5D2 or 7D

I have a trip coming up in a couple of months to Lankayan off the coast of Malaysia, going to be mostly small stuff, but some large as well. Later in the year, I hope to get out to the Maldives, which will be more WA than Macro.

I currently have an Ikelite 40D housing and a pair of DS125 strobes, but it has been a while since I last dived and in the mean time my 40D has bitten the dust. I am keen photographer, above or below water, and already have a 5D2 and 7D, plus a decent range of lenses, 10-22, 17-40, 60, 100, being the ones I have used underwater.

I plan to stick with Ikelite as (other than the weight on the plane) am happy with the function and the TTL capability.

My dilemma is that I am struggling to decide whether to go with the 7D or 5D2 - the housings are roughly the same price and I have lenses that will work well with both, together with the requisite ports. I could get a 2nd hand 40D, but want to upgrade now, and for a change have the cash to do so.

My question to the forum, is what you would advise and with whichever system, what would be the best lens selection? I have budget to add to the lenses if needed.

Many thanks for any feedback.

Shaun

I had the 5DM2 in an Ikelite housing and changed to a 7D. I had two reasons to change. The first was that I wanted access to the 10-17 for CFWA. The second was that I wanted optical wiring for the strobes. As this wasn´t available in the Ikelite, I changed housing systems as well. And I must say that I do not regret it the least. The optical wiring is just so smooth and easy to work with (now I am talking about the wiring, not the Inon strobes that I have). The Af is quicker in the 7D. However, the EF 100 IS ruled on the 5D and is at times just great on the 7D. However, sometimes it just is to long. On the other hand, sometimes it was a little short on the 5d.

All in all, I am very happy I made the switch. But then again I do not shoot a lot of available light high iso shots. That would probably favour the 5D.

Regards

Bent

Both are great cameras, and I have both (with housings). I now almost exclusively use the 7D for a couple of reasons- firstly I have a nicer housing for it, and second I can use the Tokina 10-17mm.

Berkley White of Backscatter made a nice comparison of the two for underwater use here

Well correct me if I'm wrong, but the 10-22 and 60mm as EF-S mounts and you won't be using them on the 5D2, so that just leaves the 5D with the 100 & 17-40 or the 7D with all the lenses.

Thanks all for the input.

Appreciate the comment about the lenses, however, I find that on any one trip I tend to use only 2, a WA zoom and a Macro, I get better photos using less gear, takes me time to get up to speed with any one lens camera combination. If I go with the 5D2 then I would use the 100mm Macro and 17-40mm as a start, although I might supplement that with a couple of primes, I have a 24mm f/2.8 and would add a fisheye.

The Tokina sounds interesting and I can see the point that the 7D offers a greater lens choice

I've got both, both housed. Topside, for sheer image quality I go with the 5dmk2, that's for when I do my commercial work and the client expects to blow the image up substantially in posters etc. BUT, the 7D is close, I'd give a stop to a stop and a half on noise performance. Then again, there's something about when calling up a 5dmk2 image vs a 7D that I can pick out the 5dmk2. Now, for underwater, the playing field is leveled out. Water (and it's turbidity) is a great equalizer. I honestly can't tell the difference between the 5dmk2 and 7d images that I shot. If you already have full frame lenses then the 5dmk2 will work, the 17-40 and the 100 macro will do just about all you'd need, maybe add a 15mm fisheye (Sigma or Canon) to the mix later. The 17-40 won't be as wide on the 7D, the crop will reduce it to 27.2mm equivalent. The Tokina is a great lens, 2 things I noticed though....I almost always had it at 10mm, rarely ever zooming into 17mm, it's not as bright as a prime Fisheye lens.

I have shots on my website that shows images taken with both lenses, both cameras, similar housings. My Gallery

Cheers

Stu

I had the 5d mk2 as well and sold it for the 7d plus some cash. I agree that topside the mk2 is much better. I also love the sound of the shutter...mmm it sounds like some nice quality metal doo-hickey. The 7d's shutter sounds like plastic and crap... but I digress.

One thing that I think about is product life cycle. Maybe I am too emotional and it won't bother you like it does me. However, the mark 2 is about to be replaced sometime this year (speculation I know, but I would put a good deal of money on it). I would feel a lot of buyers remorse if I got the mark 2 now only to have it replaced (and its price drop significantly) only a little while after I bought it. The 7d won't be replaced for another year or more.

I would go with the 7d. I would say wait for the mk3 to come out but I don't know when it will and even when it does it won't have housing for at least 3 months (although Nauticam is pretty quick to churn those things out).

The Tok 10-17mm lens is really worth considering. I used to use it almost exclusively on my 50D system for wide angle. I then upgraded to the 5DMkII about 2 years ago and I must say I miss its versatility I now have to decide before the dive whether to shoot the 16-35mm of 15mm Fisheye both are great lenses but I miss the field of view between 110 degrees and 178 degrees which the Tok covered. CFWA is also more challenging with fullframe. The AF on the 5D is also not as good as the 7D and it is getting old and due for replacement this year as Slashmagurk pointed out but having said all that the image quality is fantastic bordering on unbelievable . I am in need of a second system and am in a quandary too, do I wait for the 5D upgrade or get a 7D.

If you say you are primarily shooting macro then I think the better autofocus on the 7D might tip the scale in its favor.

unless available light is important, i think the autofocus (once you figure it out), fiber ttl, Tokina 10-17 or 11-16, and Canon 100 macro for getting close make a pretty compelling case for the 7D