Need some advice...

Creamy Goodness

Ok this is just a complete thought that's come into my head.

ever since i came home from america i haven't been able to literally pick up my camera and get photos, even for the short length of my 450d (bought in june 2008) it has taken so many photos that are personal to me and been used in projects that a recent friend who passed away used my camera for. i actually can't pick up my 450d without thinking about him, not that that is actually a bad thing mind.

i don't want to give up photography i really don't and i really want to get back into taking shots. so here's my thinking.

i'm definitely going to buy a new lens. i've been thinking about it for ages. but even still i'm left with the body, it still brings back the memories. now i'm never going to sell it or anything stupid, and i had planned that when i get a full time job that i was going to upgrade the body.

that time has come. i have the job, i'm sick of not uploading new photos for you all to C&C so i'm buying a new camera body.

i feel like buying a new lens and body will give me that boost that i need to get back up on my feet - in the photography sense - and allow me to become an active poster around these parts again.

I have these lenses atm:

50mm EF f/1.8
100mm USM f/2.8
18-55mm EF-S
70-200mm EF f/4.0

now i'm going to tackle the body situation first as that's what i want to upgrade first.

i'm looking to get a canon 5D MkII. that's what i've always been eyeing up since it's been out. and that's what i'm going to get.

what i'm having problems with is deciding whether to go for the 5D MkII + 24-105 f/4 kit lens or to just buy the body and use the money saved by not buying the kit lens and buying something else.

a friend recently got a ultra wide angle lens for his nikon DSLR and i love it. it's a great lens and it has that kind of quirky feel to it and create some really creative shots with it.

now the instant choice was the 10-22mm from canon but that will only fit on the 450d and i want something similar for the 5D MkII. i'm not sure what is a similar lens? is the 17-40mm the closest and achieve similar results?

the next thing is where to buy.

i've linked to keaphoto and i've bought from him before and would have no problems doing it again.

but gunns really helped me out in the last few months so i want to give them some business by buying the majority of stuff of them, possibly the body and battery grip and spare battery (lol just thought of them now). does anyone have the price of these things in gunns? i can't make it into town until monday so if ya know the prices off the top of your heads that would help me a lot.

anyways, i think that's it, thanks for reading through what essentially is a "what lens, what camera" kind of post.

Covey

Why don't you give Gunns a ring

Anouilh

The choice of lens will depend on the sort of photo you would most like to take. There has been a lot of discussion about 50mm and street photography, but wide angle would be better for landscapes.

The emotional aspect to the question is understandable. Perhaps uploading photos you took some time back and sharing them here would be the way forward?

Also, either borrow another camera and take photos with that for a while or buy a compact and just have some fun.

This is what I would do if faced with such choices... it may not suit everyone.

DaireQuinlan

I'd kinda get more into what you're doing this for in the first place. I don't think getting a new cam is really going to do anything other than provide you with some novelty and fake shiny new toy excitement which will wear off and leave you in exactly the same situation as you were before.

Why not forego the purchase and instead maybe formulate some sort of photographic project and then commit to following it through. Or maybe do a night course or something. There's nothing that you're incapable of doing now with your current kit that you'll be able to do with a new body. Ask yourself if your interest is in buying technological gear, or in taking pictures. If the former then buy away. If the latter then maybe consider what I'm suggeting above or maybe other people could give advice along similar lines.

Slidinginfinity

I'm not a Canon person but I assume most of your lenses are useable on both digital and 35mm Canon SLRs. If that is the case I would say, just find a 35mm Canon body on Ebay or adverts. It would give you something new in hand, will be far less expensive, will produce different results than you current camera and will give you a bit of Full Frame fun.

Simplicius

before investing in anything, perhaps you need to ascertain whether your feelings are just attached to the camera body or photography in general. (few things in life are so clear cut, especially emotional ones)

I might suggest you get some cheap manual film slr and some film and try a different angle of attack, this will clarify the above for you as well as being distracting to swap formats temporarily. If that idea doesn't fly for you, think of another that will take you outside your comfort zone but still in the realms of photography.

kjt

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

I'd kinda get more into what you're doing this for in the first place. I don't think getting a new cam is really going to do anything other than provide you with some novelty and fake shiny new toy excitement which will wear off and leave you in exactly the same situation as you were before.

That's pretty much bang on what I was going to say. Don't buy a brand spanky (expensive) new toy just to get you back into photography. When I first started I went off photography pretty quickly. Around 6/8months later I came back to it and clearly I'm still loving it. I'd question the buying a new camera option and maybe take a proper break of a few weeks/months, then rethink it?

my 1.9cent!

kumate_champ07

well you will have new options open to you with a better camera body.

a 1d or 5d will allow you great low light shooting opportunities, some people use 450d's for music photography but they are pretty noisy at iso1600

5d will make all your lenses perform as they were made to, you'll have wider focal lengths on each lens and also more shallow DOF

video would be nice. but its not worth spending money if your not gonna use the new camera, maybe buy it secondhand and sell it on later if you dont use it much