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I have had my 350D for a few years now and me thinks its time to upgrade. I have been doing lots of reading and following the 2nd hand market on Fleabay. Based on advice i have gathered from this forum I have thought about whats important to me and hopefully this will help me decide on my upgrade. I am seeking help from owners of the 5D MK1 and members in general to help me make up my mind.

What I shoot,
Landscape 40% ( i love this type of photography)
Bdays, potraits, 45% (just cause i have lots of family)
Sports/dog shoots 15% (have a dog! and a mate who coaches auskick)

Lenses I have 70-200 f2.8 IS and the 17-85IS, have an external flash.

So far I have got 'ok' results with my 350D but I have found the following lacking when am on a shoot (not in any particular order),
1. hate the noise at ISO 800
2. need better AF for my faster lens
3. missed a couple of sports shots due to smaller frame buffer.
4. want better IQ (image quality.... could do with a bit of intelligent quotient as well !!)
5. Need more megapixels as I tend to crop tighter in 30% of my images.

I found out from Teds in the city yesterday that the 50D will cost $1800 and 5D mk1 with grip $2800, can get the 5D second hand for below $2000 with about 3500 actuations on fleabay...

So given the above which camera is better suited for me and why? My future lenses will be based on the choice I make now.

Cheers
Mak

If you're going to be doing action and sports, get the 50D. At 3 fps, the 5D is useless for it. Sorry but brand new at $1800 compared to 2nd hand at $1800, get the brand new stock

Noise control nowadays is pretty decent even at high ISO on non FF cameras. I haven't played with the 50D as such, but I'm guessing AF and AF control points are going to be better than the 5D...wow did I just make my own camera sound useless?

gee and I know how you love the 5D!!!!!

I would be tempted to agree. All the points you listed: the 50D will tick the boxes.

The 5DmkI is a nice camera, but it is ~3 years older than the 50D. Its major advantage seems to just be the full-frame thing (and even that's not an advantage in all situations). We can judge more precisely once the 50D hits the streets, but I don't think that conclusion will change much.


I stuck with the 20D/30D/40D instead of going for the 5DmkI. Now I'm adding a 5DmkII, but I'm still going to have a 40D or 50D for the action (and telephoto) stuff.

As an added benefit for the 50D, your current lenses will work fine.

If you're going this weekend...use my 5D and I'll run up and down and you tell me how easy it is to take action shots

Don't get me wrong, I still love the 5D but for sports I'd rather have something with more fps.

thanks for the excellent suggestions dave and wayne... now to wait for it to be released and convince the CWO (Chief wife officer)...

Wayne, unfortunately I wont be making it this weekend to the studio shoot as I have a few family commitments...

thanks again guys

hahah...if you want to organise a time that suits you to test out the 5D, let me know.

Your 17-85IS will be useless on the 5D (won't fit)

true about the Efs lenses not fitting on the 5D.

Go the 50D mate. It was made just for you

I have the 30D and its the camera I use if I know I'll be shooting lots of action

the guy from Cameraaction called me to say he has one in hand and he could do better than AUD1800 and if i wanted to have a play.....

going to be a lot of groveling over the weekend, doing all the house work etc etc..

Hard call - for sport the 50D is hard to beat in the price range, but for everything else you listed the 5D is great ... but it does mean selling the 17-85 and buying something like the 17-40 instead. I think I'd lean towards the 50D just because it is so much newer and it's likely got better noise characteristics than the 5D.

You have stated that 85% of your photography is landscapes and portraits - I would definitely go for the 5D. Last week I saw 5Ds brand new from USA for about 1600 (USD), maybe 1800 Oz dollars. Just a thought.

Ozi.

From the description of what you shoot go the 50d I have a 5d love it and it will do motorsport but it is hard work. Benefits for sport with the 50d are crop factor FPS and most of all Auto focus. In every other area the 5d is a better camera IMO.

The guy shoots 15% sport and everyone is recommending a camera that is better for sports?

petal666 wrote:The guy shoots 15% sport and everyone is recommending a camera that is better for sports?

Dare I state the obvious?

5D mk 1 gets my vote here.

I dunno how much better the 50D is over my 30D but I can't bare to pick it up since Ive been flogging the 5D.

3fps is still adequate for sports, just need to be a better photographer... Back in the days, large format for sports...

The 5d is better but not for that price really, evaluating everything, the 50d is better for the price you listed.

petal666 wrote:The guy shoots 15% sport and everyone is recommending a camera that is better for sports?

Of course, because Canon don't make a 50D-minus that only does 3fps and has fewer AF points. Recommending the better camera for landscape and portrait within the budget is not unreasonable. A 5D with 70-200/2.8 is reasonable for portraits but no more, and for the money he's going to get a 50/1.8 or if he's lucky a second hand 28-135 rather than a 17-40. Which is not really good for landscape. So if we blow his budget by suggesting a decent shorter lens is that a "good" suggestion?

Tossing up possibly greater noise (possibly lower) at 1600ISO is all very well, but tossing up an as-yet-unavailable second hand 28-135 on 5D against the 17-85 on 50D is a bit of a no brainer IMO. They both suck, but the 50D sucks across a wider range of situations than the 5D can reach at all. A few extra MP don't hurt, adding live view and video might be useful (or not), 6fps instead of nearly 4fps is a bonus for sport, wider framer coverage of focus points helps a lot for both portrait and landscape.

Personally I suggest saving a bit longer and buying better glass. The 17-40 / 24-70 / 24-105 all work on his current camera too, and the 50/1.8 would be a useful purchase right now. Then in a few months the 50D will have come down in price or someone will have dropped a cheap second hand 5D in the buy-sell forum. If he's really lucky someone will drop a 17-40 after they buy a 16-35 (or 21/2.8 ZE ). I'm still happy to have grabbed the 580EXII here, and I suspect whoever bought my 300D feels the same.