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:
  1. 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.
  2. 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).
  3. 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.
  4. I added aCanon Speedlite 430EX II Flash this past December (2010) and have been enjoying the resulting improvements to my portraits and family shots.
  5. 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.
  6. 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:
  1. I prefer photos taken with natural lighting over flash, so low-light capability is becoming more important.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Hobbyist-to-Pro upgrade implants/surgery are still relegated to Sci-Fi movies.
  5. 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