Camera Body Upgrade

[bishaj]

I primarily shoot sports but am starting to do some more portraits. I've been wanting to upgrade to the 1D from my 40D for some time, but don't have the 5K for a mark IV. Do you think it's worth going with a used Mark IIN or Mark III?

[dlambert]

Didn't the 1D-III have some issues with autofocus for action shots?

Have you given any thought to a 5D for portraits? You could get a 5D-I and a 7D for the price of the 1D-III, couldn't you?

[OsmosisStudios]

Stop what you're doing. Deep breath.

What lenses do you have? Lighting? Those would likely be considerably better places to start than a new body.

[bishaj]

Right now my gear bag is a little spartan. I have the 40d, kit lens, 85mm 1.8, 70-200 2.8 IS mk II, manfrotto tripod and head, and some reflectors. Honestly, I've stayed out of lighting largely because I don't know where to begin so the portraits I do are outdoor which works for me since I don't have a studio set up anyway.

[inkista]

With OS on this one. The change from crop to full frame isn't as huge as you'd think it is in terms of flat out image quality. I'd suggest looking at upgrading the kit lens to an f/2.8 zoom of some kind (17-55 f/2.8 or 24-70/2.8L if you wanna spend the big bucks; third party alternatives if you're not), or getting a few wider primes, like a 50/1.4 or 35/2 so you can cover full-length shots as well as head shots for portraits.

And start lighting. Even outdoors lighting can make a big difference.

Highly recommend going through Neil van Niekerk's "Tangents" blog. The Strobist can be a little overwhelming as a beginner in lighting, and Niekerk covers a lot of the basics of using a flash that the Strobist skips over in going straight to off-camera.

[bishaj]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the advice and plan to follow it. I'm sure the body upgrade bug will get me at some point, but I'm moving it down the priority list.