looking to upgrade Canon 30D

[lewtashjosh]

Hiya all,

I'm finally looking to upgrade my Canon 30D DSLR but i'm unsure what to go for, could people maybe throw around a few suggestions Canon or even Nikon around the £450 - £500 mark.

Many Thanks / Lewis

[Donald]

Lewis

I'm sure people will come pitching in with ideas. But, whilst you wait for that, the other thing to have a look at (if you haven't already done so) is the list of threads all carrying the Tag 'Camera Purchase'. There you'll find lots of discussions about 'what to buy'.

You can click on 'View Tag Cloud' just below on the left-hand side, or you can just click here.

[Kentboy]

Howabout a used 50D?

[inkista]

Don't know if it will net you any big savings, but Canon UK puts their refurbs on eBay.

[Geoff F]

Assuming that you already have some Canon lenses, I suppose that for your guide budget a secondhand 40D or 50D would be my first choice. And they will both be very similar in operation to your existing 30D.

[Glenn NK]

I will not be so presumptuous as to tell you what to buy, but I still use my 30D for macro work, while I use the 5DII for landscapes or other wide angle stuff.

If one considers the crop factor as applied to a lens (1.6 - or the inverse is 5/8ths), then a 100mm macro lens is like a 160 on the 30D. The inverse ratio is applied to both the width and height of the image.

Suppose my 5DII has 21 MP (it has), and I use the 100mm macro lens on it. If I keep the same distance from the subject (I don't want to put the lens on top of a flower), the resulting MP left from the 5DII is 5/8 x 5/8 x 21 = 8.2 MP - pretty close to the 8.1 of the 30D. Of course this isn't the whole story - the DOF of the FF 5DII is less than that of the 30D. So for macro work, the FF camera doesn't offer an advantage.

What's the point of this? Keep the 30D - it's a pretty good camera even by today's standards.

As to what to get, the 5DII is a wonderful landscape camera (the reason I chose it over the 7D). The widest lens I have is 24mm - and the FF allows me to keep it at that. If I decide to do wildlife, the 30D will serve very well with the addition of a longer lens.

Also Geoff's suggestion of a 40 or 50D is worth considering.

Glenn

[Blazing fire]

What lenses, support systems (tripods, ballheads etc) and flash(es) do you currently have?

It's a better investment than buying a new camera, in my opinion.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Lewis,

What is it about the 30D that's no longer "working" for you?

What kinds of things to you like to shoot?

How are you off for other equipment?

[RossPanner]

Hiya all,

I'm finally looking to upgrade my Canon 30D DSLR but i'm unsure what to go for, could people maybe throw around a few suggestions Canon or even Nikon around the £450 - £500 mark.

Many Thanks / Lewis

Apart from suggestion you may receive here you may also read reviews on cannon, Nikon and Testfreaks and take a informed decision. Hope this helps. thanks.

[rob marshall]

Lewis

What lenses do you have? Do you have any quality lenses? I used to have a 30D, and I thought it an excellent camera. I still see some images (there was one in a quality photo mag last week) that use the 30D, and even the 350D I have one of those too.

If your budget is around £500, and you don't currently have a quality lens, I might be tempted to go for a new or used quality lens, rather than a new camera. I bought a used 24-105L a couple of years ago for £500, and it significantly improved the quality of my shots (didn't make me a better photographer though.) Why do that? Because you will get much better improvement in image quality with a quality lens over a cheaper lens than you will by upgrading from a 30D to a 50D and using the same old lens. But as I said, it depends what lenses you currently have.

[rpcrowe]

Hi Lewis,

What lenses do you have? The 30D can produce excellent imagery when combined with a top-grade lens. It is quite possible that you would notice a more marked improvement in your imagery by upgrading your lens (depending, of course on which lens or lenses you are already using). IMO, virtually every recent DSLR camera can produce excellent images and the quality of that imagery is more dependant on the glass in front of the camera than the body itself. I used a 30D on a China trip last year with a 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens mounted and think that my imagery is quite good. See my China galleries at
( http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/ ). I shot 2/3 of my images with the 30D and 1/3 with a 40D.

That said, I prefer my 40D over the 30D because it has a tad better focus (especially with an f/2.8 or faster lens), the LCD is larger, it has a sensor cleaning system ( although since I shoot with a pair of cameras, I don't often get my sensor dirty by switching lenses in the field), the ISO capability is a bit better and I love the three user selected modes.

There are several reasons why I am thinking about upgrading the 30D to a 7D, but if I had a pair of 40D cameras, I would not be considering an upgrade. I am interested in the better focusing system of the 7D and in wireless flash capability. I am not really interested in video but, suppose it might be a deal-making factor for some photographers. Although, I do not usually need to shoot at exceptionally high ISO levels, the availability of relatively clean high ISO would be a nice thing to have.

[lewtashjosh]

Hi there, i'm currently using a Canon 28x105 lense and i also have a Sigma 70x300...both are not greatly expensive

[arith]

lenses. Trouble is that the 50D requires good lenses. If your lens is slightly soft on the edges on a 30D, then I bet you notice on a 50D. It also took me ages to nail the exposure; noise seemed to be such a nuisance. Now I don't have to think about it until I get an image without any noise in it don't how that happens.

But I think if you want to upgrade; the 50D is the way to go unless money is no object. The 50D will do nice sharp A2 size pics so long as you compose in the viewfinder and are not over zealous with croppin. I like my pics sharp ya know.