Fred let me have a play with his up at IISAC2011, and it's a pleasure to use. ISO3200 and almost no noise!
It helped that it had his 24mm f/1.4 lens on as well, but it's so sensitive, large field of view.
I was tossing up between:
1. Getting the stage zero dolly gear to do motion timelapses (~$1000+)
2. Getting a 5D Mark II (~$2300+)
3. Getting an ultrawide lens for my 40D (~$800+)
I was tempted to go with #1, but the extra hassle, setup time etc, is not what I want right now. I want to get out and shoot.
#2 will motivate me to get out and shoot and take my photography to a new level, I hope. I know a good camera doesn't instantly make a good photographer, but I hope i'm already comfortable with the basics
#3 will give me some new perspective on some shots. Using Chris' 10-22 up at IISAC, it was nice to have such a wide field of view - could really get up close on some subjects and still have the sky and everything else in the FOV.
I'm pretty settled on getting the 5D Mark II now, but need to look at the costs. Not only will I need the camera body, but also a 12V power adapter, and a 240v power adapter.
My intervalometer will work fine on it, but i've only got one lens that will fit it. Luckily it's a good one though (24-105mm L). It's a shame it's only f/4 though. So I'll probably need to get a wide and/or faster lens for timelapses, and eventually a long lens too - 200mm f/2.8 or something. Big bucks :/
I can sell one of my 40D's (probably the modded one) because my wife wants to start learning a bit of DSLR photography and she can use my 40D and Sigma 17-70mm. But that's only going to get me ~$400.
hmm, hard to justify when there's so much else I could be spending money on
Sorry for the Monday morning essay.
Anyway, any thoughts? Convince me one way or the other?
My only advice is that ANY lens wide open on a full frame will show aberrations in the corners at fast apertures. The L lenses aberrations are just less than others but still noticeable with stars. All have to be stopped down to about f/4 or slower depending on the quality of the lens.
Even my super Tele Canon 300mm F2.8 is finally 'perfect' for stars at the corners at f/3.6 with exterior aperture.
Shorter focal lengths just cannot have both fast speed and be aberration free and usually need to be stopped down.
The good news is that the Canon 24-104mm F4L is very good wide open on a full frame at all FL's. The other good thing, wide open at f/4 there are no iris blade diffraction spikes.
As a dedicated astrophotographer I completely understand the dilemmas of balancing needs and wants.
Hope this helps a bit Mike.
The Canon 5D Mark II is the only real choice of DSLR for low light photography.
Glad you really enjoyed using the 10-22 mm-I am amazed at the sharpness of that lens.
RE- Canon 5DII I have been giving thought to my next rung on the EOS ladder,as I just had a whoppa royalty payment-its either the 7D or 5D-(or a new fishing boat). I have looked very carefully at the type of photography I do and where I want to go-the birding photography might go up a notch with the 7D /400L combo-8 frames per second might improve some aspects of birding.
But,I have been very happy with the 50D/400L combo for birding/wildlife.I really feel the 7D for this type of work is'nt going to give me any more meaningfull improvement.The 5D2 is a whole new ball game-full frame,little noise-I'd like to explore many other aspects away from wildlife photography-and this is the machine to do it with-It can also still be useful for that too.-Particularly macro.
The 5D2-would suit me better than the 7D,and it would be just so,so good for astro too.I have held off a bit-there is talk of the 5D3,H seems to have his finger on the pulse-so it appears it may not be far away-if so-I will wait,as it will surly have the flip screen-after using it on the G12 and 600D this really make a major difference.
From our brief chats,sound like the 5D2 or 3 would really suit you well Mike,It also has tha chance to earn a bit of money for you-dedicated astro gear will not do that.-best wishes with it all-Chris
5dII is an awesome camere Mike, the only thing you may miss is the pop up flash, i certainly did. You'll need also to factor some dollars in for a flash or two if you want to use fill flash for daylight portraits etc.
I wouldn't hold off waiting for the 5DIII, simply because that camera may not be a quantum leap forward and could even be inferior for low light, as the 50d was is in comparison to the 40d.
Another thing that the 5DII does extremely well is video, there are many people out there shooting major cinema productions on 5DII's.
Buy the 5DII, you'll not regret it. After seeing Freds timelapses with the 24mm f1.4 L I think that would be my lens of choice, as Bert says those lenses are not perfect, but for night shoots speed is everything.
Another lens that is highly regarded and reviewed as superior in every way is the Nikon 14-24 F2.8. Hunt down some reviews of the nikon lens, you'll find the 14-24 F2.8 out performs both Nikons and canons wide ff primes. Its useable on the 5DIi with an adapter as a manual lens, IIS member luigi (louis) from Buenos Aries uses that lens.
Mike, I can personally vouch for option #2 I bought mine about a year ago and it renewed my interest in photography big time. The image quality (paired with a good lens) is just amazing. The 24-105 f/4 IS is my preferred walk around lens on the 5DmkII. It may be worth also considering the 35mm f/1.4L - amazing lens as well, and it's just long enough to be useful as a general purpose lens without exaggerated wide angle effects. The 17-40 f/4L is good value with excellent colours (but not as sharp as the others - probably not noticeable for time lapses).
Coming from the Sony side of the fence, I'm trying to convince myself an a77 (body only) is a good buy. Full HD video, ISO16000, 12 fps with continuous autofocus, and 24 Mpx, but it is CMOS and doesn't take CF cards.
And they have a new 16-50mm constant aperture f2.8 zoom to go with my f2.8 11-16mm.
I have been holding off from buying a 5D11 and following rumours about 5D3 or 6D it may end up being called.
Judging the features in the new ID it could be a big step up from the 5D11. It would have to be as Nikon is a fierce competitor and the new D800 sounds awesome.
I don't know what price point a new 5D3 would be. I haven't followed new model release prices. But the Nikon seemed to be cheaper than expected.
I have to disagree about the statement re: the 17-40mm f/4L USM as being soft.
I should clarify... the 17-40 is a brilliant lens and excellent as a zoom (especially considering its price). I've had mine since 2005 and intend on using it until it falls apart in the distant future.
However, when I picked up my 24 f/1.4L II, I was immediately blown away by how much better it is - especially in the corners. The second comparison picture here shows what I mean with a real-world example:
Yeh I agree - for landscapes I really notice the difference when trying to use my 24-105, as opposed to a wider angle (17-70, or 10-22). Especially on a crop sensor.
Just had a look on ebay - some 5D Mark II bodies are around the $2k mark. Not sure what warranty you'd get there as opposed to buying from DPP.
I'm sure we can all agree that primes and zooms have their places... which is why Canon makes a lot of money from me (14L, 24L, 17-40L, 24-105L, etc)
Mike, my understanding re warranty is that Canon will only provide warranties to cameras bought wholesale through Canon Australia - i.e. they won't cover grey-market importers such as the Hong Kong based eBay stores. Some of these stores will also purposely undervalue the shipment to avoid GST (sometimes gets caught, sometimes doesn't).
Canon used to have international warranty on lenses/flashes/etc, but unfortunately they recently scrapped that it's the same as digital bodies.
Yeh I agree - for landscapes I really notice the difference when trying to use my 24-105, as opposed to a wider angle (17-70, or 10-22). Especially on a crop sensor.
Just had a look on ebay - some 5D Mark II bodies are around the $2k mark. Not sure what warranty you'd get there as opposed to buying from DPP.
Any other recommendations of where to buy?
Well, I've bought everything from DPP, unlike some other grey importers, there price is include GST and is shipped locally and they have local support=less grief And risk. It's not as secure as OZ sourced, and not quite (possibly) as cheap as direct from hong kong but a good compromise and still much cheaper than OZ shops.
Yes, I'm an H victim too, join the club, you won't be disappointed
If your most interested in time lapse (once you have the 5d) f is the most important thing IMO, more than FL or L or not. 20 or 30 sec exposures start to get tricky with jerkiness and noise, you can get round that with adding interpolated frames and batch processing noise reduction and star rounding in PS (actually quite doable if you have the time and patience, would make the 40d usable too) but 1.4f was a snitch and such a luxury with the 5d it wasn't funny (mmm....... Yes it was, a hoot ).
Waiting for the mk3, well that's an eternal struggle, you will always loose on "opportunity time" waiting.
If you do get gear that can do 10sec or so exposure times, you can use a standard astro mount at RA for movement effects. A dolly is nice but not essential .