Hello!
I'm new here and thought I'd introduce myself a bit before getting to my question.
TL;DR - I have $2800 to spend on equipment and need ideas.
I'm an almost 40 former IT engineer who has enjoyed photography since I was kid a with a Kodak 110 film camera. I got my first SLR in the 90s and my first DSLR was a Canon 10D.
I'm currently unemployed having gotten fed up with my former career and I also suffer from bipolar II disorder and chronic insomnia. Through the ups and downs, the one thing I still really enjoy photography. I like wildlife photography, although I'm limited by my equipment and I can't really afford to travel. I also enjoy taking candids of people at parties and such, though I don't think the life of a wedding or event photographer would be compatible with my struggles with anxiety and depression. I also enjoy taking pictures at local clubs where no flash photography is allowed, but my current equipment struggles in low light. My apartment has no windows exposed to light so it's hard to do much indoors. I'm not particularly skilled at landscape photography.
Lately I've felt like I'm in a creative slump. What I don't want to happen is to lose interest. I want to light the spark back up.
My current equipment (from when I had money to buy it):
EOS 7D
EF 100-400L
EF 24-105L
EF-S 10-22mm
EF 85mm f/1.8
430EX II
I recently went on an eBay spree and earned about $2800. I want to spend all of this on photography equipment. I don't have a lot of money, but one thing I do have is a lot of time. I could learn new things.
My biggest dissatisfaction with my current gear is the noise of the 7D. Whether I'm trying to take a picture of a blue heron, a indie musician, or a baseball player at a night game I'm always pumping up the ISO with the equipment I have and the noise and shadow banding is driving me nuts.
Do I keep the 7D and add a 6D? I think the inferior autofocus system would annoy me because I'm used to the advanced 7D.
Do I ditch the 7D and go 7D II? It's tough to say until people have it in their hands for reviews, but what I've seen so far seems better.
Do I go 5DIII? I admit this is a dream body for me. And I could do it with the current rebates, but that would be ALL I could do. But maybe that would be ok.
I also have no macro equipment. I admit the MP-E 65mm intrigues me, but I see so many horror stories about how hard it is to use (and I've done my research and understand the limitations of that particular lens). If I go with a standard macro, there's choices with the 100L, the 180L, and the Sigma. Then I get stuck trying to decide between the ring flash or the twin flash. Focus stacking seems like something I'd be interested in but again I worry that it's beyond me.
Astral photography would be interesting but it's tough to get away from light pollution here in Massachusetts.
A tilt-S___ lens could be fun to learn to use, but since I have a crop sensor body I don't know if that's a wise choice. I wouldn't be able to get much else with the price of those.
So, if you were me what would you do if $2800 (and possibly a little more, as I have more things to sell and birthday coming up) fell into your lap?
And yes, I know that only I can really know what I need, but since I'm feeling so stuck right now I'm looking for ideas to push me in the right direction.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far!
Paul
I'm new here and thought I'd introduce myself a bit before getting to my question.
TL;DR - I have $2800 to spend on equipment and need ideas.
I'm an almost 40 former IT engineer who has enjoyed photography since I was kid a with a Kodak 110 film camera. I got my first SLR in the 90s and my first DSLR was a Canon 10D.
I'm currently unemployed having gotten fed up with my former career and I also suffer from bipolar II disorder and chronic insomnia. Through the ups and downs, the one thing I still really enjoy photography. I like wildlife photography, although I'm limited by my equipment and I can't really afford to travel. I also enjoy taking candids of people at parties and such, though I don't think the life of a wedding or event photographer would be compatible with my struggles with anxiety and depression. I also enjoy taking pictures at local clubs where no flash photography is allowed, but my current equipment struggles in low light. My apartment has no windows exposed to light so it's hard to do much indoors. I'm not particularly skilled at landscape photography.
Lately I've felt like I'm in a creative slump. What I don't want to happen is to lose interest. I want to light the spark back up.
My current equipment (from when I had money to buy it):
EOS 7D
EF 100-400L
EF 24-105L
EF-S 10-22mm
EF 85mm f/1.8
430EX II
I recently went on an eBay spree and earned about $2800. I want to spend all of this on photography equipment. I don't have a lot of money, but one thing I do have is a lot of time. I could learn new things.
My biggest dissatisfaction with my current gear is the noise of the 7D. Whether I'm trying to take a picture of a blue heron, a indie musician, or a baseball player at a night game I'm always pumping up the ISO with the equipment I have and the noise and shadow banding is driving me nuts.
Do I keep the 7D and add a 6D? I think the inferior autofocus system would annoy me because I'm used to the advanced 7D.
Do I ditch the 7D and go 7D II? It's tough to say until people have it in their hands for reviews, but what I've seen so far seems better.
Do I go 5DIII? I admit this is a dream body for me. And I could do it with the current rebates, but that would be ALL I could do. But maybe that would be ok.
I also have no macro equipment. I admit the MP-E 65mm intrigues me, but I see so many horror stories about how hard it is to use (and I've done my research and understand the limitations of that particular lens). If I go with a standard macro, there's choices with the 100L, the 180L, and the Sigma. Then I get stuck trying to decide between the ring flash or the twin flash. Focus stacking seems like something I'd be interested in but again I worry that it's beyond me.
Astral photography would be interesting but it's tough to get away from light pollution here in Massachusetts.
A tilt-S___ lens could be fun to learn to use, but since I have a crop sensor body I don't know if that's a wise choice. I wouldn't be able to get much else with the price of those.
So, if you were me what would you do if $2800 (and possibly a little more, as I have more things to sell and birthday coming up) fell into your lap?
And yes, I know that only I can really know what I need, but since I'm feeling so stuck right now I'm looking for ideas to push me in the right direction.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far!
Paul