Upgrade ... ... Better Body or Better Glass
Like many of you, I have limited $$$, but I want to upgrade the technical quality of photos I take. I am not a professional but I love taking pix of landscapes and family, and I have +/- $1,000 to spend. Am I better off to upgrade the glass (I have an out-of the-box Canon 18 - 55 lens and an inexpensive 75 - 300 Canon) or to buy a full frame camera body (I have an acceptable Canon T5i).
Thanks for any feedback.
wdross
Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado
Steverhyde wrote:
Like many of you, I have limited $$$, but I want to upgrade the technical quality of photos I take. I am not a professional but I love taking pix of landscapes and family, and I have +/- $1,000 to spend. Am I better off to upgrade the glass (I have an out-of the-box Canon 18 - 55 lens and an inexpensive 75 - 300 Canon) or to buy a full frame camera body (I have an acceptable Canon T5i).
Thanks for any feedback.
Buy the glass. It will optimize any body that you get.
Steve, if your current camera is full frame, then go for better lenses. If not, and you eventually want to go full frame, you'll be looking at purchasing camera and lenses to take advantage of the FX format. The optical quality of the lens is first and foremost in capturing a good image. The camera is essentially only a light tight box.
--Bob
Steverhyde wrote:
Like many of you, I have limited $$$, but I want to upgrade the technical quality of photos I take. I am not a professional but I love taking pix of landscapes and family, and I have +/- $1,000 to spend. Am I better off to upgrade the glass (I have an out-of the-box Canon 18 - 55 lens and an inexpensive 75 - 300 Canon) or to buy a full frame camera body (I have an acceptable Canon T5i).
Thanks for any feedback.
Continuously upgrade your knowledge of, and experience with, photography. Then upgrade your glass. Then get another body.
Knowledge controls light coming through good glass to form images; bodies record that.
Dickt
Loc: Central Massachusetts
The lens is generally more important than the camera. You have a aps-c format camera so I would invest in the lens first , but look a full frame lenses for when you may want to upgrade the boby
What makes you unhappy with the current "technical quality of photos"? Is it primarily with your landscape work or photos of your family? How long have you had the t5i and two lenses?
One time as a pro I upgraded my camera.
No change.
Then I went to lenstip.com, researched their reviews for the best glass, bought one.
And it does not neccessarly have to be f2.8 or better.
Now I get dinamite pictures! Sharpness, details, color. No more toy glass for me.
I am guessing you are able to get high quality pictures with what you already have
and need to put some time and practice in. In the mean time, get a nifty 50 1.8 or
1.4 and challenge yourself to replicate other's photos you have found and really love.
Figure out if it is the subject, the framing, the lighting, the setting etc about why a good
picture is a good picture. Post some of your pics and tell us what you like and don't
like about them.... Are you shooting in full manual mode?
There's nothing wrong with a t5i. My suggestion....keep saving and go for the new version of the 100-400L. I know enough about Canon to know that your camera and that lens make an awesome combination.
Steverhyde wrote:
Like many of you, I have limited $$$, but I want to upgrade the technical quality of photos I take. I am not a professional but I love taking pix of landscapes and family, and I have +/- $1,000 to spend. Am I better off to upgrade the glass (I have an out-of the-box Canon 18 - 55 lens and an inexpensive 75 - 300 Canon) or to buy a full frame camera body (I have an acceptable Canon T5i).
Thanks for any feedback.
Steve,
Welcome to UHH
Glass is important to me first. What is wrong with the glass you have now?
Absolutely no doubt in my mind the answer is Glass. I would just be sure to get full frame glass, they'll work just fine on your T5i and when/if you do eventually go to a Full Frame camera the lens will work. Don't be like me and think you'll never go to a full frame camera. It's what I thought initially and bought lens based on that. Well, guess what, yep, went to a full frame camera and most of the lenses that I had would not work.
Not every one needs a full frame camera, or can afford one. The cost of a good full frame camera plus a few lens are above some of our budget.... Your T5i is not a bad camera for what you are doing, look at the focal lenght that you have, if you are using the 18-55 more than the 55-300, update the 18-55. Look at the Sigma 17-50mm F 2.8 or if you need more reach the 17-70mm F2.8-4.0. yocan buy the first lens for about 400$ on B&H Photo.
rehess
Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA
Steverhyde wrote:
Like many of you, I have limited $$$, but I want to upgrade the technical quality of photos I take. I am not a professional but I love taking pix of landscapes and family, and I have +/- $1,000 to spend. Am I better off to upgrade the glass (I have an out-of the-box Canon 18 - 55 lens and an inexpensive 75 - 300 Canon) or to buy a full frame camera body (I have an acceptable Canon T5i).
Thanks for any feedback.
You really do need to provide more information before any of us can provide feedback useful to
you ... otherwise we'll be spending your money in ways pleasing to us.
(1) which specific lenses do you currently have? {Canon has made several of almost any description}. The best thing to do is to copy everything written on the front of the lens.
(2) what caused you to make this request? {if it's just money you feel a need to dispose of, I'd be thrilled if you sent me a present} What pictures aren't turning out as you desired, and in what way are they not correct??
For example, I currently have a Pentax K-30. This camera struggles in low light {"too much noise" under high ISO settings}. There I specified a particular need; someone might suggest a K-70 {$650} or a KP {$1100} depending on how much money I had said I was willing to spend.
Steverhyde wrote:
Like many of you, I have limited $$$, but I want to upgrade the technical quality of photos I take. I am not a professional but I love taking pix of landscapes and family, and I have +/- $1,000 to spend. Am I better off to upgrade the glass (I have an out-of the-box Canon 18 - 55 lens and an inexpensive 75 - 300 Canon) or to buy a full frame camera body (I have an acceptable Canon T5i).
Thanks for any feedback.
If you want to improve the 'technical quality' of your landscape and family photos your first upgrade should be to a add a good quality fast prime lens. Without at least one decent fast prime, you may as well be using a bridge or even a compact camera. A fast prime will give you control over depth of field and allow you to create bokeh that you will find very difficult or impossible to achieve with mediocre or even good zoom lenses. Canon has a very nice pancake 40mm prime. I gave one to my daughter and she takes beautiful pics of our grandaughter with it. Maybe add a good wide angle for your landscape shots.
$1000 won't take you very far down the FF road. Unless you can see spending at least $3000 - $4000 over the foreseeable future I would forget about buying FF lenses and stick with the best aps-c lenses you can get. If you buy good used lenses, you will recover most of your costs if you ever win the lottery and decide to blow it on FF.
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