Upgrade from 40D

[daniel-barton]

Hi Rumoreros,

I am about to take the leap and finally upgrade my beloved and trusty 40D after 4 years. I won't buy a 50D (not really an upgrade) or a 60D (weird plastic super rebel). I buy used for several reasons - it's cheaper, I get to wait and see if the hot new products live up to the hype or not, and I'm a bit anti-consumerism. But I do love my cameras. I shoot mostly action (wildlife, some sports every now and again) and a bit of landscape as well as long-exposure night photography. I have a lot of 'uses' covered by my EOS-3 and by MF film gear, so thinking mostly about action and ISO performance, things that don't play nice with film. With that in mind, would you buy with a ~$1200 budget:

1) Used 1D Mark III (yeah, submirror AF blah blah)
2) Used 5D Mark II
3) Used 7D
4) Stretch and buy a 6D (a little against my grain, but...)
5) Something else?

I have a good handful of L glass to cover ranges in different sensor sizes (and I'm obviously used to APS-C with my 40D) so I'm not too worried about APS-C vs. APS-H vs. full frame.

I'd greatly appreciate any inputs, flames, thoughts, criticisms, or rants. Thanks.

 

[DArora]

Are you planning to keep your 40D as backup or selling it? And what lenses do you have? More of EF-S or EF?

Just couple of questions!

For action/sports photography 5D2 / 6D AF will not be useful. 7D will work.
For landscape and long-exposure any of these will work, full frame will be better.

 

[CarlTN]

The 50D was a huge upgrade!!

 

[brianboru]

I went from a 40D to 7D this summer. (I still have the former as a backup.) The 7D is a big step forward in focus and the ability to shoot bursts in RAW vs being limited to jpeg for anything over a handful of shots is very nice. Weather sealing, micro-focus, programmable controls and Video are obviously completely new capabilities. The biggest disappointment is that while iso performance is about a stop better - that's it - only a stop. You'll still find banding and noise at higher ISOs. I hope to get a 5Diii or a 6D in a year or two and gift the 40D to one of my sons, but for now I do really like the 7D.

 

[M.ST]

Wait until the 7D Mark II is on the market and decide then if you want it.

For sports the 5D Mark II and 6D is not an option. The 7D is to old and don´t have the best image quality.

Compared to the 350D, 40D, 50D all new APS-C cameras from Canon are cheap plastic junk. Even a lot of 7D´s are not produced very well. I return two of them after changing twice the CF card.

 

[dtaylor]

1) Used 1D Mark III (yeah, submirror AF blah blah)

Sports and wildlife: excellent
Landscape: OK
Low light: OK

2) Used 5D Mark II

Sports and wildlife: OK
Landscape: excellent
Low light: excellent

3) Used 7D

Sports and wildlife: excellent
Landscape: excellent
Low light: OK

Not sure what to say here except that you're probably looking at the 7D or 5D2, and not the 1D3 regardless of the cool factor of having a 1-series camera.

If sports AF/fps are critical, 7D.

If >3200 ISO and/or >11x14 low light prints are critical, 5D2.

Low-mid ISO landscape prints are the same from either after post processing, and you can easily print 16x24 and 20x30.

 

[nicku]

Hi Rumoreros,

I am about to take the leap and finally upgrade my beloved and trusty 40D after 4 years. I won't buy a 50D (not really an upgrade) or a 60D (weird plastic super rebel). I buy used for several reasons - it's cheaper, I get to wait and see if the hot new products live up to the hype or not, and I'm a bit anti-consumerism. But I do love my cameras. I shoot mostly action (wildlife, some sports every now and again) and a bit of landscape as well as long-exposure night photography. I have a lot of 'uses' covered by my EOS-3 and by MF film gear, so thinking mostly about action and ISO performance, things that don't play nice with film. With that in mind, would you buy with a ~$1200 budget:

1) Used 1D Mark III (yeah, submirror AF blah blah)
2) Used 5D Mark II
3) Used 7D
4) Stretch and buy a 6D (a little against my grain, but...)
5) Something else?

I have a good handful of L glass to cover ranges in different sensor sizes (and I'm obviously used to APS-C with my 40D) so I'm not too worried about APS-C vs. APS-H vs. full frame.

I'd greatly appreciate any inputs, flames, thoughts, criticisms, or rants. Thanks.

For your $1200 budget , you have 2 options: a used 1Dmk3 or a new 7D. I have made the same jump ( from 40D to 7D).
If you find a good condition 1D3 GO FOR IT.... If not, go for 7D. 5D2 and 6D will give you superior IQ but they are slow with crappy AF system. 5D2 has a worse AF system compared with 40D.

 

[verysimplejason]

The only real answer for all your needs would be a 5D3. I'd be happy to get a 6D though if I were in your shoes.

 

[markojakatri]

I shoot mostly action (wildlife, some sports every now and again) and a bit of landscape as well as long-exposure night photography. I have a lot of 'uses' covered by my EOS-3 and by MF film gear, so thinking mostly about action and ISO performance, things that don't play nice with film. With that in mind, would you buy with a ~$1200 budget:

Based on bolded ones:

1) Used 1D Mark III (yeah, submirror AF blah blah)
- I haven't used this myself, but would definitively consider this one
2) Used 5D Mark II
- I have used this and this one is not a action camera. Frame rate is not fast enough and focusing is not made for sport
3) Used 7D
- I have used this and this might be the winner for you. Yeah, it's not made for low light shooting, but your night shooting was long-exposure shooting, so you don't need to raise your iso so much. This is fast enough and focusing system is nice. Its build quality is solid I would compare this and 1D mark III
4) Stretch and buy a 6D (a little against my grain, but...)
- Haven't used this, but this is not made for action and is more like 5D Mark II kind of camera

I either wouldn't buy 50D or 60D even though there is some nice improvements over 40D (back screen was nice improvement). I would read 1D Mark III manual and check, for example, what kind of focusing methods can be used. I'm pretty sure that 1D has better low light performance in focusing and also in image quality.

 

[Hillsilly]

70D?

 

[Chosenbydestiny]

7D seems closest to what you need, at least compared to the 40D. A 1D mark III is also quite good... But it'll be very close in terms of low light ISO performance, if you can get a good used copy of it I'd definitely go for it but the 7D will be the best value for the price if you need extra cash for something else. The 7D also has a higher quality screen. My 1D mark III is still my favorite body, because of how it feels when shooting, despite the difficulty of finding a replacement battery in my area...

 

[harrylarry]

Just upgraded from 40D myself. Ended, after a long debate with myself, up with a 5D MK II on sale. The reason why is this:

- 5D MKII was and is a great camera! Shoot great pictures and video! Can't stress point enough! Photographers have won awards with this camera! Easy to forget sometimes.
- New cameras from Canon are always priced very high in the beginning. So if I waited for the 70D/7D MKII, I would have bought at the price peak.
- I wantet full frame
- Sport not that importand to me.
- I will probably buy 5D MKIII in 3-4 years when the price is much lower than today. Ignoring all the people at that time craving for the 5D MKIV.

 

[iaind]

Went from 40D to 5DII and have just upgraded to 5DIII.

If you need APS-C get a 7D, For FF a 6D will disappoint, so go for a 5DIII (grey) if your budget stretches.

 

[Hobby Shooter]

Wait until the 7D Mark II is on the market and decide then if you want it.

For sports the 5D Mark II and 6D is not an option. The 7D is to old and don´t have the best image quality.

Compared to the 350D, 40D, 50D all new APS-C cameras from Canon are cheap plastic junk. Even a lot of 7D´s are not produced very well. I return two of them after changing twice the CF card.

That is a very harsh comment. I owned the 60D before and wouldn't call it plastic junk. It even withstood fair amounts of rain a few times.

 

[daniel-barton]

Thanks folks! I'm definitely going to buy a Nikon, then.

Just kidding. I think I'm going used 7D this time despite the marginal improvement in low light performance... appreciate the different views. Then I'll be 2 years less behind the times.