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Time To Upgrade Camera?


akristin
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Hi!

I'm new to this forum and this is my first actual post (yay!)

I'm interested in photography and have seen everyone's beautiful photos in this forum section which made me keen to upgrade my existing camera but was wondering if it would be worth the upgrade? As I heard that buying a different lens for the camera would be better than buying a new camera. Although, I have had the Canon 400D for a good few years already.. is it time to move on to a more recent dslr?

Thanks! and very interested in everyone's input :D

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:) Lots of folks here have very cool new cameras and do a fantastic job :)

What do you want to do with your photos? print/sell/enjoy/store away for memories?

I have an even older canon 350 D..it takes some nice shots still :)

Not sure about the 400 , so had a look on FLICKR, HERE There are some VERY nice shots there :D

Guess if you want shiny new, and can afford it - go ahead :)

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How are you currently using your camera? As in, do you mainly leave it on Auto/Sports etc or do you use manual/aperture/shutter priority modes. Are you aware of the different functions/features and ho to use them eg different focus modes?

If you are still mostly using it like a "point and shoot", I would probably get a better lens and then work to learn more about what your camera can do and using it in different ways before worrying about upgrading the body as the 450D can still produce very nice images.

I was in a professional photo store in Adelaide a couple of months ago, and they were the types of questions that 1 of the sales guys asked someone who came in to upgrade their body - they suggested the person held onto his money for now until he could use his camera more. If using mostly auto and the programmed modes, you may find an upgrade disappoints you.

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I'd agree with Piper. Unless you are pushing your camera to its limits, I don't think you'll notice a big difference.

However, if you are still using cheap kit lenses, just a lens upgrade will improve things.

I have had four cameras (Nikon range D80, D90, D300s and D700), the only time I noticed a real difference, was jumping from DX to FX. But the purchase of a 50mm 1.8 changed my life :)

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I have to say similar I have a 450d of my own and my brother has a 60d. I have borrowed his camera on occasion and no real difference to the photo outcome using auto settings. I would look at better lenses before upgrading the body if money is an issue :).

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:) Lots of folks here have very cool new cameras and do a fantastic job :)

What do you want to do with your photos? print/sell/enjoy/store away for memories?

I have an even older canon 350 D..it takes some nice shots still :)

Not sure about the 400 , so had a look on FLICKR, HERE There are some VERY nice shots there :D

Guess if you want shiny new, and can afford it - go ahead :)

I'm looking to make canvas prints of my photos and display them up in the house :) but mostly for memories sake too! I did take a look on he flickr link and

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persephone-

I'm looking to make canvas prints of my photos and display them up in the house :) but mostly for memories sake too! I did take a look on the flickr link and I agree there were some nice shots there!

& Yes I'm interested in getting a shiny new one as opposed to getting a better lens as we've had this camera for a while and recent dslr specs have improved twice as much as when I bought my one

tdierikx-

Just scanned through the specs of 70D.. I'm Interested ! And I only have the stock lens of the canon 400D at the moment. Ah, Yes I'm interested in less pixelated images .. my 400D is 10mp I've been noticing that recent dslr cameras are reaching up to about 24 mp or more!

piper-

Photography is mostly a hobby for me and take around the camera with me when I go out so I've gotten to know the cameras strengths and weaknesses, I've been using the manual/aperture/shutter modes for a few months and toying around with the different settings :D

huga-

I only have the lens that the camera came with .. so not the best lens to use but it does suffice! Ah, I had a look the 50mm 1.8 lens thanks will be thinking about it :D

ness-

Oh I see, I was looking to get the nikon d5200 .. so a different brand as I tried out my family friends nikon and the photos it produced looked phenomenal, but his lens wasn't stock lens so that could've been why the photos turned out quite nice! :laugh:

pesh-

:D I'll see how I go with finding a decent lens

P.s Sorry I couldn't figure out how to do those quote replies to everyone's replies to this thread :confused:

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I upgraded from a 450D with the kit lenses to a 60D with a Tamron 18-270mm lens - so the lens wasn't top of the range - but the larger sensor and updated Digic on the 60D definitely gave me nicer images.

I now have a Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 L lens on the 60D most of the time - and the combo is giving me awesome images. A word of warning though - this combo is HEAVY... around 2kgs total... I've developed biceps from using it handheld.

Really nice glass is definitely worth the spend...

That said - I'm looking to get my 450D back from a friend who is borrowing it - and putting the Tamron lens on it for a backup camera when I need something closer ranged, and can't be bothered stopping to change lenses on the 60D.

T.

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I'm only a beginner to, have the Canon 60D and I would agree with the others regarding looking at new lenses if you want to spend some money. I have the 50mm 1.8 and use that most of the time.

I've also done 2 courses this year and found them to be great. One of the courses was more on using full manual mode, and the other was more a combination of using more semi-auto modes (like Tv and Av) and composition. Something to consider as well.

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not all about the megapixels - you also need to consider the sensor size and how much the data is being compressed to fit on a smaller sensor.

What you need to look at with your current images is where you consider that the camera is letting you down - you mention graininess - what settings are you using for those? If you choose a lower ISO, do you still have the graininess. Is it there all the time, but only in low light settings? Are you confidently shooting in manual, or are you letting the camera choose all the settings you use by shooting in auto?

Certainly the first thing I would always suggest is a better lens - and for a good cheap start, you cannot go past the 50 1.4 lens, which gives a nice wide aperture at probably the lowest price you will get on any prime lens.

Next learn to shoot in RAW and process your own images yourself - this will give you way more control over what is going on, as shooting in JPEG ,means the camera decides what data to keep and what to throw (in order to have smaller size files), RAW means all data is there, and you make those decisions in post processing.

Do not use the "made up" ISO's when shooting - your camera is only shooting at 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 etc - the numbers in between are actually the camera basing the data on algorithms from capturing it at say 100, and then reinterpreting it to ISO 160 or whatever in between figure you have selected. You will get cleaner and better results using the traditional ISO levels

Determine the exposure settings you wish to use based on the effect you are after in the image - as Bryan Peterson explains in his book, Understanding Exposure (a bible for anyone who wants to learn how to drive their camera), there are many settings that can be used to all expose an image properly, but each one will give a different effect - eg a longer shutter exposure of a waterfall will give the "candyfloss" water effect, a short exposure will freeze the water in motion. A nice wide aperture and placing a subject a good few metres in front of a background will allow you to blur the background, a narrower aperture will through everything into sharpness and not seperate it out.

If you still want a new camera, determine what you want in the way of a camera - do you want one that can handle low light well, do you want one that is capable of rapid fire bursts and can quickly write data to card, do you want large megapixel capacity with a large sensor, does it need video capacity etc? A great place to then check out cameras is the website dpreview.com - they review ALL digital cameras, you can see sample images taken with them, and they do a pretty thorough job listing pros and cons too. Better than going to a camera shop and taking the advice of someone who is paid to get the latest model out the door, and sell you on the idea of upgrading in order to make sales commissions

And last of all, when you do get your camera and new lens, take good care of them. That includes cleaning camera and lens.

If you find that your camera is limited by

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Hi Everyone,

I appreciate everyones responses to this thread! A verdict has been made... We are getting a new camera and buy an additional lens!

For those interested, this is the camera we've opted for we're buying another lens ontop of the twin lens kit that's already included

Thanks! :thumbsup:

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