Advice: 7D or 70D and a new lens - (16-35L, 17-40L, 24-105L, 10-22)

Vanilla

Vanilla

Vanilla

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So my current set up is as follows:

Canon 500D with Canon 50mm Lens, Tamron 18-270 VC PZD, Canon 70-300mm and Canon 18-55. I really only use the Tamron these days.

This lot has done me quite well. I took the 500D and the Tamron 18-270 all around the world and was very happy with it.

Body:

I think it's time to upgrade.Sure, body's are good for many years and the 500D is nice but there is so much more out there 5/6 years on!.

I'm looking at the 7D and 70D but leaning towards the 70D simply because it's brand new and the benefits of a 7D may well be lost on me.

I like the idea of the flip out screen, wifi, built in HDR (tho will likely still do my own), more stops for HDR and better movies.

Lens:

So this is the toughie!

I liked the zoom of the Tamron and I did look into Prime Lenses for zoom before I realised that, looking back, most of my favourite pictures were landscape.

My knowledge of lenses is not that good but my friend recommended I look into the following lenses:

Canon 16-35L, 17-40L, 24-105L, 10-22.

Does anyone have any experience with these?

My criteria is a decent walk around lens which is good for landscape. I'm leaning towards the 24-105L. Not pricey, a good classic apparently.

I can also just use the kit lens that comes with the 70D -18-135mm - silent auto focus for Video.

What do you think? Advice and opinions welcome - I don't know a lot about photography so feel free to lecture.
 
If you're staying crop I'd suggest a 70D over a 7D any day. There is very little better about the 7D for 90% of people, and the 70D does have some significant improvements in the sensor.

As for lenses, 24mm is not at all wide on crop (equivalent to 36mm I believe?), so I would suggest the EF-s 15-85mm. It's an incredibly sharp lens, oft compared to L lenses for its quality and sharpness, plus it gives you a far more usable range on a crop sensor. In fact, its incredibly similar to the 24-105mm on full frame.
 
I'm sure some more experinced guys on here will be able to help a lot more, but I would have thought 24-105 would be a bit too long for landscapes on a crop body?
 
Thanks for the advice guys, admittedly when my friend was recommending the 24-105 he was trying to get my to go down the full frame route, I just re-read his mail.

Will look into the 15-85mm
 
I've got a 70d and it's definitely not bad but it's also pretty likely that the 7d replacement will be out this year so if there's no rush and you've got room in the budget then it might be worth waiting?

Otherwise, the 70d is pretty nice. I already had the 18-135mm STM lens from my original 650D but I can't say it gets used much between my other lenses. I would definitely get the 70d over the 7d unless you need the better weatherproofing

The 10-22mm is pretty nice for landscape when there's a lot to cram in. I've also recently got myself the 18-35mm F1.8 Sigma which is still alright for some landscape but also alright for some close up faces.
 
If you have a 500D personally I wouldn't bother upgrading yet, nothing much has changed with the sensors yet. Put the money into lenses while you wait for canon's sensor department to catch up. Something like the sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 would be a sweet upgrade.
 
If you make movies, the 70D is an epic upgrade due to the Dual Pixel AF. Many review sites refer to this as a "game changer".

If you want burst rate, 7 shot bracketing, wifi with remote control, touchscreen focusing in Live View, AF microadjustment, much improved AF and Auto ISO with a min/max setting (wish I had this on my 50D) again the 70D is an excellent upgrade.

The sensor is still an excellent sensor. You'll see about half a stop of improved noise handling, which is still pretty good considering you're getting another 5 megapixels.

Might be worth trying Magic Lantern on your 500D first though, it might give it another lease of life.

I'm still weighing up a 70D myself. Have seen a few minty secondhand ones appearing for a few hundred quid off...
 
As mentioned above, if you're looking for some kind of magical upgrade in picture quality then you won't get much of an improvement from a 500d to the 70d. It's probably a bit better with high ISOs but other than that it's fairly similar.

For me I wanted better AF and better burst mainly and better bracketing is also useful for me.

The touchscreen AF is pretty nice too for shooting at very awkward angles
 
CGrieves said:
If you make movies, the 70D is an epic upgrade due to the Dual Pixel AF. Many review sites refer to this as a "game changer".

If you want burst rate, 7 shot bracketing, wifi with remote control, touchscreen focusing in Live View, AF microadjustment, much improved AF and Auto ISO with a min/max setting (wish I had this on my 50D) again the 70D is an excellent upgrade.

The sensor is still an excellent sensor. You'll see about half a stop of improved noise handling, which is still pretty good considering you're getting another 5 megapixels.

Might be worth trying Magic Lantern on your 500D first though, it might give it another lease of life.

I'm still weighing up a 70D myself. Have seen a few minty secondhand ones appearing for a few hundred quid off...
Click to expand...

All good points but I think I will go for a new body. Sure, picture quality may be similar but there are just so many new features out there.

I will probably buy from one of the well known Hong Kong sellers to save a bit.
 
Phal said:
As mentioned above, if you're looking for some kind of magical upgrade in picture quality then you won't get much of an improvement from a 500d to the 70d. It's probably a bit better with high ISOs but other than that it's fairly similar.

For me I wanted better AF and better burst mainly and better bracketing is also useful for me.

The touchscreen AF is pretty nice too for shooting at very awkward angles
Click to expand...

As above :) It's more the combination of new features. i'll improve the pic quality with a tasty new lens!
 
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