60D vs 7D

Jadacash · Oct 2, 2012

Hello,

I'm new to the forum and had a question about a camera upgrade I'm considering.

First, a little background: I currently own a Canon Rebel XS, which I've enjoyed for the past 3 or so years, but would love to upgrade. I have the stock lens for that camera, a 50mm prime 1.8 and a Sigma prime 70mm 2.8 macro. I have a food blog (betterwithbutter.com -- you can see some of the photos I typically take there) and so I mostly use the camera (with the sigma lens) for food photography, but I also love portraiture and have done a few engagement/portrait sessions for friends here and there. While I don't consider myself a professional by any stretch of the imagination, I am interested in someday (possibly in the near future) doing freelance food photography.

The question is, do I get the 60D now (and possibly use the money I'll save on another lens I've been eying: Sigma 30mm 1.4) or do I wait a few months and save up a little more for the 7D? I saw a refurb 7D for 1,149 so it isn't a huge price difference.

Based on my photo needs/aspirations/background, what's the best option?

snapitsports · Oct 2, 2012

I have a 7D and love it. Much less, the new 6D is coming out (may already be out) which will probably drop the 7D cost some as they are basically the same camera and the 6D has an upgrade to full frame. If you can get a 6D, that's even better!

.SimO. · Oct 2, 2012

Save the money and spend it on a professional bloggers conference or group of some sort. Images are fine and your readers honestly won't care what the pictures ultimately look like. Build a bigger fan base and then work on other things.

Freelance food photography sounds 99% in your control especially if sponsors are sending you the products to advertise. If that is the case, the Rebel XS is perfectly fine along with the lenses you currently have.

Sounds like the wants are pushing through the barrier and convincing you it's a need. Nice blog site btw. I've seen terrible ones where yours would put it to shame... but they are getting more hits per day. Just a thought. GL.

Overread · Oct 2, 2012

How about the 5D original instead of either the 60D or 7D?

Portrait and food photography are two areas where the 60D and 7D won't offer you much gain over the XS that you have now. You'll get some improved ISO performance, but much of the time you'll have low ISOs and lighting control so it won't change your game too much. The improved AF performance of the 7D over the 60D (and the 60D over the Rebel) are again, areas which won't affect you as strongly as in other areas (like action/sports/wildlife photography).

The 5D original (second hand/refurbished) or if you stretch a 5DMII would give you a change in your sensor size. This, visually, will mean that the angle of view that you get (ie the frame that you see with each lens) will be wider. The sensor in the Rebel (and the 60D, 7D) is 1.6 times smaller than that in the 5D line - so the lenses you have now would appear around 1.6 times wider than they are now.

Eg that 50mm will appear more like a 30mm lens.

However the actual focal length of the lens does not change. 50mm is still 50mm, however the angle of view changes. Why this is important is because once you start to use focal lengths shorter than around 50mm you end up introducing more and more perspective distortion. That is things closer to the lens appear more enlarged over those further away - in portraiture that would be things like overly large noses or hands if they are reaching toward the photographer.

Different wide angle lenses will have different amounts of perspective distortion, but it will be a propertly of all of them. Remaining with telephoto lenses - 50mm or longer - and you reduce and remove this problem.

As a result the wider angle of view afforded by a larger sensor is something many who go into portrait work appreciate and its a reason why many will move up to a 35mm sized sensor camera (eg the 5D line) over the crop sensor line of cameras (some people even go further into the medium format area of photography).

I would also pay attention to what .SimO. says!

MLeeK · Oct 2, 2012

If you are never worried about sealing and the magnesium alloy body? The 60D is a pretty great camera.
This is purely personal opinion, so take it for what it is worth: I am not entirely sure I'd upgrade to either RIGHT NOW. Both are on the long end of what has been out for Canon-something new is coming. Especially with the 7D. If I was going to upgrade I'd want to go with the newest, latest and greatest body out there so that I wouldn't want to upgrade again in a year or two. If you are currently considering keeping the camera you have, I might think about selling it with the kit lens and upgrading to the new 6D. Or saving enough to bump up to the 6D.
Here is my reasoning for your situation: You are starting to broaden your horizons and thinking that you may be fairly serious about photography down the road. If that is the case you'll broaden your horizons a bit more and you'll then need the abilities of the full frame camera. I am just guessing at your thoughts, but it's a fairly educated guess both from personal experience as well as what we see here every day. SOOOOOOO... Take all of that for what it is: My 2¢

Jadacash · Oct 2, 2012

Thanks all, great advice. Agreed that the Rebel XS is probably fine for my needs now, guess I just get excited about the prospect of a new toy

. Also dying to play around with the HD video capabilities. Simo and overread, good points about the blog, definitely focusing on bumping traffic and content frequency up on that.

MonochromeB · Oct 2, 2012

Very Nice blog! One note on the 5D used or 'refurbished' before you put money down, get it in writing (by asking for either a copy of the workorder or payment slip that the shutter was replaced. older 5Dc's (the C is for Classic, which is being used as a sales tactic these days on the sites) because there was a shutter deficiency which affected a good number of 5D's in circulation. Your work with the Rebel is very nice. Instead of a 7D, and in line with .SomO brings up, take a bit of the csh you would use on a camera and invest in a bit of Search Engine Optimization if you haven't already and let your unique and return visitor data fund your next photographic purchase.

MLeeK · Oct 2, 2012

I just looked at the price of the 7D compared to the 5d2 new. They're so close I'd buy the 5D2 over both of those!

Overread · Oct 2, 2012

MLeeK - out of interest where did you compare the prices?
I'm UK side, but its showing the 7D at £1036.00 and the 5D Mark II at £1497.00 on Camera price buster Camera Price Buster - UK Camera Price Comparison
UK to US the divides are normally about the same so it sounds like somewhere is putting the 5DMII on a good discount over there

MLeeK · Oct 2, 2012

Canon EOS-7D DSLR Camera Body 3814B004 7D $1499
Canon EOS-5D Mark II DSLR Camera Body, USA 2764B003 5D2 $1799
$300 USD difference. Unless you need the 7d capability for sports? Definitely not worth the $300 difference to go down from an excellent full frame camera.

scorpion_tyr · Oct 9, 2012

Unless you want to take sports pictures go with a refurbished 60D... pretty big price difference. They're both cropped sensor cameras, and yes there are many differences, but the only one that really sticks out to me is the frames per second (fps). You can shoot up to 5.3 fps on the 60D and 8 on the 7D. Unless you plan on getting into sports photography the 60D will do just fine. I'll also throw in that until you really NEED to upgrade for a specific reason such as your current body just can't do something you need it to (such as fps, or ISO 12800, etc) you can stick with the XS and invest in some new lenses. Cameras come and go and every few months there is somethig new to want. Lenses will last you much longer and will actually allow you to do more with your photography than a new body.