Glad to have discovered the Community site. I've been reading Bryan's reviews for a couple of years now - Thanks, Bryan! - but never ventured to the community site until tonight.
I've been stewing over this for a couple of weeks now: Should I upgrade to a 60D/7D or get some better lenses/gear? In short, I want to improve my photos; I think that equipment limitations may be holding me back, although I'm not disillusioned about the fact that I have a LOT to learn; and I have a limited budget of $1500. I'm hoping I can get some sage advice from you.
Here's a more detailed intro to my gear and habits:
- My subject preferences are a mixed bag: I love capturing landscapes, flowers, portraits, and most of all, my pre-teen kids. I also take some product photographs as needed.
- I've owned a Canon Rebel XTi since 2007 and I've been using aTamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Lens exclusively since Dec 2009 with some great results (to me, as a hobbyist, at least).
- This past November, I added a Manfrotto 055XPROB Pro Tripod with the Manfrotto 498RC2 Ball Head with Quick Release Replaces Manfrotto 488RC2, which has greatly helped with landscape, flower, and product photography.
- I added aCanon Speedlite 430EX II Flash this past December (2010) and have been enjoying the resulting improvements to my portraits and family shots.
- I've been slowly improving my post-production skills in Lightroom and Photoshop, and recently, onOne PhotoTools. This still poses major problems for me since I'm color blind in the green-red spectrum -- some greens simply appear grey to me, and some reds and greens are indistinguishable (I miss dark red-eye anomalies until zoomed WAY IN, but bright reds are okay), so my wife and daughter are frequently called in for color critique.
- I've just recently started dabbling with bracketed shots for HDR, and manual focusing for better stationary photography.
My reasons for wanting to upgrade equipment in either direction are:
- I prefer photos taken with natural lighting over flash, so low-light capability is becoming more important.
- I want my portraits and family photos to be tack sharp, but even with pin-pointed Servo-AF on the eyes, I find my XTi's AF sluggish andthe burstscumbersome, missing too many action shots of my kids.
- Now that I'm starting to use manual focusing more frequently, I'm finding my XTi's viewfinder painfully small, which is my only option since the XTi does not have live view.
- Hobbyist-to-Pro upgrade implants/surgery are still relegated to Sci-Fi movies.
- I'd love the ability to switch to HD video capturing for family events
Please let me know if I can provide any additional information.
Cheers! Goob