Rebel T2i VS. 5D Mark II (pt.1)

Hello boys and girls!

Today I’m going to start showing you how much of a geek I really am!

Over the next week or so, I will be comparing two Canon digital SLRs. The 5D Mark II and the New Rebel T2i.

What brought this on you say? Well I have been shooting a Rebel for the last 3 or so years. I love it…and have never really needed anything more. Lately tho, I have been out shooting with some photographers that have the 5D Mark II (5D) and have had a chance to play around with it. I hear rave reviews about it, and I was curious to see how my brand new Rebel T2i (Rebel) compares.

I’m going to break this down into a couple different posts, so as to not overwhelm you with information. Not to mention there is a lot of potentially confusing stuff that can make one go crazy after looking at it for too long.
So without any further hoopla… Lets get started.

Camera technology is progressing by leaps and bounds with every new release. One of the biggest revolutions is the high ISO capabilities of newer models. The 5D has a reputation for being stellar at high ISO settings… so it only seemed logical to test this first.

Below I have posted an image (click for the full size view) of both camera offerings at ISO 6400,3200, and 1600 respectively.
I set a Macbeth Color Checker on a chair in the shade. I set both cameras to Program mode and Auto White Balance. The only thing I did to the camera was change the ISO setting between shots. Each image was captured at the same focal length (105mm respectively), and was shot from the same distance.
There was no manipulation applied to the images, all were processed through Camera RAW with identical settings with no sharpening. I only tiled them on the screen, took a screen shot, and blocked out the file numbers and file sizes…and of course marked the ISO columns.

Take a look, and you tell me which is which.

Hover over the thumbnail to see the answer.
Did you guess right?
Well, whether you did or not doesn’t really matter. What matters (to me at least) is there is not nearly enough difference to discourage me from using one or the other.
Both perform exceptionally well at 1600 which seems to me to be absolutely usable in most situations. I think the 5D has the slight (I mean VERY slight) edge at 6400 with a slightly smaller “grain structure”, but that’s really splitting hairs.
These images are cropped (zoomed) to what amounts to a one inch square on an 11×14″ print. So unless they are close enough to sniff the ink, most people won’t be able to tell a difference.

So factoring in price…$800 vs $2500…

Round one goes to: REBEL

Part 2