New Gear Questions

[msenior777]

Hey everyone
Just wanted to pick your brains for with a couple of questions. I am wanting to buy a new Lens/Camera. I have gone through a few different thoughts on what i want and it just keeps going around in circles.

Current Gear:
Canon EOS 400D
50mm f/1.8 II
18-55mm IS kit lens
55-250mm IS kit lens

I will be buying a 580ex II in the next few weeks or so hopefully as the built in flash kind of sucks and most places i would need to use it are in large halls where a 430ex II isn't powerful enough.

I am sold on getting a Canon EOS 7D it is just a matter of when. Tax is getting done this weekend so depending on how much i get back might show me what i can spend it on.

At this stage i was thinking of just upgrading my lens and going with a body later. I am going on a NYE cruise in Dec/Jan and would like something to replace my 18-55mm cause I just hate it compared to my 50mm but not sure what. The 17-85mm is looking like the best candidate but im not sure with it being f4-5.6. I have been told there is a f/2.8 version but fairly exy at $1800 or something here in OZ. Would it be good to change to the 17-55mm f/2.8?

Thoughts at this stage are:
EF-S 17-85mm f4-5.6 IS USM
EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM
or get the 7D with the 15-85mm IS USM

When i can afford it
EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM or the IS USM model

Mabyes: (depends on how much cash I have and what i can justify)
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

I don't really have an area that i like most and mainly do a bit of everything but portrait stuff and landscapes seem to be something i take a lot of. I do a few concerts everynow and then so low light stuff is something i do a lot of. I love night photography doing Astro stuff but any lens will surfice on that stuff at present

I love my 50mm 1.8 and it pretty much stays on the camera all the time. Mainly cause i love not having to use the built in flash cause i don't a speedlight yet. Photos i have taken with it are just outstanding and i hate having to take it off and use the 18-55mm just to fit ppl in the shot when i have no room to move. (happend a few weeks ago when i took some photos of my brothers and parents)

Any thoughts you guys can give on what would be a good all round workhorse for me would be great or any questions fire away.

Cheers
Mike

[OsmosisStudios]

The 17-85 isnt much different in terms of overall image quality from your 18-55: it just has a longer range. The 17-55 (the f/2.8) is essentially an L lens, but designed for the crop-bodies. I'd go that way, if youve got the money. That being said, I'd be more tempted to go with the 24-70 f/2.8 instead.

If you really have your heart set on the 7D, I'd be tempted to sell off the 450D, 18-55 and 55-250 as a kit to someone, get the 580EXii, 7D body and the 17-55/24-70, then think about the 70-200. To get the wide end you'd be looking at the 10-22.

That'd give you a 16-320 range, most of it fast and all of it awesome.

[inkista]

You're not going to like what I'm going to say. Don't get the 7D.

The 7D is optimized for fast action photography, like sports. Which is not landscapes or portraits, which you say are your main interest. And you don't need a super-sophisticated autofocus system or 10 fps for stage shooting. You just want the high iso performance. Which is likely to be included in the 60D when it's announced for $500 less in March. The one thing you can count on coming down-tier is the sensor and the Digic processor.

I'd say, wait until you're used to what the 580EXII can do for you in low light.

The new 15-85 IS USM is probably the one you want to consider over the 17-85 (it's replaced the 17-85 in the Canon lineup). Optically, from the MTFs, it looks relatively similar to the 17-55, and if you don't have to have the f/2.8, the wide angle end may be worth giving it up for, especially if you plan on using a flash with it. If you think the 17-55 has enough reach for the concert photography, then go with that, just remember that you can't use it on a full-frame camera, like the 5DMkII.

For stage shooting, I think you're looking in the wrong direction. If you can't get a 70-200 f/2.8 IS USM for it (or sneak it into the venue...), you may want to consider a fast prime instead--like your 50/1.8. The 85/1.8, the 100/2, and the 135/2L are all good candidates for that, and great upgrades for your 50.

[spencer28n]

Originally Posted by inkista

Which is likely to be included in the 60D when it's announced for $500 less in March.

When I do spring for the 60D, Canon has you to blame. I'm just hoping you're right and it does well with regard to high iso performance.

[inkista]

Oh, great. Now you jinxed it, and I'll be completely wrong. Anyway, if you want to know how I'm basing my guess on the likely appearance of the 60D, here's the Wikipedia-compiled release history for all Canon dSLRs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Templat...n_DSLR_cameras

I'm mostly guessing that what happens between the XXDs and the XXXDs is what will happen with the 7D and the 60D. Both of them being 1.6x crop sensor cameras, it makes sense. I do think it unlikely, though, that the XXD will have the same video capability as the 7D--chances are good they'll stay with the single data channel, not a dual one. What I find interesting is that the 1DMkIV has NOT inherited some of the 7D features you'd have expected--like the level and the IR remote sensor and master in the pop-up (or maybe they haven't fully described the camera yet). But it's clear that they're sharing an autofocus system.

BTW, I have been completely wrong before--like when I swore that the 50D wasn't going to show up until six months after it did.

[msenior777]

Thanks heaps guys.
Although I said i do a lot of portrait stuff one thing i liked about the 7D and my leaning towards it was because of only 3.5fps on my current 400D and it sucking to take a shot when i wanted last year at Indy. I have used a mates D200 or D300 here on the Gold Coast last year during Indy and loved it with the 8fps with the bat grip. So much easier when you are in the photobox trying to get the cars as they come around a s-bend. the 55-250mm was just too slow to get the shot & would take half a second before it would go off.

Concert stuff i only do maybe once a year over Easter so i guess that isn't really a main aspect of what i like to shoot. People and landscape stuff would work better along with my night photography.

I might take my camera with me to Teds on the weekend and have a try of the 17-55mm f/2.8 to see if i would like it and the 15-85mm. the 15-85 compared to the 17-85 is about twice the price cause of it being a newer lens, designed for the 7D (so im told)

I'm kind of torn between a few places as i have a few friends who have the 5DMKII and not sure if fullframe is something i want to jump up to yet even though it would be very nice. But its couple of Grand more i believe with lenses of course.

Not sure if I like the 24-70 because of it being on a crop body i would have a 38-112 if i work it out correctly, which kind of makes my wide angle a little barren and thus needing another lens. Suppose this is where the 17-40 could come in but yeah shame money don't grow on trees

Cheers heaps for your input guys. Really apprieciate it.
Mike

[inkista]

Originally Posted by msenior777

Although I said i do a lot of portrait stuff one thing i liked about the 7D and my leaning towards it was because of only 3.5fps on my current 400D and it sucking to take a shot when i wanted last year at Indy. I have used a mates D200 or D300 here on the Gold Coast last year during Indy and loved it with the 8fps with the bat grip. So much easier when you are in the photobox trying to get the cars as they come around a s-bend. the 55-250mm was just too slow to get the shot & would take half a second before it would go off.

Umm... I doubt this was a problem with the burst speed, and probably more to do with the body/lens combination's auto-focusing capabilities. Chances are good your buddy's D200/D300 had an AF-S zoom mounted, while you were using a non-USM lens and trying to track a moving object with a far less sophisticated autofocus system. The 40D/50D might well be enough for what you want (6fps, and a more sophisticated AF system than the dRebels), without having to climb up one more tier to the 7D.

Your burst speed isn't fast enough if you miss not having a frame in between the others in a burst.

...the 15-85 compared to the 17-85 is about twice the price cause of it being a newer lens, designed for the 7D (so im told)

Actually, I think it was just designed to take care of all the complaints about the 17-85. The 17-85 is a good lens, but it suffers from CA, barrel distortion, and softness on the wide end. BTW, when the 17-85 IS USM was introduced, it had an MSRP of $600. Over time, the street price of the 15-85 IS is also likely to come down. And it's still less than the EF-S 17-55.

I'm kind of torn between a few places as i have a few friends who have the 5DMKII and not sure if fullframe is something i want to jump up to yet even though it would be very nice. But its couple of Grand more i believe with lenses of course.

Yup. And you couldn't use EF-S lenses, like the 17-55 or the 15-85 on it.

[msenior777]

Thanks Inkista
I believe he was using the 18-200mm on his Nikon so it may not be a USM.
Maybe i will borrow my younger brothers 50D and give it a whirl. Haha has to always outdo me with everything so another reason why i was looking at the 7D

Yeh i know with the 5D the 17-55 and the 15-85 won't fit. hence why I said it would cost another couple of grand or more. but it would be very very nice.

Ok so at this stage im leaning towards the 15-85mm which you suggested back up further. Is it a lens you would recommend for what im looking at or be pointing me to something else.

Oh and im in OZ so our pricing on gear is still double in some casese to what yours is in the states and takes a while to filter down even though atm we get about 93c in the dollar.

[Pen]

hey just a quick question relating to earlier in the thread, but what would you say is canons best performer at high iso, excluding the full frames?

[inkista]

Originally Posted by msenior777

Ok so at this stage im leaning towards the 15-85mm which you suggested back up further. Is it a lens you would recommend for what im looking at or be pointing me to something else.

I'd wait on the 15-85 until it's released and you can see some reviews. Right now it's mostly theoretical on how it will perform. Nobody's actually gotten their hands on one, yet.

If you want a faster autofocus performance with a telephoto zoom, then looking at one of the 70-200 L lenses might be worthwhile. For daytime sports, the 70-200 f/4L USM (non-IS) might be enough, and it's quite a bit less expensive than the f/2.8 IS version. That one and the 70-300 IS USM might also be worth looking at, but the L will give you better optical quality.

Originally Posted by Pen

hey just a quick question relating to earlier in the thread, but what would you say is canons best performer at high iso, excluding the full frames?

Probably the 7D, but noise performance is not something I care a great deal about or am sensitive to. I'd say go drum up some samples, and just beware of the effect of comparing 100% crops leading to people erroneously thinking a particular sensor has worse noise performance than another, and that a higher pixel count necessitates a loss of high iso noise performance.