Stick with my Mk II, or swap out to a D600?

Dknelson728

Hey folks,

Here's the position that I'm in currently :

I've got a Canon 5D Mark II. Let's call it body only. (I have a nifty fifty, but sold off all of my real glass to help offset the cost of some unexpected family issues.)

I'm in a position to essentially start fresh with a new kit. As I mentioned, I've got my Mk II, and a few odds and ends for it. I can keep that, or have the option to trade it out (with my spare batteries and accessories) for a D600 body only.

I shot Nikon a few years back before switching to Canon to have a crack at some video work, but still find myself sticking primarily to photos. My only real concern lies in the lens options that I have available at certain price points.

If I stuck with my Mk II, I'd ideally be looking at a 17-40 f/4, or a 16-35 f/2.8 Mk I, and a 70-200 f/4 later down the line.

If I went with the D600, I'd be a little torn on where to start lens wise. When I was shooting Nikon, I never had the opportunity to shoot with an FX body, so I never really looked into the appropriate lenses.

I'm doing a lot of general walk-around photography, portraiture, and a bit of street photography.

If you guys were in the position to have a Mk II, or a D600, knowing that your lens budget would be pretty tight (Let's say around $1200) for the first few months, what would you do?

Looking forward to some insight

Thanks!

DK

EDIT ; Upon reading some more reviews, I'm also interested in seeing how people feel the 6D stacks up here. Looks like I may have to invest a little more for the body, but it's certainly an interesting option.

ziggy53

Stay with the Canon 5D MKII and purchase the new lenses now. The 5D MKII is still no slouch for your intended applications, and you can use the lenses more than you can use a body only.

Purchase the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM first and then a Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM. That should hold you for a little while in a compact kit, but also add an external flash as soon as practicable. Extra light is almost always a benefit if it's used properly.

By all means, a 70-200mm zoom would be helpful in the future (if I only had one it would be one of the f2.8 versions first, and the non-IS is still fine), as would the Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM for portraiture. (The Canon 135mm f2L is like magic on any Canon FF body.)

Eventually, get a Canon crop 1.6x body too for even more lens flexibility, add at least one more external flash, swap the EF 50mm, f1.8 for an EF 50mm, f1.4 USM, and finally a close-focus diopter (like the Canon 500D in a 77mm size to fit the 70-200mm, f2.8) and you'll be in very good shape.

That's an entire map of purchases that could be used professionally and cover almost every genre of photography.

nak

ziggy53 wrote: »

Stay with the Canon 5D MKII ...

[good advice snipped]

By all means, a 70-200mm zoom would be helpful in the future (if I only had one it would be one of the f2.8 versions first, and the non-IS is still fine), as would the Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM for portraiture. (The Canon 135mm f2L is like magic on any Canon FF body.)

[snip]

The Canon 135mm f/2L IS magic on the 5D Mark II.

A friend of mine used to shoot Nikon. He switched to Canon. He's since switched to Nikon. He gently chided me for shooting Canon and not switching to Nikon. I said I'd have to give up my 135mm f/2L if I went to Nikon. He paused and allowed it was decent reason to stay with what I have. Any other reason might have lead to a lot of back and forth. You have a 5D Mark II, so I'd suggest that investing in glass is the next thing to do.

Matthew Saville

Nikon's 135mm f/2 is killer sharp with gorgeous bokeh, but needs an AFS-G update. I'm betting that will come any day now, what with the current set of affordable primes that Nikon has churned out.

For street photography? Hands down, I'd vote, D600 with a Nikon 28mm f/1.8 AFS-G, 50mm f/1.8 AFS-G, and 85mm f/1.8 AFS-G.

And "G" stands for OMG these lenses are sharp!!! The three together might put you a little over budget, but damn they're flawless performers, and gorgeous for walk-around shooting as well as portraits.

I mean yeah you could consider a 24-120 f/4 or something, and then just get a prime like the 85 1.8 AFS-G to compliment that. You'd stay under budget (roughly) with that kit too. But I guess for street photography and portraits, I'd go for broke with primes. I'm just a minimalist like that though...

The 5D mk2 is great, but honestly whenever I shoot with it I feel so held back by it's overall power and reliability and to some extent the image quality. It is an incredible camera indeed, but I'm just a little more into envelope-pushing than most when it comes to dynamic range, plus I love love love a lightweight body that still delivers decent FPS, autofocus, and overall handling.

=Matt=

jmphotocraft

Street = Fuji XPro-1 or XE-1. Can do portraits and walk-around too. Forget DSLRs unless you are shooting sports or weddings.