Tuesdays with Nate | Low Light Camera Comparison 5DmkII vs. 7D

The Ferrari 360 Modena is one of my all-time favorite cars.  Ferrari craftsmanship is some of the finest built in the world, they make beautiful cars that perform as well as any on the market, and range from $175,000 to close to a million bucks. For about $80,000, however, you can get a Nissan Skyline.  It’s not only a gorgeous car, but actually FASTER than the Ferrari, and is in EVERY way truly state of the art.  On-board computers monitor the car’s telemetry, g-forces, gas mileage, horse power, tire pressure, and hundreds of other measurements in real-time, and display them right on your dash, and the traction-control system is the most advanced in the world.

I wanted to begin with this analogy, as both cars kept popping into my head when comparing the 5DmkII and the 7D.  the 7D is more advanced, incredibly fast, smarter and loaded with gizmos, but sometimes feels like something is missing at its core, but for 2/3′s the price, it’s certainly an appealing option.

I’ll keep the rest brief and let the pictures do the talking today. Let me preface this by saying that I love my camera, but it’s common knowledge that the 5dMkII has superior image quality.  The real reason for this comparison is because so many people have been asking me how big of a difference there really is, how usable is the 7D at High ISO, and if it’s worth the money.

The following images are all simply one shot, and although I took some more, they were not good comparisons (my focus may or may not have been soft…ooops).  The images below were shot at ISO 3200 at f/1.8, 1/80 of a second. The images taken with the 5DmkII were shot with a 50mm f/1.2 and the 7D images were shot with a 35mm f/1.4. I chose these lenses to compensate for the crop factor, although because they are different f-stops away from the maximum aperture, sharpness may not be to scale (the 50mm is probably sharpest at ~1.6, whereas the 35mm is probably sharpest a ~2.0).

Special thanks to my good friend X:144 for being my model/guinea pig.  He’s one of the most talented people I know, so go check him out @ www.x144.com.

Conclusions:

Noise – the 5DmkII is clearly better at high ISO, but that really is like saying that Scarlett Johannsen is hotter than Jessica Alba.  While it may be true, I wouldn’t put a bag over Jessica’s head when we go out for my birthday dinner tomorrow.  Even at 3200 ISO, the 7D is still perfectly usable

Detail – Under low light conditions, like these, the 5D clearly excels.  Under normal light, however, I’ve found my images to be about as sharp as Becka’s, although she generally shoots with the 50mm f/1.2 and I usually shoot with the 35mm f/1.4, both known for being incredibly sharp but hers usually wins in lab tests.

Color – Becka describes my color as sometimes “a little wonky”.  The images sometimes have a bit of a green tint, especially in low light, while her skin tones are usually more accurate. But blue skies and green grass seem to pop more, probably too much more, on my camera.

Bokeh – The images from the 5dMKII have a much better background blur, some of that is obviously from the 50mm f/1.2 which is know for the amazing bokeh, but it’s largely in part to the larger sensor of the 5D.  For as much as I really want to understand why sensor size effects bokeh, I really don’t, at least not well enough to explain it.

Fun – The 7D is simply more fun to me.  The controls are smarter, the AF system is faster and more accurate, also giving you more options for select AF points, and the 8 frames per second is just amazing. if you need more, please see my review on the 7D

So….. for about a $1000 price difference, you really need to figure out what is most important to you.  Becka prefers the 5D for her style of shooting. I prefer the 7D. To be honest, they go together like peas and carrots, cheese and chips, and Becka and me (sorry Ms. Alba).  They complement each other perfectly, but if buying both of them isn’t in the cards for you, you’re going to have to decide if you want the fun and speed of the Skyline or the pure quality and reputation of the Ferrari.

If you’d like to see the high res versions for a more up close and personal comparison you can download the files at this link and compare for yourself. We hope this helps!

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