T1i or 5D

[mochino]

Hey guys! I would greatly appreciate it if you could leave me some feedback and advice. I am finding myself in a dilemma :T


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Okay a little background info, I am college student.. thus the low budget. I started getting into photography about a year ago, I started off with a Nikon D60 as I was able to get it for only $400. I didn't even do any research.. it was kind of an impulse thing

ANYWAY. because all my friends are canon-users, I decided to switch over to Canon just so we can all share lenses.

Currently, I owe a t1i that I bought 6 months ago. I like it, but I wouldn't say I love it. I do mainly portraits and macro shots, while in general the quality of the images are great, I m not pleased with the low light performance it has shown me. I used it a couple times for a high school football game at ISO 1600, the pictures, in my opinion were too noisy for my liking.(and other incidents..) I do often shoot at night time (though I shoot more during the day than night) My boyfriend's 7D produced much clearer and less noisy pictures, at a higher iso too. Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way comparing my 800 dollar camera to a 1800 camera. I know T1i is an entry level camera and thus the point of this thread.


I bought my T1i for about 750 6 months ago, now I'm getting offers for $650. I'm okay with the $100 loss. However, the only "upgrade" that I feel justified in buying, something that is a big enough upgrade for me to actually see the difference and better performance in low light photography AND within my price range (less than $500-600 after selling my camera) I don't mind used cameras as long as they`re in great working conditions.


Well, it seems like 5D classic is my only choice. I also love that it's a full frame camera.


I was able to borrow a 5D mark2 and a 5D classic for a weekend, and I loved everything about them. (Maybe minus the body of 5D, but thats okay)

I looked around some local postings and the means of that camera (body only) is around 1200.



With that, I would be spending about 600 bucks for an upgrade. Currently I already owe a 100mm macro lens. An additional 600 bucks could certainly go to a pretty decent lens for me. The 5D is 4 years old... the technology is somewhat outdated (which i dont really mind but just presenting it for the sake of argument..) but the image quality is still excellent! My only concern is that I'm sure I will get tempted to buy a new body in a year or 2 --- something that I look forward to keeping for a longggg time

.. but if i were to spend that money on a lens, I will probably keep that one around for a long time..



SO what would you recommend me doing and why?
ANY comments and help would be greatly appreciated! SORRY if i made the story longer than it needs to be. Thanks for reading this!


Have a good day!

[CaptainNH]

You need to ask yourself if the amount of high iso photography you are likely to do justifies spending an extra $600, given that you've said you mainly do portraits and macro shots (which I assume you do in good light and/or with a tripod?).

My immediate reaction it to suggest saving your money and spending it on glass, but then you need to ask what glass you might need and what you may be able to borrow from your canon friends.

If you already have the glass you need via your friends, then by all means go for a new body.

[inkista]

My immediate suggestion is to ask yourself a) can you hold on for another three/nine months? and b) is it the full frame you really want, or just the high iso performance?

It's likely that the 60D will be announced in March (not guaranteed, of course, but it'll be at the usual 18-month release cycle mark for the XXD line at that point). Chances are good that it will inherit the sensor/Digic processor of the 7D (and almost certainly not the frame rate and autofocus system). A further six months after that, we're likely to see the same/tweaked similar sensor/processor in the XXXD line.

The XXD body pricepoint will probably be in the $1200-$1300 neighborhood, which is what you're looking at with the 5D. The XXXD bodies tend to premiere at around $800. And, as you've noted, the prices fall over time once initial demand is filled.

If, however, fullframe for wide angle work is what you desperately want, then I'd say go for the 5D.

In the meantime, are you using noise-reduction software (NeatImage, NoiseNinja) for post processing? Are you positive you're not underexposing? And have you tried digital pull-processing or something truly wacky like ZeroNoise?

[mochino]

Thanks guys! You two really convinced me that I would be better off spending my bucks on the glass instead. It's true though..as I don't feel my camera is limiting me in anyway. I will save up for a better walk-around lens. Thanks again. Really appreciate it.