500 II+1.4X III & 7D Vs 500 II+2X III & 5D3-Which gives better IQ?

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi all,
I have the Canon 500 II & 1.4 X III. I use them on both the 7D and 5D3. I plan to sell my 7D and stick to the 5D3 as the IQ and noise performance is excellent. If I sell the 7D, I may have to buy the 2X III to give me 1000 f/8. The 7D has built in 1.6 crop factor and gives 1120mm at f/5.6. What should I do? Keep the 7D as back up or sell it and buy the 2X III?
Regards
Sanjeev

[Ashley Cohen]

Keep the 7D it makes more sense. It gives you greater flexibility and you should be able to get away with using the 5D mk3 with the 500mm and 1.4x in most circumstances with some cropping although having the 7D will give you greater amount of pixels on the subject. Or you could sell the 7D and get a 70D. That'll give you more megapixels, better noise performance and better IQ from what I've seen.

[Doug Schurman]

I have a 7D, 5D3 and 600 f4 is II. I no longer use the 7D. When you put on the 2x with the 5D3 you will get about 99% of the pixels in each direction on the subject as the 7D with 1.4x. You loose 1 stop of light but the 5D3 is more than 1 stop of iso better. Also, I feel the focusing on the 5D3 is more consistent and accurate than the 5D3. In addition I think the files from the 5D3 are easier to work with.

Negatives are that you have single point focus and the 5D3 has a bigger shutter lager and 2 less frames per second.

With these factors in mind I like the 5D3 combo better. Now if you were to compare the 5D3 versus the 1D4 that would have proponents on both sides.

[David Burren]

The other thing to consider is how the 5D3 with 500+1.4 then enlarged compares. As you have that gear now you can do that test. I don't have both bodies on hand but based on past experience I would expect the 5D3 to be competitive with the 7D after cropping, especially given the bigger/brighter viewfinder, the better AF and especially as the ISO goes up. I used to work with 7D+5D2 bodies but now have a 5D3+5D2 pair.

Of course the 5D3 with 500 II plus 2xIII combination is still an interesting question, although you'd be working with only the centre AF point.

Or you could sell the 7D and get a 70D. That'll give you more megapixels, better noise performance and better IQ from what I've seen.

In my own (limited) testing there's no significant improvement in the number of pixels or the IQ (there should be a slight improvement though). For shooting action the AF in the 70D is similar to the 7D although without some modes (such as Zone AF) and without the ability to register AF modes/etc to a button. The added ability for wide/tele AF tuning means nothing on your 500 prime.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Thank you all, I have been using 500+1.4 combo on both bodies and I prefer the 5D3 over the 7D as the files are cleaner and the IQ still holds good after cropping. Only in certain situations where the subject is quiet far and the light is good, then the 7D has some advantage. I will give an example, we spotted a cheetah in the Mara in August this year and it was a bit far and the animal was too small in the image clicked with the 5D3 combo. I switched to the7D and got a much larger pic of the animal in the image. The cheetah had a bloodied face and I just did not want to miss the shot. I compared both and found the 7D did give that extra reach. I did not have the 2X, if I did I would have certainly used it in that situation with the 5D3. Will post that image in the wildlife forum soon.
regards
sanjeev

[Loi Nguyen]

Sanjeev, unless you have a second camera, keep the 7D for your medium tele, and get the 2Xiii. In good light, the 7D gives you the extra reach, but otherwise the 5D3 with 509f4 II and 2X gives excellent IQ at 1000mm. Loi

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Loi, I will keep the 7D as a back up as I do not have another body apart from 5D3. I guess I will buy the 2X III after all. I have seen some of your images with the 500 II+2X III and the IQ looks good. Thanks for helping.
sanjeev

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Ashley, the 70D does look like an interesting camera, but probably I will wait for the 7DII if that ever comes out.

[Stephane Neron]

This thread is of interest for me as well, as I am just changing system now and have ordered the 5DIII, the 500/4 II and both TCs III. I plan to get the 70-200 2/8 shortly and was wondering whether I should get a 7D as backup body to get more flexibility on getting enough "pixels on target" on the medium tele and 500 for long reach, versus getting a second 5DIII. My previous system (Pentax) was APS-C based and so I was used to get 750mm effective with my 500mm lens and 400mm effective with my medium tele (60-250mm) (for BIFs for instance).

My current thoughts is to get a used 7D body for now, but I may end up never using it if the 5D is that much better...

Any recommendations ?

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Stephane, The IQ of the 5D3 is very very good, needs less PP than 7D files. But, the 7D definitely gives the 'reach' when needed. If you look at Daniel's pics with the 7D, it shows what it is capable of. I dont have the 2X TC III hence I have kept the 7D. But if you have ordered the set of 1.4 & 2X TC's I dont think you will need the 7D.
Regards
Sanjeev