Advice on upgrading from a canon 600d

LiamTaylor

LiamTaylor

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Hello everyone,

I have been browsing the forums for a week or so after discovering the site by accident and finally took the plunge and made an account (not something I normally do on forums).

Just looking for some advice from anyone who has upgraded from a 600d.

Just some background:
Started off with a very introductory Olympus DSLR (can't remember which one) and moved on the canon 600d about 3 years ago now. Such a big difference and my first "real" DSLR. Now I have picked up a few better lenses than the kit ones and am beginning the feel the limitations of the 600d in a number of different areas. I find the autofocus missing an awful lot tracking anything that is moving, even not particularly fast - combined with the lowish fps means I am missing a lot of the shots I want to get. Also I find the high ISO quality pretty shocking, even at ISO 1600 I can see the noise without zooming in.

I tend to shoot a combination of sport / wildlife and landscapes, don't do any portraiture shots. I have also wanted to try and get into astrophotography and have tried a few times but never really managed to get any usable shots.

I've been thinking about upgrading my body for a few months and have a few different options that I am thinking about, I'm also thinking about upgrading some of my lenses over the next year or so and I'm not sure which way to go.

The lenses I currently have are:
  • 18-55 EF-S kit lens - I only really use this when I have the 500ND filter on it, or for long exposure evening shots
  • Canon 70-200 f/4L - only my camera 95% of the time as I find it focuses much quicker than anything else.
  • Tokina 11-16mm - fairly recent acquisition, really loving it so far
  • Sigma 135-400mm - only really used at 400mm now (for birds but find it a bit sluggish and searches through the focus a lot), use the canon 70-200 for pretty much anything else. Going to be replaced with something else as it doesn't get enough use to justify keeping it.

I am looking to get the 24-70mm or 24-105mm to replace the kit lens at some point and also I have recently been looking at the canon 400mm f5.6 to replace the sigma as although the sigma is great for the price I am ready for something a bit better.

I had been planning on getting the 7Dii as I like the extra reach the crop sensor gives and it means I can still use the Tokina, but have also been considering the 5d3 or the 1Div having read some other peoples experience of them. Obviously the 5d3 and 1Div are a bit more expensive used than the 7d2 but all just about within budget if I sold on the sigma and 600d. My budget is probably somewhere around £1100-£1200 plus any other gear I trade/sell.

Obviously all of the bodies I have mentioned are a considerable step up from the 600d so would take some getting used to. Has anyone else made such a big jump up in bodies and how did you find it?

Also do you think it would be better to upgrade my lenses first or get a new body and get the lenses later?

Sorry for the huge wall of text, any thoughts or help would be very much appreciated.
 
I don't think you can go wrong with any of that. 24-70mm is preferable to 24-105, and clearly all three bodies are very good if a little different. 5D3 is a great allrounder while the other two are more geared towards sports.
 
My first thought on the camera front was a 70D. Half the price of a 7D Mk II, a third of the price of a 5D Mk III. It's a lot of camera for the money. And is there anything you need to do that it can't do?

On the telephoto lens front, if you're finding that you're always using the Sigma zoom at 400mm then the Canon 400 f/5.6 is a very smart choice. It's ideal for birds in flight, and although you can get Sigma/Tamron zooms that go to 500mm or now even 600mm, I suspect the Canon 400 will give you better cropability of the images because the lens is so sharp.

On the walkaround zoom front, I'd be wary of either the 24-70 or the 24-105 if you're staying with a crop sensor camera; they're just not wide enough at the wide end for most people. The Canon EF-S 15-85 is an excellent step up from the kit lens, as is the EF-S 17-55 f/2.8. There are non-OEM lenses which compare with the latter - eg Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 - if the budget is getting squeezed.
 
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Thanks for the advice, I eventually went for a 7d mark ii, hadn't really considered the 70d before but I didn't want to get it knowing that I could always have got the 7d and missing the additional frame rate. Also managed to pick up the 400 f/5.6 for a decent price (helps that I don't mind about the paint being scratched etc).

First impressions are that there is a lot to learn settings wise and usage wise and there is a clearly a big gap between the bodies. Hoping to go to ICBP in Newent today so will see how that goes!
 
I bought myself a 70d a few months ago which I'm really pleased with, works well with my sigma 17-50 f2.8. I would recommend both
 
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