70D for portrait?

xFireSoul · Nov 30, 2014

So I will be getting the 70D used pretty soon and I love its features. However, most people describe it as a body for fast moving photos and videos only.
This thing scared me a little bit. Because I will be shooting a lot of portraits as well. Will they be good enought? (Willing to get 24-105 f/4)
Currently I shoot with Nikon d3200 and they are fine.

goodguy · Nov 30, 2014

I never used the 70D but I see no reason for it to be specifically bad for portrait, it does posses the pluses and minuses of every other crop sensor camera but I don't see it any different when you are talking on taking pictures with it of portrait.

Derrel · Nov 30, 2014

Sure, why not. It's one of Canon's newer mid-level cameras. It has plenty of options to handle most any portrait gig.

Village Idiot · Nov 30, 2014

xFireSoul said:
So I will be getting the 70D used pretty soon and I love its features. However, most people describe it as a body for fast moving photos and videos only.
This thing scared me a little bit. Because I will be shooting a lot of portraits as well. Will they be good enought? (Willing to get 24-105 f/4)
Currently I shoot with Nikon d3200 and they are fine.

Although some cameras are better than others at some things, all cameras can pretty much do everything. Sport photography didn't wait for auto focus to start.

xFireSoul · Dec 1, 2014

hehe I know. Well, thanks for the help guys!

Gary A. · Dec 1, 2014

Camera ability-wise, shooting action is an extreme camera capability. If the camera is adapt at shooting something as extreme as action/sports, then it can easily handle a stationary subject like a portrait. Be assured the 70D is more than suited for portraits. Enjoy your new camera.

xzyragon · Dec 9, 2014

Yes you can.

Flickr Search: canon 70d portrait

TCampbell · Dec 11, 2014

Every DSLR camera can do portraits.

The 70D has a "dual-pixel AF" on it's imaging sensor which allows it to do a phase-detect auto-focus directly on the sensor while in video or liveview mode. This means it can do continuous auto-focus while shooting video ... most DSLRs either can't do continuous focus while doing video -OR- they have to guess their way to focus via "contrast detection AF" and you'll notice the camera perform "focus hunt" when it does that. Phase-detect AF doesn't really need to "hunt" because the direction and amount of phase shift tells the camera exactly which way it needs to adjust focus... and how much. So it pretty much takes one sample and adjusts to the correct focus without a "hunt". This gives the camera a noticeable advantage over other models when doing video.

As for speed... it can burst in continuous mode at 7 frames per second... which is very respectable for a DSLR. That makes it desirable for action photography. The original 7D can do 8 fps. The new 7D II does 10.

None of these video or action features will diminish it's ability to ALSO do portraits.

While the 24-105 is a great lens, 24mm is very moderately wide on an APS-C body (29mm is "normal" 1x magnification factor). If you need wide angle, you may want an extra lens for that.

xFireSoul · Dec 11, 2014

Not sure if i should get the 24-105 f4 or 50mm 1.4 USM ..

xzyragon · Dec 11, 2014

xFireSoul said:
Not sure if i should get the 24-105 f4 or 50mm 1.4 USM ..

I'm a big fan of my Sigma 50mm 1.4 (non art, or dg or whatever their branding is). Bigger and heavier than the canon 50mm 1.4, but it's closer to the picture quality of the 50mm L lens anyway. Only problem is that there can be focus issues. Mine back focused, but after a micro adjust, it's golden.