Go full frame or invest in a lens??

SusieQue

Hi all,

At present I have a Canon 50D with a Canon 50mm 1.4, a Canon 100mm Macro, a Canon 70-200mm f4 & a long term loan of a Canon 17-40mm.

My main photography is portraits/people and I would love to specialise in baby photogrpahy. I am in 2 minds whether to go full frame & get a Canon 5D MK II, or get a 24-70mm lens... Eventually I would like both... but one thing at a time.

I am swaying more towards the 5D MkII at present to benefit from the higher ISO capabilities as I prefer to shoot in natural light...

Any opinions/guidance would be very much appreciated

pullandbang

Hmmmm, tricky one! You already have two good low light lenses in the 100mm and the 50mm f1.4 - both of which should be adequate on a full frame. So, my recommendation is go for the 5DmkII.

Of course you can always borrow mine for your next shoot and give it a try.....

Oh, and just to put a spanner in the works....my 70-200 f2.8 is blindingly sharp and fast in low light :-)

SusieQue

pullandbang wrote: »

Of course you can always borrow mine for your next shoot and give it a try.....

Oh, and just to put a spanner in the works....my 70-200 f2.8 is blindingly sharp and fast in low light :-)

Ah feic ya anyway I think I might get better use out of the 24-70 as babys won't be too far away from... Oh decisions decisions!! If I had a few grand, I'd be sorted )

Might, take you up on that offer sometime to give it a try. Cheers me dear!!

AnimalRights

Not tricky at all, you said one thing at a time which means you will be able to get the lens after you go full frame.

Ur an excellent photographer and FF will already enhance ur emerging talent.

SusieQue

Ah thank you kindly Sir!! How nice of you to say so!! You are helping me make this decision

dakar

Another full frame convert, and even though everybody says invest in good glass first, in this case I'd say 5d2 all the way.

SusieQue

dakar wrote: »

Another full frame convert, and even though everybody says invest in good glass first, in this case I'd say 5d2 all the way.

You're all saying what I want to hear... A few others have said same to me Darren about the lenses, but really feel FF is the way to go too

Cheers lads for your input

oshead

+1 for the full frame susie. How about getting a second hand 5d MkI and the beloved 24-70mm.

SusieQue

oshead wrote: »

+1 for the full frame susie. How about getting a second hand 5d MkI and the beloved 24-70mm.

That was another thing I was thinking about David, MkI or MKII. I think if I was going to go full frame, I'd like to go with the MKII ... or would I be spending money unneccesarily??

Cakes.

If a 5D MkIII does come out towards the end of the year you should be able to get either a new or second hand 5D MkII cheaper and put the rest of the money towards the lens.

SusieQue

Cakesofrice wrote: »

If a 5D MkIII does come out towards the end of the year you should be able to get either a new or second hand 5D MkII cheaper and put the rest of the money towards the lens.

That's what I was thinking... not sure if I have the patience though... :-/

oshead

That's a big if Cakesofrice..

I went with the MkII and it cost me all of €2100 about a year ago. It really brought my 24-70 into it's own. There's loads of members on here who have the MkI and wouldn't sell it for love nor money... Both are great cameras but the MkII has time and technology on it's side.

squareballoon

Another vote for full frame!

Borderfox

I would normally say glass but the body will bring all the lenses into another league

CabanSail

I too would normally advise glass too, but you have that generally covered already. Most who ask about a body upgrade really only want a new toy but you have a reason as you will benefit from the high ISO capabilities. Added to this the ability to get narrower DoF from your glass and it would seem to tip in favor of the 5DII.

hmboards

This really isn't the place to come looking for advice if you are strapped for cash

Seriously though, full frame is fantastic for portraits in a restricted space. I really don't like portraits from wide angles. With FF you can use longer lenses such as the 70-200 to get better control over what does and doesn't appear in the background (as well as compressing the facial features). You need more space to do this with crop sensor.

You already have some good glass so no harm in upgrading to FF now. You could always go for 5D Mk1 now, and use it as a second body after you upgrade to 5D MkII in the future ? I did notice a load of 5D II's have come onto the second hand market in the last week.

CabanSail

hmboards wrote: »

Seriously though, full frame is fantastic for portraits in a restricted space. I really don't like portraits from wide angles. With FF you can use longer lenses such as the 70-200 to get better control over what does and doesn't appear in the background (as well as compressing the facial features). You need more space to do this with crop sensor.

This is actually not all quite correct. The focal length of an ideal portrait lens varies with different size sensors or film size. You want to choose a focal length which will allow you to be about 2 to 4 meters away (sometimes a bit more) from the subject to get the features in perspective. For a head shot on a full frame this is often about 130mm and about 85mm on a cropped sensor. It's the distance to the subject that matters not the focal length. It is true that the DoF can be more shallow using full frame.

hmboards

I see what you are saying. It wasn't actually DOF I was referring to when I mentioned background, but I didn't explain that. If you want to use a studio type background behind the subject, a longer lens will let you step back and keep the edges of the background out of frame. It's often more tricky to achieve that with a wide angle lens, particularly if you have a few people in the portrait. It's field of view rather than DOF I was thinking of.

CabanSail

Facial feature perspective is also important. It's why some people say they always come out poorly in photo's, as the camera is normally a P&S and taken too close. It's most common with people that have strong features.