What to upgrade...body or lens??? (help!)

hewhoknows

hewhoknows

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Matt
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Ive gathered together enough funds to allow me to either upgrade my DSLR body OR upgrade a few of my lenses and im stuck as to what I should do.

I currently use a Nikon D90 and my main lenses I use are all third party:
Sigma 70-200 f2.8
Sigma 24-70 f2.8
Tokina 11-16 f2.8 (recently purchased)

I shoot alot of sports, property and landscapes and have just started to get into portrait stuff and am learning as much as I can.

Ive priced up changing my 70-200 to the Nikon version (VR1)for the sport stuff as I shoot alot of ice hockey which is a very dark environment to shoot in. I figured the Nikon is a little faster and may help in that area.

The D90 does struggles at ISO1600 and above and im always at that or higher when shooting hockey. Having said that, im happy with the D90 for pretty much everything else. Then ive looked at upgrading to the D7000 as it copes well in low light and high ISO.

My question is, what is generally the best option, change body or lenses?
 
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If you're finding the ISO performance the limiting factor then I'd upgrade your camera body rather than your lenses.
 
That was my thoughts to be honest but ive read so many times to upgrade glass instead of camera.

In regards to bodies, im torn between the d7000 and the d300s. I dont need to go full frame but having not had any experience with any other bodies im not sure what option would be best. I do like the fact the d7000 works very well under low light so for me thats a massive plus
 
hewhoknows said:
That was my thoughts to be honest but ive read so many times to upgrade glass instead of camera.
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And whilst this is generally true and good advice, if you feel your body is restricting you, then upgrade your body.

A good friend went through a similar process of would better glass improve his shots - after a few pints and a really good chat, the fps his body was capable of was the restricting factor, although he didn't want to fire off 6 + fps, having the ability to fire 2 or 3 shots very very quickly, made all the difference. He upgraded his body and with the same lenses, is getting better shots now and he's over the moon (obviously the body had other improvements in it, other than just the fps, which also helps)

Hope this is of some help...
 
'Invest in lenses' is more general advice. What people mean when they say this is don't go out and spend £1500 on a camera body and then £300 on lenses as an after thought.

Once you already have a setup in place your upgrade path needs to be determind by the limits you hit with your kit. In your specific case you need faster focusing and the ability to increase the sensitivity of the senor without introducing too much noise. The only way you can get that is through a body upgrade.

Of course you could get both :lol:



.
 
arad85 said:
Because if you do, that's what you'll end up buying ;)
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+1... really trying not to go an try out a D700 at the moment. Must... resist... :bang:
 
Haven't used the Sigma 70-200 so can't compare, but the 70-200 is quick to focus even on the D90 AF system so you'll definitely see an improvement there. That said, the D7000 AF/high ISO is definitely a step up - the D7000 will AF in 1/30 f1.8 ISO3200 light without the AF assist lamp, and it's much better at continuous tracking, so you'll definitely like that too. I'd say go for a second hand 70-200 VR1 (you won't see the difference between that and the VR2 on your camera) then save up for a D400 when that comes out. Given how the AF does on the D7000 and knowing that the D400 will be better...:p
 
Jees, now im confused again :bonk::help::shrug:

I keep hearing good things about the D400 but no release date yet. Plus a newie would be far out of my budgets i reckon.

Im not sure if I should be looking at a d700 now but didnt really see the need to go FF. I just want something that works very well in low light, will AF fast and produce great images. Or would upgrading to better lenses do that for me on my D90 (as said above would a 70-200 VR1 provide better IQ than my sigma 70-20??)
 
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Body...

Doesn't matter what lens you put on your D90, at ISO1600 you'll get the same noise.

To reduce noise you need a next gen body from the D90, so D7000 currently or the D700 if you can stretch. Don't know if you'll find any D700 bargains should a replacement be forthcoming as supplies have not been strong for obvious reasons. However, given that a D90 is not exactly un-usable, you might be best off waiting to see if you can get lucky on a cheap D700, and if you can't get a D7000 anyway. Also, some decent secondhand D700's may become available when a replacement comes too. Worth a look if it's been looked after.
 
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