Canon 5D II vs 7D for underwater photography & Cinematography

[Jlpskydive]

I shoot professionally with at 7D almost daily, and the reason I chose the 7D at the time were its ability to use multiple different frame rates. This was before the firmware update for the 5D and no one really thought it was going to get one. If I had to do it all over again I would go with the 5D simply for the lens choices and the fact that it is better in low light than the 7D. If I was going to pick one to dive with???? It would be the T2i for the reasons mentioned above. And as far as a production house being able to tell what it was shot with without peaking at the meta data.... Not a chance if it was lit and framed properly. The Data rate for the 7D is actually higher than the 5D due to its dual processors. The 5D has a larger chip with less mega pixles which makes it more sensitive to light and has a better lens selection on the wide end of the spectrum those are it's only real advantages.

 

[Jlpskydive]

Oh and if you want the BEST lens out there for the 7D on the wide end it's the Tokina 11-16 f2.8 constant, it has almost no barrel distortion even at 11. I use mine just about every day.

 

[deepdiver1]

Hard for me to Judge the 5D however I currently have a 7d. Housing 1500.00 camera 2100.00. I had never shot before with a camera done great when I took it to cozumel the first time. I also shot with a 10-17 tokina lens I was glad I made the investment. great pics great camera great lens. 7d is the lattest and greatest dont be fooled you will grow. it is good to have a camera that you can grow in to without having to by another one 1year from now. Its alot of money but its worth it good luck..

 

[deepdiver1]

Hey jlpskydive,
Hope all is well I saw your post about having eos 7d. I currently have a 7d and wanting to see if i could ask a? about the camera. I went to cozumel to shoot first time, when i was trying to use the LCD screen it would not shoot the shoot. it does fine topside bot in the housing it will not get the shot off. should i have pumped the iso up? Would love to see some pics of your shots. And can you tell me if you could look at some of my pics and tell me what I done wrong Thanks Dennis

 

[Jlpskydive]

I would love to take a look. I don't use my 7D for underwater though, but I can probably tell you what is not working for you on a technical end.

 

[Hotpuppy]

Just to update, I wound up buying a 5d Mk ii. Absolutely stunning camera. One major difference between the T2i and 5d is the color gamut. The 5dii sees about 3x the number of colors as any of the other EOS under it including the 7d. What this means to me is that I get more subtle details that make my pictures stunning. Here is one example I shot the other day.... _MG_7808.jpg | Flickr - Photo Sharing! I do not downsample my flickr images, so you can click view-all sizes and see the full 21MB frame if you want to. Without looking at the EXIF this was shot on a 17-40 USM @ f4.0, so reasonably shallow depth of field. What I love about this is the incredible detail that the camera can capture. Just look at the strands that make up the rope. You need to be in the full size frame for this. I consider this to be a snapshot by the way. It's a little blown-out in the background which means I probably should have stopped down the aperature..... no regrets on the 5d. my next dive trip is Cozumel in August. Can't wait.

 

[Hotpuppy]

One of the major factors for me was the field of view. Here is a great shot that illustrates what FOV can do. 17 mm lens, 5d Mk ii, F4.0 _MG_7806.jpg | Flickr - Photo Sharing! Boat is 27 feet LOA and I'm about 4 feet from the boat.

A similar shot with the full boat, same lens, EOS 40D, I'm about 15 feet away this time though... IMG_6721.jpg | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Another, nearly identical shot, but I'm about 6 feet away, same lens, EOS 40D. IMG_6715.jpg | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

One thing I've learned with diving is distance matters, the closer you get, the less distortion.