Things I Now Need To Get Thanks to the Canon EOS 5D Mark 2

Some things to consider if you make the upgrade to full frame, high resolution madness:

1. Yes, a bigger hard drive. The file sizes are much bigger, bring them into photoshop and things can get out of hand real fast. In addition, there’s those .mov files. They’re big by themselves, but start editing in Final Cut Pro, and converting to more editable formats, and wow. The solution is getting a big external, 1 TB for starters, and a fast one too. Now I can’t wait for USB 3.0.
2. Neutral Density Filters. If you shoot any video, these will be must have accessories for your 5D2. In brighter light they’ll help you keep the aperture wide open. As a bonus I’ll use them to help with water shots. The extra stops of darkness they’ll provide will allow you to use longer shutter speeds and thus get that “soft” water look without having to use f/22 or wait till dark.
3. Eventually, a faster computer. Even Lightroom feels the effects of the 5D2 on my macbook pro. And Final Cut Pro? I swear I see smoke coming out of this thing….
4. Fluid head for tripod. If you try video, you’ll want this.
5. In my case, lenses, bigger camera bag, new flash, gigantic CF cards, etc. I have no Canon lenses, so I’m totally starting from scratch here. The first on my list will likely be the 70-200 f/2.8 IS. Cost? About $1500. Big ouch. As for the compact flash cards, don’t bother with 2GB, they fill up incredibly fast, I got Transcend’s 16GB 300x CF cards for starters.

For those going through the same thing I am, did I forget anything?

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1. 

   Amr Toukhy says:

   January 17, 2009 at 7:01 am

   thanks for the list …
   and you might consider the fig rig too…
   http://services.manfrotto.com/figrig/

   reply
2. 

   Patrick says:

   January 17, 2009 at 8:42 am

   Ah, the fig rig…
   Yes that would be quite handy, though shooting video with the 5d2 can be a laboriously 2 handed affair.

   reply
3. 

   Damon Cirulli says:

   February 5, 2009 at 2:15 am

   Solid list. But I would consider tricking it out completely. I just got the Filmmakers kit from Zacuto ( http://www.vimeo.com/2223602 ) which has transformed the camera into a fully functioning set up. A matte box is key as well, I like the one Red Rock makes. Next thing would be to upgrade the ole macbook pro to 6gs of ram. http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-OWC6GB.html

   reply
4. 

   Patrick says:

   February 5, 2009 at 9:36 pm

   Damon,
   That is definitely tricking it out. Wow that would clearly work very well, but not cheap. Thanks for that.

   reply