60D vs 5D Mark II some comparison pics

dirkluchtman · Dec 4, 2011

Just sold the 60D and have a brand new 5D MII.

As I stated in an earlier post, I would post some comparison pics. I must say that I am a little suprised by the amount of noise visible even at an ISO of 400 (viewed at 100%), but the noise is quite fine of texture and easy to remove in pp and thus not really an issue. Purely in terms of noise, the 60D and 5D MII seem to come close, but I do get nicer overall files with the 5D. They just seem to have a smoother look, with better color gradations and a shallower depth of field. I only just have the camera and I am looking forward to be blown away. I think the extra 1000 for the camera was worth it.

Comparison shots were made on tripod with the 70-200 F4 IS and both cameras set in Aperture priority mode. These are JPEGS from RAW with no noise reduction or any other pp applied.

60D ISO 400

5D MII ISO 400

60D ISO 800

5D MII ISO 800

60D ISO 1600

5D MII ISO 1600

60D ISO 3200

5D MII ISO 3200

60D ISO 6400

5D MII ISO 6400

24Peter · Dec 5, 2011

Wow! Doesn't the 60D look great for an APS-C 18MP sensor?!? Thankfully I own both cameras and can choose one or the other based on the features and handling I need for a particular shoot rather than Image Quality. Thanks for posting these!
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dirkluchtman · Dec 5, 2011

Yes, the 60D is a truly great and probably somewhat underestimated camera. I expected the 5D MII to be better than this (in terms of noise performance). Wonder if there is sample variation in the 5D products and I got a "noisy" one, or an exceptionally good 60D?

Still very pleased the 5D's IQ though.

24Peter said:
Wow! Doesn't the 60D look great for an APS-C 18MP sensor?!? Thankfully I own both cameras and can choose one or the other based on the features and handling I need for a particular shoot rather than Image Quality. Thanks for posting these!
--
View my photo galleries here: http://imageevent.com/24peter
Model Mayhem: http://www.modelmayhem.com/93181

twan · Dec 5, 2011

Yes at the ultra high ISO's the difference is very clear.

At the lower's it way less.... so maybe hard to justifcy the 1000 euro's maybe...

Great pictures and thanks for sharing

dirkluchtman · Dec 5, 2011

Actually 1000 Canadian dollars (about 700 euros). I have no regrets.....The 5D MII has been for sale at 1999 here in Canada for months now and will be so until the end of December as far as I know. For that price, I couldn't resist.

twan said:
Yes at the ultra high ISO's the difference is very clear.

At the lower's it way less.... so maybe hard to justifcy the 1000 euro's maybe...

Great pictures and thanks for sharing

netgarden · Dec 5, 2011

The 7d is terrible iso compared to th 5d mkii! And in no ball park with the 1d iii or iv. Are you sayin g the 60d is? Hard to tell with small photos. Heck at that size and with smooth objects ican make the iso @ 10,000 look great on the 1d4.
--

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There is no other photography like Wildlife

24Peter · Dec 5, 2011

FWIW - I had a 7D which I returned because of the mosaic noise pattern that plagued some of those cameras early on and all my images - even low ISO - looked "crunchy". I subsquently bought a 5DII, and then a T2i (which I sold) and 60D (which I own) for backup. The images from the T2i and 60D looked much better than the 7D despite having the same sensor. I don't know how common or uncommon the issue is with more recent 7D's but there was a lot of discussion about this problem early on when the camera was first released.

In terms of comparison with the 5DII, perhaps the OP can provide links to full size images for you but I think these images show how close the 60D can be in good light. In poor light the 5DII gains a bigger advantage.
--
View my photo galleries here: http://imageevent.com/24peter
Model Mayhem: http://www.modelmayhem.com/93181

dirkluchtman · Dec 5, 2011

The original images were actually 50% crops of the larger files, to enhance noise visibility. Here are 100% crops of these smaller images to further visualise the difference (or lack thereof).

60D ISO 6400

5D MII ISO 6400

24Peter said:
FWIW - I had a 7D which I returned because of the mosaic noise pattern that plagued some of those cameras early on and all my images - even low ISO - looked "crunchy". I subsquently bought a 5DII, and then a T2i (which I sold) and 60D (which I own) for backup. The images from the T2i and 60D looked much better than the 7D despite having the same sensor. I don't know how common or uncommon the issue is with more recent 7D's but there was a lot of discussion about this problem early on when the camera was first released.

In terms of comparison with the 5DII, perhaps the OP can provide links to full size images for you but I think these images show how close the 60D can be in good light. In poor light the 5DII gains a bigger advantage.
--
View my photo galleries here: http://imageevent.com/24peter
Model Mayhem: http://www.modelmayhem.com/93181

amobi · Dec 5, 2011

Honestly if this is how you plan on using 5DII you would have been better spending the money on a nice glass because I see no difference.

As a wedding photographer I always laugh at these types of comparisons. Take your 60D and 5DII to a dark wedding church and come back and tell us about it.

HCB ONE · Dec 5, 2011

I own two 5D MK II's, had a 7D, and have used a friends 60D on multiple occasions. The 60D has less noise and better colors than the 7D, but neither camera can touch the 5D MK II files.

dirkluchtman · Dec 5, 2011

I agree with you that the 5D II files look better, with a margin. Just a different nature.

Since you have 2 5D MIIs, could you please confirm with me that the noise you see in my crops is normal for a 5D MII? I just did not know what to expect.

Thanks.

HCB ONE said:
I own two 5D MK II's, had a 7D, and have used a friends 60D on multiple occasions. The 60D has less noise and better colors than the 7D, but neither camera can touch the 5D MK II files.

polizonte · Dec 5, 2011

Looks normal to me, I had a 5Dmkii for a while and the shadows in your photos looked very much like results.
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Victor Engel · Dec 5, 2011

There is a significant difference. Just look for parts of the picture where there is fine detail. Even in the 50% crop pictures, the detail is clearly better resolved on the 5D II images. The subject doesn't have much fine detail, but there is some. For example, look at the reflection of the painted vase (is that what it is -- it's a shame it was painted, though) or the telltale specks of dust in the wine glass or on the vase. These details are muddy in the 60D pictures.
--

marcus2137 · Dec 5, 2011

Victor Engel said:
There is a significant difference. Just look for parts of the picture where there is fine detail. Even in the 50% crop pictures, the detail is clearly better resolved on the 5D II images. The subject doesn't have much fine detail, but there is some. For example, look at the reflection of the painted vase (is that what it is -- it's a shame it was painted, though) or the telltale specks of dust in the wine glass or on the vase. These details are muddy in the 60D pictures.
--

Agreed

The detail difference is pretty obvious. Especially looking at the 100% iso6400 crops a few posts above, the hair on the vase is really soft in the 60D but still very clear in the 5d2 pictures.

Also, I think it's import to note that in all of the original post pictures, the 5d2 is metering 1/3 stop faster than the 60D, and the final exposure still looks very close to me, or possibly the 5d2 is still a little brighter even with 1/3 stop faster shutter speed (so the exposure might even be a 1/2 stop different if you match all camera settings).

So if you match the shutter speed, this will give the 5d2 even more advantage because the 60d will be underexposed; and if you match the exposure, the 5d2 still has the advantage because it will either be using a faster shutter speed (important in real-life shooting), or it will be using a lower ISO and have an even larger noise advantage.

But the 60D does look good and I think it's a solid camera that I'd recommend to friends, especially for the prices you can pick it up for.

twan · Dec 6, 2011

How large do you always print?
In normal print sizes, this isn't visible i gues.

Mike Engles · Dec 6, 2011

Hello

I find that the 5D2 is very unforgiving of underexposure and shows an increase when any gain is used. In comparison, when I look at my old 5D images, it strikes me that it was much more tolerant and the RAW files could be pushed much further, with the noise not becoming intrusive. I suspect that because of its high pixel count, the 5D2 is inherently more noisy. It is perhaps the reason why a lot of speculation about the 5D3 concerns its pixel count.

Mike Engles

Faintandfuzzy · Dec 6, 2011

They're pretty close on screen. The real test of course is to run each through you normal processing for each camera. Apply sharpening and noise reduction on each like you normally would, and see how they turn out on print.

I know that even my Nikon D700 can have some noise at 6400 on screen that is invisible on prints.

Try comparing both of these at 3200 or 6400, processed and rezzed for a 11x14 print for example. You may be surprised. No doubt the 5D2 is cleaner, but a lot of that is lost in the printing when compared to 100% on screen.

Faintandfuzzy · Dec 6, 2011

dirkluchtman said:
The original images were actually 50% crops of the larger files, to enhance noise visibility. Here are 100% crops of these smaller images to further visualise the difference (or lack thereof).

....process each of these in Lightroom, or whatever it is you use for the raw files (not DPP I hope) and apply a light amount of NR and sharpen each to taste. The differences between these two will almost completely vanish at 100% screen view....and will totally be gone once you've made you print. Not a bad showing at 6400 iso!

Both are great cameras to work with.

dirkluchtman said:
60D ISO 6400

5D MII ISO 6400

24Peter said:

FWIW - I had a 7D which I returned because of the mosaic noise pattern that plagued some of those cameras early on and all my images - even low ISO - looked "crunchy". I subsquently bought a 5DII, and then a T2i (which I sold) and 60D (which I own) for backup. The images from the T2i and 60D looked much better than the 7D despite having the same sensor. I don't know how common or uncommon the issue is with more recent 7D's but there was a lot of discussion about this problem early on when the camera was first released.

In terms of comparison with the 5DII, perhaps the OP can provide links to full size images for you but I think these images show how close the 60D can be in good light. In poor light the 5DII gains a bigger advantage.
--
View my photo galleries here: http://imageevent.com/24peter
Model Mayhem: http://www.modelmayhem.com/93181

Click to expand...

Peter 13 · Dec 6, 2011

Victor Engel said:
There is a significant difference. Just look for parts of the picture where there is fine detail. Even in the 50% crop pictures, the detail is clearly better resolved on the 5D II images. The subject doesn't have much fine detail, but there is some. For example, look at the reflection of the painted vase (is that what it is -- it's a shame it was painted, though) or the telltale specks of dust in the wine glass or on the vase. These details are muddy in the 60D pictures.

+1. What matter is the detail/clarity vs. the noise (most visible in the uniform parts). The 5D2 does better in both cases. Not to mention with a lower exposure and pushed slightly more in pp (brighter).

netgarden · Dec 6, 2011

The 60D does do well, considering the difference in price. As the files get larger, the harder it is to negate noise. Both of these could be a 11x14 print to my eyes. [although I'd PP them]. They look about the same as the MKIV iso 10,000.

I can imagine the next 5DIII will be outstanding. I rarely use iso above 800 anyway, so I wouldn't pay $7000 for it. But this does give us hope that the future is bright for mid range price cameras! thnx
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There is no other photography like Wildlife

60D vs 5D Mark II some comparison pics

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