Help me decide £850 canon body and lens for portraits

scottduffy

scottduffy

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Right over the last couple of weeks I've been accepted onto a 2 year college course and had to switch back from fuji to canon.

I have a budget of £850 for a body and one or more lenses.

I have had a few crop sensor bodies before so thought about trying a full frame body and my choices were the 5d mk1, mk2 and the 1Ds2.

Obviously there wouldn't be much left after the purchase of the 5d mk2 so I would be limited to one lens maybe a 50mm or 85mm lens. The older body would give me more of a choice as would be crop camera.

If I bought say a 50d and 17-55 I could then buy a decent speedlight too. Just thinking out loud.

What would you choose?
 
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I'd probably go for a 5DII plus 85 1.8 or 100 f2. If you prefer full size bodies, a 1DSII plus 85 or 100 and a 35 f2 (if you find them all at the right price, of course). The 5D (first version) produces lovely, lovely files though - if you don't mind the clunky interface and crappy screen, I'd consider that too.

Not really helping, am I...
 
How about a 5D classic, 85/1.8 with a couple of 550EX Speedlights and you'll still have enough in the kitty for a couple of decent manual focus M42 primes with an adapter.

Bob
 
I really was looking into the 5d mk1 but I don't know how much better the image quality is on the mk2 so I'll need to have a read.

My budget has risen by 300 tonight though so that helps.
 
I've seen a few 6D bodies got for about £750 s/h, so I'd go for one of those, plus a 50mm f1.4 and 85 f1.8 both second hand for about £200 each. Then in a couple of months, buy a couple of Yongnuo speedlights for £50 each.
 
Does the college have any kit you can borrow? If so I'd go 5d mkii and 50mm f1.4 if not I'd go 5d mki and see if you can stretch the rest to 35mm f2 50mm f1.8 85mm f1.8 and a cheap flash.
 
a1ex2001 said:
Does the college have any kit you can borrow? If so I'd go 5d mkii and 50mm f1.4 if not I'd go 5d mki and see if you can stretch the rest to 35mm f2 50mm f1.8 85mm f1.8 and a cheap flash.
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They have all the lenses so I just need to have a canon body. Thing is I'm not sure if I can borrow them outside of college so wouldn't want to limit myself.
 
ianp5a said:
I don't understand why they made you switch brands?
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They didn't make me but if I wanted to complete all my modules ie macro etc I couldn't do that without buying a macro lens for my fuji and I just couldn't afford that. I had spent my budget on the 56mm and xe2.
 
6D + Nifty-Fifty will be pretty close to your budget. The 6D will hold it's value for longer than the 5DII so may actually save you money (as well as provide better features, warranty & IQ in the meantime) when you eventually trade-up.

Edit: A used 7D + 17-55 f/2.8 + 430EXII Speedlight will be another decent alternative.
 
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