I am thinking seriously about upgrading from my Canon 50D to a 5D because of its 21 mp's and its video capacity.
Ninety percent of my photography is outdoor wildlife.
Any advice regarding pro's or cons of doing this will be greatly appreciated. I do have to say so far I have heard nothing of a negative nature about the 5D.

Best to you,

Spinner

Really the only negative thing that I can think of is the autofocus. I mean...it doesn't seem that bad until you begin using it and....it's lackluster. I'm not sure it would be the best wildlife camera with it's FF sensor and slow AF. I mean, if you have the long glass then it should be fine, but you still have to contend with poor servo performance.

The 5DIII on the otherhand...freaking awesome. But of course, the cost...

You probably already know this but your 50D is a crop sensor but the 5D is full frame. That means your lenses will have less reach. That is a 200mm lens on your 50D is the equivalent of a 320mm lens on a 5D.

Originally Posted by Spinner of Tales I am thinking seriously about upgrading from my Canon 50D to a 5D because of its 21 mp's and its video capacity. Ninety percent of my photography is outdoor wildlife. Any advice regarding pro's or cons of doing this will be greatly appreciated. I do have to say so far I have heard nothing of a negative nature about the 5D. Best to you, Spinner

These are the lenses I am using now and want to use on the 5D.
If they will not work then the new body is history I guess ?
Thanks for the replies.

The 5DIII on the otherhand...freaking awesome. But of course, the cost... It's going to be all I can afford to buy the 5D if I do.

Spinner

Canon 50-D
Canon IS L Series Lenses
70-200
100-300
Canon 1.4 Extender
Sigma 150-500 F5-6.3 DG OS HSM

If you intend to keep the 50D body and add the 5D MKII, that would make a very nice combination.

If you want a better body to replace the 50D, look at a 7D. The 7D has better AF in good light, about the same as the 50D AF in lower light, better high-ISO performance and better overall image quality vs the 50D. It's not a night-and-day sort of better, but it's an improvement overall. The 7D also does video.

The 7D is also about to get a facelift in the form of a multi-featured firmware upgrade.

7D firmware thread is here.

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BTW: The lenses you listed should work fine on any EOS camera body, including crop 1.6x/APS-C, like the 50D and 7D, and a FF body like the 5D MKII.

I absolutely love my 5D2, and get better images from it than any of my 1D-bodies. The major issue with the AF is that you have only one usable point--the center AF point. All of the others are pretty useless except maybe for non-action shots (and even that can be problematic). That said, the center AF point works fine, and I use my 5D2 frequently for pro sports shooting. Granted, I probably miss some shots because it's not as fast as my 1D4 bodies, but overall the image quality is stunning.

Full disclosure: I easily overlook many performance qualities in a camera if the image quality is worth it. Most of my fellow shooters in the sports wells shake their heads when they see me using a 5D2 and keeping my spare 1D4 in the bag.

Based on all this info and some other research it's looking like the 7D has everything I have been looking for and most likely will be my buy.
Ziggy, I think you hit the nail on the head here!

Thank you all for the help it is truly appreciated.

Spinner

Originally Posted by Spinner of Tales Based on all this info and some other research it's looking like the 7D has everything I have been looking for and most likely will be my buy. Ziggy, I think you hit the nail on the head here! Thank you all for the help it is truly appreciated. Spinner

You can't go wrong with the 7D; it's a great overall camera!