500D to 50D.. Should I?

[iolair]

From most of the posts on here, it looks like you would be spending $400 extra just to have something that feels nicer in your hand.

If you've really got the money burning a hole in your pocket - the best way to spend it would depend on your current level as a photographer and, critically, what kind of photos you think you'll spend most of your time taking - I don't think you've mentioned that yet?

My personal inclination would be to get a(nother) decent lens.

 

[ssnxp]

50D has hd video too...

Are you sure? Everything I've read says that the 50D has no video recording, or microphone for that matter.

From most of the posts on here, it looks like you would be spending $400 extra just to have something that feels nicer in your hand.

If you've really got the money burning a hole in your pocket - the best way to spend it would depend on your current level as a photographer and, critically, what kind of photos you think you'll spend most of your time taking - I don't think you've mentioned that yet?

My personal inclination would be to get a(nother) decent lens.

The 6.3fps is a major part of the decision. I thought 3.4 would be fine for sport shooting, and it isn't terrible, but It'd be much nicer to have a faster fps. I know.. I'm a noob and I should be practicing timing the shot.. but there are just some things I don't want to miss. Other team serving the volleyball? Sure, I'll practice there. My girlfriend serving? I do NOT want to miss that, for example, since I'm still working on the timing.

That's definitely just one of the few reasons that I'm considering it.. but I do love my 500D so far, no doubt.

 

[DennyCrane]

Are you using a fast HDSD memory card? A slow card will take longer to write to. Maybe you're not even getting 3.4? Also, a slow card can cause hitches and glitches in video recording for the same reason.

 

[Dao]

Sometimes, you have not choice. If you like to buy a lens that cover the ultra wide view, you have no choice but buying a lens that designed for cropped body such as the EF-S lens from Canon, DII from Tamron, DX from Sigma ....

Why is this? Because it is just too large to fit onto the body, or because it's just different thread/mount? Thanks for the response, btw!

Also.. I just got back from my girlfriend's university gym, I photographed their volleyball game. The lighting was decent, but I had to have the aperture wide open with (at the fastest) a 1/400 shutter speed and ISO around 3200 to get a decent shot. If I wanted to zoom at all, I'd have to crank the ISO up higher.. pretty noisy shots. Will a "fast" lens allow me to turn down the ISO but still achieve well exposed shots?

The 3.4 shots per second of the 500D is a bit slow for sports photography. It's kind of pushing me towards the 50D..

Anyways, what's a GOOD fast lens you would recommend as a keeper? I'd definitely be willing to spend more than $300, as long as it's one I'll be keeping around for a long time and not just what some of you have considered a "beginner" lens. I figure if I'm going to do any indoor sports photography at all without flash, I'll need a really fast lens.

Since the size of the sensor is smaller than a full frame (FF) sensor or 35mm film. So when you mount a lens on your camera, the field of View (FoV) is narrower than on a FF camera. And because of than, if you want to take a photo of ultra wide view of landscape shot, you need to go with lens like EF-S 10-22mm from Canon or Sigma 10-20mm lens which are made for APS-C camera (smaller sensor camera).


10mm focal length lens on a Canon APS-C camera such as the one you have will have a FoV equipivent to a 16mm focal length lens on a FF or 35mm film body.

Personally, I have no reason not to buy the EF-S or lens that is made for APS-C cameras. If I am going to upgrade to a FF body in the future, I will worry about it at that time. At least I can enjoy what I need to do now.



As for indoor volleyball photos, my friend always use his EF 85mm F/1.8 to photograph his daughter's volleyball games.

 

[decado]

Sometimes, you have not choice. If you like to buy a lens that cover the ultra wide view, you have no choice but buying a lens that designed for cropped body such as the EF-S lens from Canon, DII from Tamron, DX from Sigma ....

Why is this? Because it is just too large to fit onto the body, or because it's just different thread/mount? Thanks for the response, btw!

Also.. I just got back from my girlfriend's university gym, I photographed their volleyball game. The lighting was decent, but I had to have the aperture wide open with (at the fastest) a 1/400 shutter speed and ISO around 3200 to get a decent shot. If I wanted to zoom at all, I'd have to crank the ISO up higher.. pretty noisy shots. Will a "fast" lens allow me to turn down the ISO but still achieve well exposed shots?

The 3.4 shots per second of the 500D is a bit slow for sports photography. It's kind of pushing me towards the 50D..

Anyways, what's a GOOD fast lens you would recommend as a keeper? I'd definitely be willing to spend more than $300, as long as it's one I'll be keeping around for a long time and not just what some of you have considered a "beginner" lens. I figure if I'm going to do any indoor sports photography at all without flash, I'll need a really fast lens.

If you get a memory card such as the Sandisk Extreme III you'll get much faster shooting speeds with your 500D. I'm not sure how many shots per second but I do know I can pop off 12 raw shots in quick succession then pop off about one every second indefinitely, I haven't even tried to see how fast it can shoot in JPEG but the card you use can make a huge difference in shooting speed.

 

[Dao]

What about the buffer in the camera?

 

[decado]

What about the buffer in the camera?

Like I said, I can't get into specifics here with exactly how many shots per second, especially with JPEG since I don't shoot JPEGs, but I did go from being able to shoot 7 continuous raw shots and then maybe one shot every 5 seconds or so after that to 12 continuous and one shot every second.

 

[ssnxp]

Hey guys, just a little update.. I had a few runarounds, but I eventually got the restocking fee waived AND I got it price-matched down $100. So I sprung for the 50D.. Plus I got a 8GB SanDisk Extreme (not the Extreme III, the Extreme).. The one that's 60mbs, for $50! CF is damn expensive compared to SD cards though.

I think they may have messed up the price match on the Extreme in my favor. For the 50D, the Extreme > ExtremeIII, right? Or is there something about the Extreme I don't know about?

Thanks!