Looking to learn more about the canons

[jsandgren10]

Hey guys,

Ive been trying to learn a little bit here and there on the different cameras and my wife and I are trying to get into photography more. We are looking to do family pictures, weddings, and maybe some portrait pictures inside and outdoors. Right now we have a Rebel Xsi with just the standard lens kit.

I wanted to get some more information on what a good step up would be to do this type of photography. I prefer the sd cards over CF just because everything I own runs the SD cards. I don't really know what the difference is between a full frame camera like the mark IIId vs say the 60d or 7d. I'll also be looking into slowly getting new lenses for these types of shots.

Just wanted to see what some people recommend and why, and is a $3k camera worth it over a $1k camera for the photography we plan to do.

Thanks in advance, and I'm sure I'll have a lot more questions.

Jeff

 

[Overread]

Just wanted to see what some people recommend and why, and is a $3k camera worth it over a $1k camera for the photography we plan to do.

Well we can read spec-sheets to you and give you examples of situations where having less limitations from the gear will help you. However this is all viewpoints from other people, and whilst much of it will be solid advice, it will be harder to take on-board. In short its something you really want to see and try for yourself. A situation where you need to feel that youre equipment is failling you (at a technical not user based) level and to then look toward solutions for those problems

You might also find it beneficial to join a local camera club or consider rending high-grade gear before purchase. This gives you the chance to properly get a try at using some higher end gear to find out just how different (and how similar) the results from it are. The idea hear is to give you a taste which should, hopefully, start to give you a more real world and personal reason why you should upgrade (if you find you need to at all - you might feel that upgrading isn't worth it for your specific needs).




As for situations like portraits one big difference between the 5D series and the Rebel series you have now is the size of the sensor. The 5D is "fullframe" which means it has a full 35mm sensor inside; whilst the rebel is a 1.6crop from that 35mm sensor. This means that on the rebel you've got to use shorter focal length lenses (esp when indoors) for close up portrait work.
The problem here is that once you go below around 50mm in focal length you start to get into wide-angle lenses; which means that you can get strong persepctive distortion when shooting with these kind of lenses (eg objects closer to the lens will be enlarged over those further away - big noses on faces for example).
The larger sensor of the 5D means that you get a wider angle of view at a given focal length (compared to your rebel) wo a 50mm on the rebel might well give a similar image to an 85mm on the 5D and vis versa.