Should I get another body?

thepilgrimsdream · May 12, 2013

Gear:
5d mk2
135mm f2L
28-70 f2.8L
17-40 f4L
85 1.8

i shoot mostly portraits and love using mostly my 135 and 85 primes. I hardly ever touch my zooms unless shooting a wedding (second shooter). So I don't like switching between my primes outdoors a lot, so a second body would speed up my process and feel more secure and professional.

I really would like to get a second full frame. I have $600 right now and would consider a 5dc or selling my zooms to stretch my budget, what would you do?

Overread · May 12, 2013

At the moment you've all your longer ranges in primes, great for outdoors! But if you go inside you've only got zooms for closer shots - even in fullframe I think an 85mm would be too long for many situations and you'd miss not having something shorter. The 17-40mm and 24-70mm both fill your closer slots and I think it would only take being indoors a few times to make you want to either keep hold of them or swap them not for a body, but for shorter focal length primes.

The 5Dc is still a very capable camera body and a very affordable way to add a second fullframe camera to your setup.

TiCoyote · May 15, 2013

You could get a 5Dc and a 50 1.4. Then you could swap between the 85 and 135 on your 5D2 for closeups and you'd have the 50 for medium to full shots. Though your life would certainly be easier if you used the 28-70.

rpcrowe · May 21, 2013

I cut my photographic teeth on prime lenses at the time when there were no decent zooms for still cameras. I found that a second camera would increase the focal length versatility of my primes to a great degree. All of my photojournalist friends covering wars and natural disasters carried at least two cameras and there were some who carried more than a pair of cameras.

Even though I mainly shoot with zooms now (17-55mm f/2.8 IS and 70-200mm f/4L IS are my basic setup) I still carry a pair of cameras. I now shoot with a pair of Canon 7D cameras.

In addition to the verstility of a pair of cameras because you can swap focal lengths; a pair of bodies is an insurance policy against missing photo opportunities. I fell on a slippery Alaskan slope and broke the 40D I carried at the time. My second camera, a 30D, saved the trip photographically for me...

You don't need to be climbing Alaskan slopes to damage a camera. A fellow tour member in China, fell in front of the City Walls of Xian, China and broke his Nikon DSLR. With no replacement available at a decent price in Xian, he missed out on photography of the trip until we reached Hong Kong where he purchased a replacement DSLR. I happily shot away with a 40D and a 30D during my China trip.

I am traveling to Italy, Greece and Turkey soon and will be carrying a pair of 7D cameras. This is the first time I have had the luxury of shooting with a pair of identical cameras. It is even easier than shooting with two of the same cameras than it is shooting with two different models as I once did.

However, I have often thought that a full frame and a 1.6x crop camera might be a great combination to take advantage of the different crop factors...