I want to invest in some new gear particularly for wildlife photography and some occasional portraits/beauty. But I am confused between these two combinations.
1) Canon 7D ................ with ........ EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM 2) Canon 5D Markii ... with ........ EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 L IS USM
Both of these combinations will give effective Focal Length up-to 300mm. Both of these combinations has some drawbacks as well. Like for example better aperture but with a crop sensor. On the other hand aperture is not as wide but I can get a full frame sensor which is much more effective in low light conditions. My Questions are;
a) What is better combination overall in terms of image quality and where can I get more shallower DOF?
b) and What combination will perform better during indoor ( may be low light) portrait sessions?
Any advice, opinion and experience will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
You can go here to examine the new 70-300 in detail, and you can go elsewhere in that site to see more detail on the 70-200. I think, for the most part, wildlife shooters tend to use cropped sensors. 300mm FF equivalent isn't really enough for wildlife. A better choice would be the 7D with the 100-400mm, I think.
Between the two lenses you are looking at, I think the 70-200mm is by far the better lens.
I am a Nikon user! so I can't advise you on your combinations. I have D300, crop sensor and the D700, full frame, so that answers one of your questions...which is best crop sensor or full frame and the answer is Yes! It's horses for courses really.
Lenses? I use 18-200mm, 28-300mm, 70-300mm, 150-500mm, 1.4x and 2x teleconvertors. I agree that the Can....sorry can't say that word:) 100-400mm lens is well worth considering. The main problem with wildlife photography is you can't set up lighting or weather to suit your equipment, you have to try and anticipate what you could need and what the subject is. The best option is to cover as many bases as possible and then cross your fingers:)
ETA: Just a thought here, do you intend putting up wildlife photos here? A lot of people do in an effort to win ribbons, I don't do this as I do not want my best photos to available to anyone cruising the net for photos. Most of my entries are second best or even third best, this way I have the best available to any potential buyer:)
The 7D and the 100-400 would be the best combo. Although the 60D or the T2i will give nice images with the 100-400 lens too. Both of those models are the crop factor sensors so you will get the 1.6x magnification of the focal length of your lenses.
