Help In choosing new camera

sser

I am having a tough time deciding on my new camera:scratch. I shoot mostly weddings and maternity/newborn in the offseason.

The cameras i've been looking at are the canon 1d mark iii and the canon 1ds mark ii. I know i don't need a crazy fast camera like the mark iii but maybe for the quality of the camera it would be a better choice.

I would love to hear different opinions to help me choose. Also am considering a 5d.

Thanks

ziggy53

The Canon 1D MKIII is still a very good choice for wedding work. AF speed and accuracy, as well as dual memory cards for safety and redundancy. Extremely good battery life and integrated vertical grip make shooting more seamless.

The 5D MKII is wonderful for the formals, but it lacks the AF section of the 1D MKIII. Excellent cropability and very good low-light performance when used with an external flash with focus assist. Smaller RAW files (sRAW) are available when the highest resolution is not needed.

The combination of those 2 cameras is almost ideal for wedding work.

The 1D MKII is a little less DR and so less than ideal for the DR extremes you generally see in wedding work. Otherwise, still very good AF speed and accuracy.

Canon shooters use everything from the 20D through the 7D (crop 1.6x), 1D MKII through MKIII (crop 1.3x), 1Ds MKII through MKIII, and the 5D and 5D MKII, for wedding work. All have some desirable qualities, but I put the focus section and responsiveness at the forefront, so the 1D/1Ds series is still tops in my book. Second is image security and again, the 1D/1Ds series wins.

jmphotocraft

I'm a Canon shooter with a 5DII and a 1DIIN and I love them both. The 5DII gets a much worse rap for its AF than it deserves. Its AF is better than the 40D I used to have. But yeah, if you can afford a 1D or 1Ds, those are the ultimate.

However if you only want one do-everything camera, the Nikon D700 cannot be overlooked. Their lens lineup is more expensive and not as complete as Canon's, but if money is no object you should also consider this body.

Canon really needs to answer the D700 by putting a 1D AF in a 5DIII. Although probably the most we can hope for is the 7D AF in the 5DIII. The 5DII is only a year old so the III will be at minimum 6 months away.

Terrence

Like Ziggy said, there are plenty of shooters using a wide range of camera bodies. I find that the pros and cons for one turn out to be the cons and pros for the one you compare it to.

Personally, I try to get just about enough camera body to do what I want to do and overdo it on my lenses. Bodies come and go so quickly as the technology improves.

ziggy53

ziggy53 wrote:

...

The 1D MKII is a little less DR and so less than ideal for the DR extremes you generally see in wedding work. Otherwise, still very good AF speed and accuracy.

...

Just to correct myself, and to make more sense with the original post, I meant to say "The 1Ds MKII is a little less DR ...".

bloomphotog

Somthing with yellow on it would be a good start.

insanefred

bloomphotog wrote:

Somthing with yellow on it would be a good start.

mustard?

bloomphotog

More like Rosco Daffodil, actually.