Hello and how the hell are you? If this is your first time here thanks for stopping by. In this blog we are going to talk about so many different reasons why shooting landscape photography with a Canon 5D Mark ii is the right choice. This is going to be a long term review of the camera as well. To start this off right we need to look at why you would choose to shoot with this older body. The Canon 5D Mark ii is over 15 years old and in the camera industry makes this body way past its prime. I mean if you put it up agains a modern-ish body it would be right there with the Rebel t6/7 line of bodies. The features that it offers you are basic and I think that is what makes it so good.
As a Landscape photographer you don’t need all the features that the modern bodies offer you. There is no true need for eye AF at all when standing out there shooting a vista. You don’t need the ungodly amount of frames per second that are out there right now. You just need a body that is going to get you the shot. You don’t need an EVF to see what your image is going to look like before you shoot it. You don’t need the most expensive lenses to get good clean images. You truly just need a body that is going to get out of your way when out shooting a landscape. There are times when you will think that you over paid for a camera just to get the features that the media is telling you that you need for this genre of photography.
At the end of the day all you need is to control the fstop/aperture, shutter speed, and iso. Those three basic features is all that you truly need out of a camera body. The Canon 5D2 is one that offers you that with a full frame body at a price point that is going to allow you to spend very little money. This one reason is something that people over look all the time. I was one of those people and fell for the trap of upgrading to the newer gear out there. I even bought the newer body and realized that when it comes to landscape photography you have to be slow and intentional with what you are shooting. This means all the things that you don’t need really means that you are paying for features and that’s it. You are paying a higher premium just to say that you have a great camera.
The next reason that the 5D2 shines as a great landscape photography camera is the lack of features. This means that you are going to have to work with the tool to get the most out of it. The dynamic range on the older body is not the best but it is just as good as the newer bodies if you bracket your images. This means that you are right on par with all the mirrorless bodies out there today. If I was to get a Canon R5 I would be able to take one image of the scene instead of three that you have to take with the older body. The weight is a downside to shooting with the older gear but I would rather have an older camera that is heavy than be broke and not be able to take the body out to shoot. The main reason that you are buying this is cost let’s be real for a min.
The overall cost for being a landscape photographer in today’s world means that you are going to have to fork over a shit ton of money to get a good modern body. The starting point for that is 2000 dollars just for the body alone and an additional 6000 dollars for getting the best of the best lenses. So you would be looking at around 8000 dollars just to get started. I have done it and for around 1400 dollars you can get the same level of gear from 15 years ago. This gives you the holy trinity of f4 lenses and the full frame Canon 5D2. This is a price that is reachable by the average person and gives them a pro level setup for shooting landscape photography and the 6600 dollars that you have left over you can use to Travel all over the country getting the best images that you can with that.
Image Quality is the one of the biggest reasons for shooting with the 5D2. I mean to tell you that I have printed so many images with this body. They look so good that you would not be able to tell that it was shot with a body that is so old. The fact is the images look just as good today as they did back in 2008 when it came out. I love the colors that you get with this older body. To the point that I would rather shoot with it over any of the newer bodies out there. If I want to shoot with a newer body then I will grab my Canon 80d which gives me most of the modern features. The only feature that body is missing is the eye AF. Once the Camera industry hit the 20mp mark they have not truly been able to get that much better.
I would love to shoot all my photographic need with just the 80d but at the end of the day I need the better IQ that the 5D2 gives me for my landscape photography. Notice I keep saying landscape photography and the reason for that is the older body does have its flaws. The older body is going to hold you back if you want to shoot sports and fast paced portrait session. I actually prefer shooting with the 80d for all other genres of photography. The 5D2 is perfect for slow paced shooting and landscape photography is as slow paced as it gets.
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