New Lens or New Body

Having had a 550d it is a capable camera the next upgrade I did for mine was put an L lens on it. That said I upgraded mine after nearly six years to a 7d2 as a lot of my stuff now done is wildlife. That said the good glass I still have
 
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Mark G said:
That should be more than good enough to shoot landscapes and night photos.

What specifically makes you feel that you need an upgrade?
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Well I've been shooting to try and get everything in focus but when the image comes out it seems soft - of course that may be just me doing it wrong, which is more than likely, I've been trying to read up on hyperfocal distance but that's difficult without a distance scale on the lens - and in general when I zoom in the chromatic abberatiom can be bad.
 
wave01 said:
Having had a 550d it is a capable camera the next upgrade I did for mine was put an L lens on it. That said I upgraded mine after nearly six years to a 7d2 as a lot of my stuff now done is wildlife. That said the good glass I still have
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Nice, which L lens did you get if you don't mind my asking. The general consensus seems to be with lens, so I had better start looking into gold lenses, any recommendations?
 
New lenses. For nights (i'm guessing starscapes) you want something wide and fast, samyang do some nice, fast, wide angle primes. A more general wide angle option for landscapes is the Canon EF-S 10-18mm. Personally I've enjoyed using longer zooms for landscapes so the 55-250mm would be useful too. Depending on your budget you should pick up the cheap nifty-fifty while you are on a spending spree ;)

All these options are EF-S lenses so won't work on a full frame camera body, but they do give you good value for money, and a lot of options to play with. Some would say it's worth investing in full frame lenses if ever you decide to "upgrade" your body. Full frame lenses have a tendency to be more expensive, and don't really offer much of an advantage over EF-S lenses on crop sensor bodies. Besides, there is nothing stopping you selling your collection of crop lenses if ever you want to move to full frame (I haven't found a compelling enough argument to persuade me to make that investment yet though).

For landscapes, consider investing in a decent set of filters too.
 
nate_s91 said:
when the image comes out it seems soft
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A new camera body won't solve that issue, but good technique definitely will, and maybe a better lens might make a noticeable difference. Can we take a look at an example? We may be able to assist in a more cost effective way ;)
 
nate_s91 said:
Well I've been shooting to try and get everything in focus but when the image comes out it seems soft - of course that may be just me doing it wrong, which is more than likely, I've been trying to read up on hyperfocal distance but that's difficult without a distance scale on the lens - and in general when I zoom in the chromatic abberatiom can be bad.
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Can you post some examples of this softness? We might be able to point you in the direction of how best to fix it - either through technique or addressing a lens "problem".
 
The lenses I got with my 550d were a canon 70-200is f4L I use this for all sorts including wildlife it's nice easy fast focus lens to carry around. Also a sigma 17-70os plus a 50 1.8 As my interest in birds increased I got a 1.4 converter. All I now need is a 150- 600. Good luck
 
I use a Canon 17-55 IS USM on my 550D and I'm always impressed by the sharpness and amount of detail in my images. I think the camera is more than capable for most general photography & especially for landscapes, a nice sharp lens will make the world of difference.
 
50mm f/8 1/500
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18mm f/8 13sec
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Ok, as requested here are a few images. Ignore them in terms of composition (I know the first one especially isn't great.)
The first is looking soft in the background, and the second one just seems soft on the Oribtal itself. Both were taken with tripods
I think it's just an issue with my focussing perhaps, maybe I need to really nail down Hyperfocal distance.

CSB said:
I use a Canon 17-55 IS USM on my 550D and I'm always impressed by the sharpness and amount of detail in my images. I think the camera is more than capable for most general photography & especially for landscapes, a nice sharp lens will make the world of difference.
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Oh I like the look of this lens, f/2.8 nice. I was looking at either the 17-40 EF L lens or the 10-18 EF-S Lens, but I heard the EF L lens on a crop works out to really only be 28-64mm, so atm I'm swayed more by the 10-18mm the only issue being when i plan to upgrade to a FF, but I'll cross that bridge when i get there haha
 
They both look pretty reasonable to me - a touch of sharpening in PP might help a bit as long as you don't overdo it.

I use a double sharpening method - I first sharpen the full image then add a touch more after cropping etc - that seems to work well for me.

And your first shot has a touch of haze in the background which makes it appear soft, but also adds to the picture IMHO.

And as for Hyperfocal distance; well that seems to be something ocasionally discussed but I don't know if it makes much difference - an easy rule of thumb is to focus about 2/3 into the scene and use about f16 if possible.

Otherwise just focus on the main subject.

As for a lens; well I would definitely go for an EF lens in case you decide to go FF at a later date and I find a good walkabout lens is the 28-135mm IS USM lens; good quality and can be found at a reasonable price.

Apart from that the one you already have the 50mm f1.8 is the best value lens Canon make and easily as sharp as any "L" lens - so definitely keep that one!
 
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