£1,500 to spend on my wife

JumboBeef

JumboBeef

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My wife's birthday is in a few weeks. She currently has a 40D, a number of nice L lenses and tends to shoot people/events (not weddings) and some landscapes.

With about £1,500 burning a hole in my pocket (could spend more, very happy to spend less :D ), do I buy her a:

1/ new 50D
2/ new 7D
3/ s/hand 5d MKII
4/ s/hand 1D MK...?

Cheers!
 
Yea pretty much depends on the lenses she has, either the 7D or the 5DII - I would be going more towards the 5DII with the style of photography you describe.

Edit - Saying that, there is quite a few 1DIIN's about at a good price right now, but you would need to see if she likes the way they feel. very different in the hand too a 40D.
 
used 1Ds mk2 or the 5D mk1 or 2 Full frame IMO is the better choice
 
£1,500 to spend on a wife

Are mail order brides that cheap nowadays :eek:
 
Thanks for the replies. Just to add: her 40D has a grip, so she is used to a larger camera.
 
I hope my wife will be that generous to me when I'm married! :lol: :D
 
Buy her the 5D Mark II


I wish i could find someone who'd spend that amount of money on me... haha.
 
If it's you that's considering buying your wife a new body, take my advice please, ask her first. She may be entirely happy with the 40D and doesn't want anything else - Dangerous ground you're treading ;)
 
JumboBeef said:
Is a 5d MKII better than a s/hand 1D?
Click to expand...

Is a Porsche better than a Ferrari?

"Better" is subjective.
1D isnt is more suited to sorts and wildlife, 1DS is more suited to your needs.

I would say 7D is more comparable to 1D. and 5D is more comparable to the 1DS and the need that you stated.
 
Bawbee said:
If it's you that's considering buying your wife a new body, take my advice please, ask her first. ;)
Click to expand...


New bodies for wives tend to cost more than £1500, that'll just cover the first operation. And yes you should ask her first, as she may be perfectly happy with her existing body, even if you would like to upgrade.....
 
I have seen a few 1D mark 3's for £1500. If you look around you will get a bargain.
 
Thanks for the replies (I think!)

No, she is no longer happy with the 40D, that is why I/she wants to buy a new body (although the 40D is still a fine camera). She has always liked the 'look' of the 1D, but has never used one (or a 5D, 7D for that matter).

So, it seems to be down to a new 5D MKII or a s/hand 1D...........? Which one would you buy?
 
Does she know about the gift? If she does then ask about how important full frame is OR if she doesn't try and spark up a conversation about the pros and cons. If she has the lenses she wants on a crop camera will they still be the ideal lenses once a full frame camera is in her mitts? If she does know about it then is the 40D being kept as a second body OR can this be sold to give her even more money to look at? I don't know much about Canon's range but a pro level full frame camera is going to be slightly outside your range without the addition of some extra cash or selling the 40D.
 
She will want to keep the 40D as a second body. The two L lenses she has are the 17-40 and 24-105, plus a 50mm and a Sigma 12-24. She also has a Canon 75-300 but wants to replace this with a L 100-400.

What difference will a full frame make to these lenses please?

Thanks!
 
JumboBeef said:
What difference will a full frame make to these lenses please?
Click to expand...

A similar effect to zooming out.

Her 50mm that she has now will actually look like a 75mm (or thereabouts, not sure on Canons crop factor but not far out).....

So if you go full frame her 50mm will actually be a 50mm rather than a 75mm

a 12-24 appears now as a 18-36 but will actually be a true 12-24 etc etc.
 
JumboBeef said:
So, everything will be wider, but shorter....?
Click to expand...

Yes. So on my D200 my 50mm appears as an 75m (1.5x on Nikon). I have just checked and the crop factor on Canons is either 1.3 or 1.6 (40D is 1.6)

so your wife currently uses a 50mm which appears as an 80mm, if she REALLY loves this amount of zoom then she would probably want an 85mm lens at some point!

The big advantages are that the really WIDE lenses are wide ie a 14mm lens on a crop camera is only 22.4mm (wide but not as wide as you might have wanted) but really is 14mm on the full frame. Larger sensor pits on full frame and more light hitting the things means much better low light performance. The only disadvantage is that the apparent zoom level is lower. So if you get a 200mm on full frame and photograph a plane then do the same on a crop the crop will zoom like a 320mm. You can crop the full frame to the same level but the resultant image will have many less pixels.

For a more indepth explanation this subject has been covered at length on here so a search might bring up lots more information.
 
I have a 40D, 50D, 7D, 1D3 and a 5D2 so I'm well acquainted with all the cameras you have mentioned. Given what you have said about her preferred subject matter the 5D2 would complement the 40D best. If she doesn't shoot sports and action, or pick off wildlife in the distance I don't think buying another cropper would be as beneficial as going full frame.

However, I'm puzzled by the 100-400 comment. Why does she want one of those for shooting people and lanscapes. That would be a general purpose lens typically for sports and wildlife. I have that lens too, but it usually goes on one of my crop bodies, because I use it when I want more reach. Of course, if she wants to shoot these things too then the 1-4 on the 40D and the 17-40 or 24-105 on the 5D2 would be a sweet combo. I really can't see her benefitting from a 1D anything, unless I've missed something.

BTW, the 7D is a wicked camera, with an incredible feature set and performance, but it's still an APS-C sensor and will not work magic on IQ the way full frame will. That's not just in relation to noise/DR etc. but the control over shallow DOF that can be obtained when shooting people and the detail that can be obtained for landscapes. As for the 50D, I bought mine as an upgrade to my 30D. While it is a better camera than the 40D, it is not going to make the kind of difference that a 5D2 would make, or even a 7D. Also, 17mm on the 5D2 will be seriously wide. Nice!

Having said all that, what exactly does she not like about the 40D? It's hard to come up with a solution if you don't know the problem. Given what you said she shoots, I'm not sure why she would be unhappy with the 40D. What sort of ISOs does she shoot at? Is the problem noise, AF, some feature she wants that the 40D does not have, what?
 
well i think the best thing you can do is take your better half to a good camera shop that has the range of cameras that you or she is interestd in and 'test drive' them for feel

it sounds like you are lens comitted so the choice is canon just get her to have a feel of the body hopefully with a lens on it and im sure youre good to go :thumbs:
 
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