Looking to upgrade from a t2i.

PandaMan · Feb 1, 2013

HI im looking to upgrade from my 550d(t2i), any suggestions on what would be good? Which ones would be classified as professional/semi professional level? Any and all productive advice would help and be much appreciated. Thank you.

Justman1020 · Feb 1, 2013

Budget? What lens do you currently have?

goodguy · Feb 1, 2013

The T3i, T4i, 60D and even the 7D from what I understand have the same sensor and there isnt a huge picture quality between them according to few reviews that I saw so if you really want to see a big jump in quality I would say wait a bit and wait for the replacement of the 60D or 7D.
If you are ready to upgrade now I would say go for the 7D, great camera that you can grown into.

PandaMan · Feb 1, 2013

The lenses ihave are the 18-55, a 50mm, 75-300, and a 35-80.

PandaMan · Feb 1, 2013

goodguy said:
The T3i, T4i, 60D and even the 7D from what I understand have the same sensor and there isnt a huge picture quality between them according to few reviews that I saw so if you really want to see a big jump in quality I would say wait a bit and wait for the replacement of the 60D or 7D.
If you are ready to upgrade now I would say go for the 7D, great camera that you can grown into.

What would be the price range for the 7D? And what would be better between a t4i and a 60d.

Justman1020 · Feb 2, 2013

60d compared to t4i::

t4i-
touch screen
Continual autofocus during video
digic 5 processor

60d
more rugged body

some people say the 60d feels better in their hands. The t4i is going to feel a lot like your t2i.
Yhe reason I asked about your lens collection was because I was not sure if you wanted to go to a full frame camera. I would suggest not to as you would basically eliminate almost all of your lens collection from being useable.

Justman1020 · Feb 2, 2013

Side note:: invest the $ in glass for now. Upgrade your camera body later.

PandaMan · Feb 2, 2013

Justman1020 said:
Side note:: invest the $ in glass for now. Upgrade your camera body later.

What kind of lens would be considered worth the while? And would buying an expensive lens improve the quality of my photos even with the t2i...?

PandaMan · Feb 2, 2013

Justman1020 said:
60d compared to t4i::

t4i-
touch screen
Continual autofocus during video
digic 5 processor

60d
more rugged body

some people say the 60d feels better in their hands. The t4i is going to feel a lot like your t2i.
Yhe reason I asked about your lens collection was because I was not sure if you wanted to go to a full frame camera. I would suggest not to as you would basically eliminate almost all of your lens collection from being useable.

So then a better question would be, what bodies would be good to upgrade to that will enable me to keep my current lenses and have them still be usable? which ones would be compatible with my current lenses.

gw2424 · Feb 2, 2013

A great video that should help--

Justman1020 · Feb 2, 2013

Either the t4i or 60d would allow you to use all your lens collection. The general consensus though is that $ is better spent in better glass. The 75-300 is often regarded as the cheapest lens quality wise. For a fairly affordable cost (when comparing to looking at bodies) you could get a 17-40 f/4 L for around 750 brand new. L lens is the highest class that is made by canon. The 70-300 is lens (instead of the 75-300) would run you about 700 I believe.

pgriz · Feb 2, 2013

How you upgrade truly depends on what you are trying to do, and the kinds of limitations you are currently running into.

Image contrast and sharpness are determined by the lens, aided by your skill/knowledge of focusing technique and use of IS/shutter speed/tripod to minimize blurring due to camera shake.

If youre shooting primarily under low-light conditions, then a sensor with good high-ISO performance, AND fast (better than f/2) lenses would be a natural upgrade path.

If youre shooting primarily indoors, with family snapshots and the like being the predominant images you shoot, then a good flash unit, with appropriate modifiers, would give you better images.

In almost every case, a good understanding of light (direction, size, colour, balance) will dramatically improve the quality of your images.

So the real question is, what do you feel is holding you back? What kind of images are you trying to get that youre not happy with? And what kind of improvement are you looking for?

raaskohx10 · Feb 2, 2013

Your t2i (550D) is not lagging behind the 7D in terms of capabilities and that too is available at half the price. In another thread started by you about lenses I suggested you to invest in EF lenses instead of EF-S ones so that you may use them with full frame sensors e.g. Mark-II, Mark-III. As pointed above the t3i, t4i, 7D all have the same sensors so there is no big difference in terms of picture quality. The only thing you will get is certain additional control which I think doesn't matter a lot. So, if you really want to upgrade and you have the budget, then go for full frame otherwise your t2i is also second to none.

PandaMan · Feb 2, 2013

pgriz said:
How you upgrade truly depends on what you are trying to do, and the kinds of limitations you are currently running into.

Image contrast and sharpness are determined by the lens, aided by your skill/knowledge of focusing technique and use of IS/shutter speed/tripod to minimize blurring due to camera shake.

If youre shooting primarily under low-light conditions, then a sensor with good high-ISO performance, AND fast (better than f/2) lenses would be a natural upgrade path.

If youre shooting primarily indoors, with family snapshots and the like being the predominant images you shoot, then a good flash unit, with appropriate modifiers, would give you better images.

In almost every case, a good understanding of light (direction, size, colour, balance) will dramatically improve the quality of your images.

So the real question is, what do you feel is holding you back? What kind of images are you trying to get that youre not happy with? And what kind of improvement are you looking for?

The contrast and sharpness of my images is what im trying to get improved, so i guess it would be the lens that is holding back the quality of images. Even on a tripod i feel that my images could look sharper so its not my settings, i mostly notice it when im zoomed in during editing where as when i was in class i noticed that others images were just significantly sharper and i assumed it was my lack of a better body since most others had 7d's, 5d's etc...