Upgrade from 60D

[Canuk]

I have been waiting for the 5D Mark III camera announcement for quite awhile, and must say that I am so far impressed w/ the specs so far. The higher frame rate, better low light performance and higher IQ would be a very welcome addition. The only downside is the price.

I have found my 60D to be limiting w/ regards to hitting the buffer when shooting sports or when shooting in low light.

My original plan was to keep the 60D as a back-up and buy the new 5D MarkIII, but I am only a hobbyist and am having a hard time justifying $3800 for a camera body.

So here in lies my dilemma. I hadn't thought in the past that upgrading to the 7D would be a worthwhile upgrade, but I am starting to re-think that. Would the 7D be a decent upgrade? It has a higher frame rate as well as dual processors so, I doubt I would be hitting the buffer very often. Is the image quality and low light performance going to be better than the 60D?

Right now the 7D is selling for $1400 for the body only. I can sell my 60D for close to $1000 w/ the grip to friend. So it would be a fairly cheap upgrade. Once the prices of the 5D Mark III come down in the next year or so, I will still more than likely pick up one for all of the reasons stated above, and keep the 7D as my back-up.

Hockey season is just winding down, but motocross is just around the corner and I would like to not be limited by the 60D for this season.

Sorry for the wall of text and for asking about a topic that has been covered a bit in the last few days, but I look through those theads and did not see the answers I was looking for.
Thanks in advance for your replies.
Brent.

 

[MLeeK]

Well, I love my 7D, but it's such a parallel move I don't see it as cost efficient. HOWEVER if you are going to be shooting sports then it's might just be wise.
Are you using high speed cards in your camera? I've never had a problem with even my old XTi with over-filling the buffer, but I suppose if you are doing a spray and pray it's entirely possible. What are you shooting that takes 16 frames to capture??? That seems really absurd to me. Your max # of shots in raw is 16 and 58 in jpeg. That's a LOT of frames to be shooting.

 

[Canuk]

Yes, I am using the scan disk Extreme SD cards, 30mb/sec. Guilty of the spray and pray effect, but my son is a goalie and the action doesn't stop w/ the first shot. Hitting the buffer doesn't happen often but is super annoying when it does.

Would the 7D be an upgrade in the noise/image quality? Or is there essentially little difference between the 2?

In the end I do believe that the 5D Mark III is the camera I want, because it will do everything that my photo interests will require.

I also do underwater photography and understand that full frame > crop sensor, due to the higher IQ, better noise handling and better wide angle. Macro is something else that I have just gotten into and believe that full frame is better in that respect too, but not 100% sure.

 

[MLeeK]

Yes, I am using the scan disk Extreme SD cards, 30mb/sec. Guilty of the spray and pray effect, but my son is a goalie and the action doesn't stop w/ the first shot. Hitting the buffer doesn't happen often but is super annoying when it does.

Would the 7D be an upgrade in the noise/image quality? Or is there essentially little difference between the 2?

In the end I do believe that the 5D Mark III is the camera I want, because it will do everything that my photo interests will require.

I also do underwater photography and understand that full frame > crop sensor, due to the higher IQ, better noise handling and better wide angle. Macro is something else that I have just gotten into and believe that full frame is better in that respect too, but not 100% sure.

No, not much difference in IQ really. Maybe a LITTLE if you are a pixel peeper.

As for the Macro, I can't really answer you much because I am not a macro enthusiast. I'd GUESS that crop sensor would be nice for the extra magnification factor, but that's only a semi-educate guess.

Full frame is awesome for getting more in the wide shots. For ISO I am loving the looks of the new 5d3. I am pretty sure it's going to blow my 7d and 5d2 out of the water. I use the 7D at extreme ISO's all of the time and it handles well. I also used the 50D at ISO 12800 regularly and it handled fine. Both require a little noise removal in ACR/LR, but that is more than expected at 12800 too.
High ISO handling is also something you have to master to get the best results. Hockey rinks I can imagine to be pure hell. The lights aren't usually all that great at all. I have shot in one hockey rink with beautiful lighting (we had a wrestling tournament there) and I loved it, but it was the brightest hockey rink I have ever seen.

 

[Canuk]

The lighting in the older rinks can be pure hell, but the newer ones are a lot better. The trick is to get the white balance right in each spot you shoot from, the lighting can drastically change from one end to the other.

So I guess what I should take away from this is that upgrading to 7D now, maybe a little improvement but not really worth while? My 60D only goes to ISO 6400 and does OK at the higher ISO, but not great.

More thinking and mulling it over is needed I guess, lol. How long does it usually take for the new camera bodies price to normalize? (I know questions like this are purely speculation , but I honestly have no idea what has even gone on in the past)

 

[MLeeK]

Your camera goes to 12800 in the expanded ISO and you should be able to use it. You'll need to SLIGHTLY overexpose and you will need noise removal in ACR/LR, but it should be useable.
I know I post these all of the time, but these are the 50D at ISO 12800

You should be able to get as good or better with the 60D at ISO 12800.
Now I have done noise removal in post on these-there is still some grain in the black background etc and I wouldn't want to blow them up to life size or anything, but they are clean, sell able images.

 

[Canuk]

Thank you very much MLeeK for your responses. I wasn't aware that my camera would go to 12800 ISO, guess I missed that when reading the manual. I have since figure out how to configure it and look forward to using your suggestions to using the higher ISO's.

Back to lusting over the 5D MKIII and trying to justify it, lol.