Any one with experience of 'prosumer' DSLR cameras?

[gangzoom]

So i've had my trusty Canon 550d DSLR for a few years now, have a good selection of lens (All APS EFS lens), but starting to get frustrated by the limitations of the 550d, in particular the lack of AF micro adjusting, poor high ISO performance, and not 100% view finder etc...

 

Have no wish to go Full Frame, the 1.6 crop factor on my 70-300mm lens is perfect, and really cannot afford to spend £2K+ buying new EF mount lens.

 

So the recently announced 7D mark II caught my eye, in particular the AF system sounds amazing, and apparently is nearly as good as the AF system on the top of the range Canon 1xd (£5K camera!!), and the high ISO performance appears to be a real step up from APS sensor cameras. I'm verging pre-ordering the thing, but at £1500 it's hardly a impulse buy....so been trying to justify it some how.

 

Have briefly mentioned it to my wife (not the price), and she made a valid point, why do I need a better camera body when the equipment I have ready can capture shots like these .......

 

 

 

 

 

My argument is that a better AF system will allow me to capture more shots with more accurate focus/sharper images, and the higher ISO allows much more freedom at night/dark subjects

 

But than she says.....'why do you need sharper images etc...all you do is look at the photos on the laptop....and the ones we print out are already of good enough resolution.....so getting a new camera is a waste of money (I'm guessing she thinks a new camera is about £200-300, not £1500!!)'

 

So logically I have no answer to her final lot of questions....especially not when you consider the HUGE cost of the 7D body. But the more I read about the 7D Mark II the more I want one.....I'm hoping someone here have access to a 7D or similar, and can convince me that it's a worth while upgrade over something like a 550D

Edited September 27, 2014 by gangzoom

[Ebized]

What the boss is saying: why waste £1500 on a camera rather than a nice piece of jewellry.

 

Well, that's how it works in my household

 

 

Otherwise, all I can say is I have huge admiration for the quality of the pics you post on here and I can offer next to zero technical advice.

[GMballistic]

Waste of money imo. Your cash though so do as you please,

 

...but they way I see it is unless this is your profession and it's how you earn your living I wouldn't bother as the pictures you take with your current camera are more than good enough imo.

 

I'd listen to the wife on this occasion.

[Stutopia]

If you can afford it, you're passion about it and you'd be happy with it - buy it!

 

It's not about "are your current photos good enough?". If we all thought about things like that we'd own Micra's (to get from A to B ) instead of Zeds and eat corned beef for the protein instead of steak.

Edited September 27, 2014 by SuperStu

[GIXXERUK]

If you can afford it, you're passion about it and you'd be happy with it - buy it!

 

It's not about "are your current photos good enough?". If we all thought about things like that we'd own Micra's (to get from A to B ) instead of Zeds and eat corned beef for the protein instead of steak.

 

+1

[KyleR]

Those pictures are fantastic

 

I think you'd be better spending the £1500 on new lenses, though. The current one is 4.5-5.6 if I am correct? For £1500 you could surely get the famous 70-200mm f/2.8 which is a full 2 stops faster which would give you the equivalent ISO of 51200 on your current camera body

[350zedd]

Don't be seduced by the marketing hype!! They're experts in relieving you of your hard earned cash for a few upgrades.

Ok, so the 7DMk2 is a great camera body for sports and wildlife, with its tracking AF system and high ISO range, but does it justify spending £1500!!!

Can't you get a firmware upgrade to increase the ISO range on your current body?

If you want it that bad, then you will convince yourself by whatever means!

Do you want to take night shots hand held with huge ISO? I just use a tripod @ ISO100.

I doubt whether you will see a big difference in shots compared to your old 7D to justify spending £1500, but its your choice in the end.

If it was me, I'd probably wait a couple of years then buy a used body.

Good luck in deciding and lets know what choice you make

Edit: Link to some high ISO shots with the Mk2 http://mattgranger.com/7d2 .......nice!

Edited September 27, 2014 by 350zedd

[Netnomad]

Been there and bought the T shirt. I upgraded from a Nikon D200 to a D700 as I thought I would get better results...I did but not that great considering the extra £££ for the upgrade. Unless you can afford the top lenses for the body the results will still not be good enough for a high end photo agency. I now use a lowly Panasonic Lumix FZ48 fixed lens with a optical zoom to 600mm which I can just sling around my neck and get on with taking pictures without all the paraphernalia and expense that goes with a DSLR.

[350zedd]

Been there and bought the T shirt. I upgraded from a Nikon D200 to a D700 as I thought I would get better results...I did but not that great considering the extra £££ for the upgrade. Unless you can afford the top lenses for the body the results will still not be good enough for a high end photo agency. I now use a lowly Panasonic Lumix FZ48 fixed lens with a optical zoom to 600mm which I can just sling around my neck and get on with taking pictures without all the paraphernalia and expense that goes with a DSLR.

 

Great choice!....one of my daughters has the Lumix FZ45, an outstanding little camera which takes absolutely superb shots. Other daughter has a FZ72

[Ekona]

Personally, I'd be spending money on quality lenses over a new camera. That's where you can really notice the difference these days IMHO.

[StevoD]

to be honest you pictures look incredible, ill be honest when it comes photography side of dslr's i dont have a big clue but one of my dads friends does what ekona says and gets the better high quality lenses, hes got some old nikon thing but the pictures he turns out are amazing

[choptop]

Cameras and cars. There is always someone with more money who can afford the very best.

Be happy with what you can afford and stick with it

 

Still prefer my medium format Bronica to any digital. I am not doing sport photography though.

 

Cracking pictures

[gangzoom]

Whoo didn't expect so much sensible advice!! I think you guys (and my wife) is right, am just getting sucked in by all the marketing

 

Have some good lens already, so I guess I'll keep using the 550D till some used 7D IIs start appearing....My bank account am sure is breathing a sigh of relief.

[chubbster]

I have 3 cameras - a nice Nikon DSLR with good zoom lens, a Panasonic Lumix FZ38 (compact DSLR, I think they're called) and a waterproof Fujifilm XP for when it's raining hard or I go underwater. If I'm totally honest, when I go out I usually opt for the Panasonic. As others have said, it's light, not bulky, takes good photos and has an amazing zoom.

 

But this isn't what you're asking!

 

Spend your money mate - I would.

[Ekona]

What lenses do you have?

[gangzoom]

Main lens is the Canon 17-55mm IS f 2.8, its basically a 'L' lens without the red ring (but had a price tag to match). Cannot really fault it, the f 2.8 constant aperture is amazing and gives very good results ranging from portrait to landscape.

,/

 

.

 

The other lens I use for the F1 stuff is the Canon 70-300 IS f4-5.6, at 300mm the quality does drop off, but use it at around 200mm and stepped down its very sharp and actually a very good portrait lens.

 

 

I'll probably end up getting either the 70-200mm IS L or the 70-300mm IS L, but not entirely comfortable walking around with such a distinctive lens, especially on holiday......I always feel the white L lens are too distinctive, everyone with in 50 meters can tell straight away when your carrying nearly £1K worth of lens on your neck, it’s almost like asking to be mugged.

 

The only other lens I now own is a Tamron 10-24mm, have thought about getting the Canon 10-22mm, but again when stepped down, and avoiding the 20mm+ focal end produces some fab results.

 

 

 

So I guess I’m actually very happy with the lens I have now, its just the 550D’s AF system is really starting to annoy me at times, and there are shots which I think should come out well but just aren’t because the AF has mis-focused. It’s only got 1 cross type centre AF point, and than only 9 other AF points, which is fine for a kit lens, but when your using a super fast lens like the 17-55 at f 2.8 because the focusing plane is so shallow you need the AF to be quick and accurate, and I'm fining the AF system on the 550D just cannot deliver consistent focusing results.

 

The other thing I really want is higher ISO shooting, so that I can use higher shutter speeds at night to capture more shots in low light conditions….but again there’s really nothing hugely wrong with the ISO performance of the 550D, below shot is at 3200, which is the absolute MAX the 550D can handle.

 

However the new 7D II, goes up to 51,000!!! and the AF will work down to -3 EV, the 550D’s AF basically stops working at -1EV, so most night shots I have to manually focus.

 

 

humm……I think I’ve just managed to convince myself I need to swap my 550D for the new 7D II…maybe not just yet, but when the prices fall below £1K I’m going to find it very hard not to buy one

Edited September 28, 2014 by gangzoom

[Ekona]

I reckon that sounds very much like a good plan

[chubbster]

Consumitis is a terrible disease, for which there is no known cure. I've had for as long as I can remember and it's getting worse, so I feel your pain. My latest obsession (since the Ace Cafe meet) is to get a 240z - an urge I must fight.

 

By the way - and I should have put this in my earlier post - your photos are excellent.

 

Edit - Is the woman in the photo your wife? If so, she's clearly someone you can do a deal with. It's clear that she likes fine clothing and the decorative stuff that goes with it, so why don't you do a deal to treat each other? Say, somewhere in the region of £1,500 each?

If you don't spend it on each other, someone else will get it

Edited September 28, 2014 by chubbster

[350zedd]

After looking at those shots you definitely need a 7D II body to help you improve your technique!!