5D or D300 what would you choose and why?

[supersignet]

I'm a Canon shooter and have been for quite sometime. I'm in the market for at least one new body and probably two. I'm looking at getting either or a 5D now and possibly a 5DMk-II if it ever comes out or a pair of Nikon D300. The lenses I have are mostly designed for APS sensors so either of the two will also require the purchase of new lenses.

So tell me whatta want?

And why do ya wan it?

[adz929]

Depends what you shoot. If your thing is landscapes or portraits, get a 5D. If you're into sports or wildlife, get a D300. What exactly do you find lacking in your current system?

[supersignet]

I don't have any real problems with my 30d, but it is getting long in the tooth and has a ton of shutter actions. I'm also not a big fan of Canon . Not for their technology, but more the fact nothing really seems to change when they upgrade their models. The 40d is just a bigger faster 400D and I've had one of those since they first came out in 2006. Canon hasn't had Camera body that makes someone want to upgrade for a long time. It seems they just do as little as possible to get people to keep using and buying their bodies. Also with lenses and stupidly overpriced accessories or options. For example I can't understand how Canon can afford to sell a 450D with an IS lens for less than 900 USD when that same option on a 70-200 f2.8 adds more than 300 USD to the price of the lens. To me this doesn't make much sense and it obviously means that people are being grossly overcharged for this technology. My Canon bodies have served me well in the past, but both now are getting old and it is about time for something new. It isn't that I can't afford to pay the money for the option, I just want to know where the money is going and why it costs so much.

The only reason I would even consider staying with Canon would be if the 5D MKII blows me away, but it would at least have to be weather sealed. I know the 5D is an amazing camera and will be for a long time. I would even hazard to say that it is the best DSLR of the past 5 years and has really held it's own for a long time and obviously in capable hands will do so for sometime.

As for what I shoot. That is the real problem. I shoot a lot of sports and landscapes. Speed is a factor as is durability and image quality. I'd also like to have good high ISO capabilities. I've looked long and hard at the Nikon D3 and am still thinking about it. However for the price of the D3 I could have two D300s and at least one lens.

I guess a lot of people go through this kind of thought process when he/she is considering a new body. .....too many nice bodies, too hard to choose one that can make me happy.

[adz929]

You could always keep your 30D for sports and buy a 5D for landscapes. Not that the 30D isn't capable of delivering stunning landscapes, but with the 5D you get more res and can use ultra-ultra wide lenses. Personally, I'm not one to get all worked up over high ISO performance, IMO, the only ISO noise that bothers me is the noise that the pixel peeper crowd make, anyone who has ever shot high ISO film will know that just about any current DSLR produces cleaner images at an equivilant ISO.

[wolfeye]

I don't have any real problems with my 30d, but it is getting long in the tooth and has a ton of shutter actions. I'm also not a big fan of Canon . Not for their technology, but more the fact nothing really seems to change when they upgrade their models.

There's a good reason for this, they have a very nice system. It's perfected. For 20 or so years, Canon thinking has been consistent because it works well, for a majority of users. Someone coming from an EOS-3 film camera will feel immediately right at home with a 10D-40D, 5D, etc. Take a look at the competition and why they change so much...

Nikon - swore they weren't interested in FF bodies. Now they have one. They didn't make their own sensors so they changed at the whim of Sony.

Pentax - Hoya and Samsung and Sony oh my!

Sony - Hey, we can make DSLRs too! Um, can we borrow your ideas (and entire company) Minolta? Minolta who was "strong" when they were merged with Konica...

Olypmus -started something new from the ground up, but chose a tiny sensor. Now they make small DSLRs like the E-3 *grin*

Canon may be boring but they have good stuff. You know what? All of them do. Just like in the 70's, and 80's, and 90's when you couldn't go wrong buying any Canon, Nikon, Minolta, Pentax, Olympus, Fujica, Chinon (and others) SLR. Why not buy one of them? They still make film ya know, and it makes wonderful digital images when scanned. And for what you'd invest in a DSLR you'd be able to get a pretty nice...

Oh wait. Never mind. This is the digital forum. It's all good.

[supersignet]

Well that was informative.....


I will need a new body soon. My 30D is getting really up there in shutter actions, my 20D is just about dead and my 400D is still going strong.However if I'm on assignment the last thing I want to happen is to have one body crap out on me so I'm stuck shooting with only my 400D. These are all great cameras and do an excellent job, but I do need to upgrade and I do need to do it soon.

Why should I be motivated to buy a 40D when it is basically just a faster 400D with a few little upgrades and now we have the 450D so everyone know what the 50D will be like too... I'm just sick of this crap. When I "upgraded" my 20D to a 30D I got a bigger screen and a spot meter that could only be used in centre of the frame. Good marketing on Canons part but it is more like they're spinning their wheels when it comes to introducing new technology. I was hoping the 40D would at least be weather sealed and if it was I would probably buy one, but again if I want a Canon with weather sealing it looks like I'd have to drop the big bucks for a 1D mkII or mkIII and then again I would still have to sell almost all of my lenses because they're crop sensor lenses.

Why shouldn't I keep my 30d or 400d as a back up and buy a 5d as my primary you ask, well that would mean I would have to carry around a group of full frame lenses and crop sensor lenses to get the most out of the combination. That doesn't sound like a really good idea when I'm carting all my gear around a golf course, hotel, or resort that needs to be shot in a short amount of time. I'm also stuck on the beach a lot and sometimes caught in the rain and the piece of mind that weather sealing can offer me is worth the change alone. I don't want a camera to die due to dust or rain when I need it for work. I also don't want to think of having to replace it out of my own pocket if it does. DSLR bodies are expensive and aren't really disposable. I could buy a 5d and use it, but again it is not weather sealed and with the possible release of a replacement in the future I'm weary to dump my money on the camera before the price drops.

I've decided to ditch the Canon gear and move to the Nikon camp. The D300 is really the best value for what I need these days and this for me is all about it filling the needs I want at a price that is reasonable. I don't fall in love with or lust after any one brand like many people do in the consumer world we live in, I look for the best product at the price and use that to do the job I'm charged with.

Either way the upgrade from the 30D to the 5D or 1D series or the switch to Nikon is basically the same prospect for me. No matter what I choose I'll have to start from scratch and buy everything again to get the right gear to go with the right body.


As for the film comment.... I also shoot film but when you have a deadline to meet and you're on the road a lot there isn't really a lot of room in your bag for a traveling darkroom and scanner that can be taken with you. I'm sure customs would love to deal with all those nice chemicals as well. Thanks for the idea and information though. It really helped.

what happened to pbase? This used to be a good site, now it is like a ghost town with a lot of members that do nothing here anymore. I guess that's what happens when a site decides to never upgrade their interface.

[toosnvetts]

What happened to pbase? I have found an amazing amount of help on this site and forum in the last year and a half. One of the more important lessons I learned was to carefully analyze yourself and your photographic goals and outfit yourself for that eventuality. One can spend an inordinate amount of money upgrading in frequent baby steps instead of buying what you need and growing into it. It seems you have gotten yourself into a professional situation without a plan. I have learned much from this thread and think you got excellent help and advise. How can you complain about pbase?

[dharden]

pbase does seem a lot quiter than it was only a year ago, true. However there are still some good and very helpful folk on here (Dang, DougJ, DJWixx, Prinothecat, Toosnvetts, Sheila Smart and plenty more) who post regularly and give sound advice. Not like on DPreview where all people seem to do is have "bun fights" over meaningless topics

For what it's worth, I've got a 5D and the images are generally fantastic. Not perfect but very very good indeed. I moved up from a 20D but also kept it and use that body for wildlife efforts, which it handles well apart from the very noisy mirror reflex! I use three lenses - 17-40L, 24-105L and 300 f4 IS L + a 1.4x converter when needed. My only potential problem is if the 5D body goes down then i can't get wide angle interior shots done on the 20D currently. When I can afford it I'm after a Sigma 12-24 so I can get either mega-wide or decently wide depending on the body it's on.

I met a guy with a D300 the other month and I can honestly say it's a great camera - you won't be disappointed! I wish Canon WOULD change the way their bodies operate, personally. They're just not (to me) intuitive to use like a Nikon is. I still can't get the hang of shutter and aperture wheels swapping function between fully manual and Av or Tv modes. I realise it lets the control wheel handle compensation but to me it's just not logical. I can't be doing with the top panel adjustments either. Even a few years into Canon I can't remember which wheel changes what and wind up wasting time remembering. Of course it could just be ME but I am usually very handy with technical stuff (you should see the Yamaha A4000 sampler I have to operate in the band I play in and I've got that well sussed!) . I also never have such problems when using Nikons (or the K-M 7D I used to have, which was a joy to use). Ultimately, though, it's about the images that people get to see and the 5D does that bit particularly well! Can't vaguely afford to switch to a Nikon D3 either!

There's also for me the fact that the 20D is my late Dad's old camera so I have more than one reason to be using it!

The things I like about the 5D are the big viewfinder (makes a massive difference in practice and you can actually use the DOF preview again), the size and weight (I like 'em big and weighty, personally) and the high ISO image quality which is just superb. The tonality of the images is lovely too, unless the light is flat - then it just blocks up the colours but then most digitals do that.

However if you need fast and accurate AF then i'd certainly go for the D300, especially in lower light. The 5D is by no means bad but it does get a bit hit and miss when the light drops off.

Having said all that, what do you think you'd be missing out on by buying a 40D? It's a bloody good camera! What size images do your clients require? I'm sure it's more than capable isn't it? You also have the advantage of being used to using Canons.......
Don't worry too much about weather sealing unless you're out in downpours a lot. My wife used my 20D in the rain at a gig the other month and it's fine! Obviously she covered it as often as possible.....

Be very careful not to get swept along in the "must upgrade, must upgrade, must upgrade" current. I used to feel that about my 20D but then I started using it with 'L' lenses and realised how good it actually was! I'm still using it now, I'm making shots for clients with it and it's more than up to the job. The marketing departments at the camera companies must be the busiest in any industry at the moment - just look at how they push megapixels on the compact cameras when all they're really doing is creating noisier images. People could have used a 6mp or maybe even a 4mp to generate the images they view on screen and print 6x4s of and actually would have got cleaner pics!

hope some or all of that proves helpful!

Dave

PS something that just jumped out from my memory: The other year, a TV programme over here gave top (and I mean top!) landscape photographer Joe Cornish a challenge to produce a decent landscape from a mobile phone camera. He found it a bit frustrating and certainly challenging but when I saw the pic he'd taken I was very impressed to say the least. Now that of course is extreme but don't forget in all this current world of "must have" that it's the PHOTOGRAPHER who makes the image what it is. The camera is only a means to an end. Ansel Adams was knocking out stunning landscapes in the 1920s on gear that most of us wouldn't even consider using. And there are great sports photographs from the 60's, 70's, 80's etc arent' there? Just a bit of food for thought (for me as well!)

[fishit]

Depends what you shoot. If your thing is landscapes or portraits, get a 5D. If you're into sports or wildlife, get a D300. What exactly do you find lacking in your current system?

Why do you feel the D300 has short comings when it comes to Landscapes.
I am curious, mine seems to work well with the proper settings.
The 5D seems like a fine camera to me as well, this is not a Nikon vers Canon question.
The only thing is my D300 seems to meter higher than what I am use to with D200 and D70.

[adz929]

Depends what you shoot. If your thing is landscapes or portraits, get a 5D. If you're into sports or wildlife, get a D300. What exactly do you find lacking in your current system?

Why do you feel the D300 has short comings when it comes to Landscapes.
I am curious, mine seems to work well with the proper settings.
The 5D seems like a fine camera to me as well, this is not a Nikon vers Canon question.
The only thing is my D300 seems to meter higher than what I am use to with D200 and D70.

As I said further along, the 5D will allow you to go wider than you ever could on a D300 or a 30D. That said, I use my D200 for landscapes and I find it does a bang up job, however, I sometimes wish I could go wider.

[motote]

I'm a Canon shooter and have been for quite sometime. I'm in the market for at least one new body and probably two. I'm looking at getting either or a 5D now and possibly a 5DMk-II if it ever comes out or a pair of Nikon D300. The lenses I have are mostly designed for APS sensors so either of the two will also require the purchase of new lenses.

So tell me whatta want?

And why do ya wan it?

5D

I like Canon,don't like Nikon!

[adz929]

I like Canon,don't like Nikon!

Thats gotta be the one of the most intelligent responses this forum has seen thus far

[clalor]

Check out the lenses available from both companies in the range(s) you want. You mentioned sports, so I'm assuming that there will be some need for a telephoto or telephoto zoom lens. I just recently switched from a Nikon D70, which I love and plan to hold on to, to a Canon 40d simply because the telephoto zoom selection was much better and the lenses I was interested in were all in stock (I ended up with a 70-200 mm F/2.8L IS). As a side benefit, I have more Canon rental lenses available to me locally (Salt Lake City) than I do for Nikon. That might be something to look into as well.

[marxz]

If I was buying now.. going from scratch (or at least the budget to get suitable lenses for travel/street/night photography) I'd go straight to the Nikon D3 (over the D300), having seen the low noise high ISO images some of my local Flickr group people get out of this units, with a VR lens I'd be able to shoot a large percentage of my night landscapes san tripod..... but I've got far to much $$ invested in canon glass to make that move.

Instead I'll stick with my crop frame Canons (20D & 40D) until the 5D replacement arrives (and let it have time for any "peculiarities" to surface), and then pension of the 20D.

[khun_k]

5D has the sensor size twice as big as D300 and slightly better pixel count, and similar price in market and less on the 2nd hand market, I think the choice is simple if the image quality is concern, I will go 5D for sure. But if I am sitting with a handful of newer AF Nikon lenses, probably I will just go D300 because it is not a bad camera at all, unless I do need better image and I need more post production work for the image, I will still have to go with 5D.