i buy a 5D mark2 if i'm only going to use it for film, and a better solution would be buying a 600D or 550D(because they are both almost identical to 5Dmark2(film wise))and invest more money in better lenses.

Now i'm not an(yet :rolleyes: ) expert on camera's but what i saw on vimeo, 5dmark2 seems the way to go.

Oh and he also suggested to wait for the new DSLR from Sony? A model that films on 1080p in 60fps?

So now i'm asking with camera to buy? Yea seems about right :blink:

Grant Babbitt · September 20, 2011

Hey thanks for the help :^-)

Today I spoke with a friend of mine, who seems to know a lot about camera's. Basically what he said was that i will be overpaying if i buy a 5D mark2 if i'm only going to use it for film, and a better solution would be buying a 600D or 550D(because they are both almost identical to 5Dmark2(film wise))and invest more money in better lenses.

Now i'm not an(yet :rolleyes: ) expert on camera's but what i saw on vimeo, 5dmark2 seems the way to go.

Oh and he also suggested to wait for the new DSLR from Sony? A model that films on 1080p in 60fps?

So now i'm asking with camera to buy? Yea seems about right :blink:

Canon is supposedly coming out with a new camera soon, so you may even wait and see what that is, because if that is too pricey, the cost for the older models may drop a bit. And yes, a 600d or 550d would be fine, but know that those have less controls than a 5d/7d. Like with any video camera... the less control options given, the less the price. The more you can control yourself, the more things cost. That is a big difference between consumer, prosumer & professional. 550d & 600d are technically consumer/prosumer cameras. The 5dmk2 is considered a professional camera. Does that make sense? The 5d has one big difference from all the other canon dslrs... the chip is a full sensor, and the other Canons have a cropped sensor. This means that every lens you put on a 5d, will have the accurate mm length without doing any math. ie - a 50mm = 50mm. With the cropped sensor on Canons, it is a x1.6 sensor. This mean that you must multiply every lens length that you want to use by 1.6, to get an accurate portrayal of your lens length. ie - a 50mm = 80mm. Sometimes this can be frustrating because you would need to buy a 24-30mm lens to have a standard lens. Which you may know, will cost much more that a straight 50mm lens. Its a give and take. I wish that I had 60fps, but I only shoot up to 30fps because of the sensor size. Hope that helps a little.

Phil Rhodes · September 20, 2011

Bear in mind that the field-of-view issue only works that way if you're coming from a conventional 35mm stills or full-frame DSLR background. The EF-S DSLRs have broadly the same size of sensor as 35mm motion picture film, or anything that imitates 35mm film. There's also a different perception of normality there, where a lot of people would consider 50mm fairly normal for something like a sit-down interview (this is why we like set walls to be removable...)

Either way I've never been a big fan of focal-length conversion, as it encourages the erroneous belief that lenses somehow magically change focal length when mounted on different cameras.

Canon are always about to come out with a new camera.

Brian Drysdale · September 21, 2011

Canon are always about to come out with a new camera.

The rumours seem to be a large sensor video camera with the XF 4:2:2 codec rather than a stills camera. I suspect that if it's such an animal it would cost more than the 3.000 Euro budget.

Seba Vuye · September 29, 2011

Canon is supposedly coming out with a new camera soon, so you may even wait and see what that is, because if that is too pricey, the cost for the older models may drop a bit. And yes, a 600d or 550d would be fine, but know that those have less controls than a 5d/7d. Like with any video camera... the less control options given, the less the price. The more you can control yourself, the more things cost. That is a big difference between consumer, prosumer & professional. 550d & 600d are technically consumer/prosumer cameras. The 5dmk2 is considered a professional camera. Does that make sense? The 5d has one big difference from all the other canon dslrs... the chip is a full sensor, and the other Canons have a cropped sensor. This means that every lens you put on a 5d, will have the accurate mm length without doing any math. ie - a 50mm = 50mm. With the cropped sensor on Canons, it is a x1.6 sensor. This mean that you must multiply every lens length that you want to use by 1.6, to get an accurate portrayal of your lens length. ie - a 50mm = 80mm. Sometimes this can be frustrating because you would need to buy a 24-30mm lens to have a standard lens. Which you may know, will cost much more that a straight 50mm lens. Its a give and take. I wish that I had 60fps, but I only shoot up to 30fps because of the sensor size. Hope that helps a little.

Bear in mind that the field-of-view issue only works that way if you're coming from a conventional 35mm stills or full-frame DSLR background. The EF-S DSLRs have broadly the same size of sensor as 35mm motion picture film, or anything that imitates 35mm film. There's also a different perception of normality there, where a lot of people would consider 50mm fairly normal for something like a sit-down interview (this is why we like set walls to be removable...)

Either way I've never been a big fan of focal-length conversion, as it encourages the erroneous belief that lenses somehow magically change focal length when mounted on different cameras.

Canon are always about to come out with a new camera.

Hey, sorry for the late replay. I had internet issues :(. Thanks for your replay. After some thinking and research I decided to go for a 600d, one of the main reasons was the price after all. Considering that lenses, battery grips etc for 5D are more expensive + i also need to buy a decent tripod and a bag. Also I considered the thought that i don't need such an expensive cam as a fresher to go out and learn to film. And I like to have 60fps option, and experiment with it a little :D. I hope i'm making the right decision, if not, well sometimes you have to fail to succeed I suppose :).

Btw; Seems like a nice forum and nice people :)