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5D2 or new compact for a trek?

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am stram gram

am stram gram

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Going for some vacations on a trek in Northern Europe.

Would you advise to take my 5D II (with a light 50mm for instance), or buy a new compact camera?

[Was disconnected from the compact market for a long time - maybe there are new comers with 5D-50mm-like abilities?]
 
Solution
Ido Scharf
If you just want something smaller and lighter, consider getting a Canon EOS M. With a Canon adapter, you can use your existing 50mm lens - though do to the 1.6x crop factor of the M's APS-C sensor, its field of view would be similar to what an 80mm lens gives on a 35mm frame sensor, like the 5D Mark II.

There is a very limited range of native EF-M mount lenses, but again, with a Canon adapter you can use any EF or EF-S lens you may already have. I'd generally suggest picking the camera up with the EF-M 22mm f/2 STM lens (available as a kit), which gives roughly a 35mm equivalent field of view.

If you already have a lens for your 5D Mark II in the 28-35mm range, it will give you a standard field of view with the EOS M.

Being a Canon...
Depends on what you mean by a 'trek'. Also depends on what you want to shoot and what your attitude to image quality is.

Trek: several days of wild camping with no contact with civilisation or a few all day hikes from hotels or hostels. Or something else?

Are you interested in landscapes, wildlife, people, all of them or something else?

Do you want the same quality as you expect from your main camera? If not then what do you expect to do with your pictures?
 
There are no compacts which will be on-par with a 5DII with 50mm lens unless you go way up in budget (Sony RX1, for example).

That said, something like an RX100 is good enough and probably a better travel camera. It's on par with a modern APS dSLR with kit lens. It's not what you want for low-light portraiture, relative to your FF with prime, but you're mostly not doing low-light portraiture on a trek. With a compact case ($11 on eBay), the RX100 is around your neck all the time. The 5DII is in your bag much of the time, or impeding your mobility and, depending on location, theft-prone. It's got a bit of zoom too, as well as stabilization, which probably adds more versatility than the extreme aperture. You can also take along a compact tripod (e.g. $20 Gorillapod does fine), since you don't need one which can support a full dSLR.

Other sensible travel cameras include Sony RX1, RX10, A7, Olympus OM-D, and Fuji X-100s.
 
am stram gram said:
Going for some vacations on a trek in Northern Europe.

Would you advise to take my 5D II (with a light 50mm for instance), or buy a new compact camera?

[Was disconnected from the compact market for a long time - maybe there are new comers with 5D-50mm-like abilities?]
Click to expand...
It depends on what you mean by "trek", especially in regard to things like access to power for recharging batteries. Many of the more compact options people will suggest have, by current dSLR standards, limited battery life - 300 shots or so (I have no idea what the 5DII gets).

But the key thing, IMO, is how high a priority photography is. There are no compact cameras that will get close to the 5DII if photography is a priority. Just taking a 50mm would be limiting and IMO you need a wide-angle in Europe - but I recently did 4 weeks in Spain and France with a 35mm camera and 20mm and 40mm lenses and never wanted more.
 
If you just want something smaller and lighter, consider getting a Canon EOS M. With a Canon adapter, you can use your existing 50mm lens - though do to the 1.6x crop factor of the M's APS-C sensor, its field of view would be similar to what an 80mm lens gives on a 35mm frame sensor, like the 5D Mark II.

There is a very limited range of native EF-M mount lenses, but again, with a Canon adapter you can use any EF or EF-S lens you may already have. I'd generally suggest picking the camera up with the EF-M 22mm f/2 STM lens (available as a kit), which gives roughly a 35mm equivalent field of view.

If you already have a lens for your 5D Mark II in the 28-35mm range, it will give you a standard field of view with the EOS M.

Being a Canon camera, the EOS M has the same menu structure you're already used to. Control is based mostly on the touchscreen instead of physical buttons, though, so that's somethig you'd need to get used to.
 
Solution
I always advocate using what you have, and not throwing money at the problem. More gear rarely fixes problems that are inherent in ourselves (check my blog post on this: http://www.fintangphotography.com/blog/just-take-some-damn-pictures/)

You have a 5D Mk2. Its big by camera standards, but for a hike, its not a massive amount, prob 1kg or so. Bring the 5D and ONE lens, ideally a light wide angle or if you already have it, just take the 50mm. Sure you wont be able to zoom into a buzzard flying 1000m overhead, but you will get excellent people shots, landscape shots, and you can stitch images for something more wide angle.

Save you money and use what you already have!
 
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