Personal computing discussed
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SPOOFE wrote:Out of curiosity, what lens(es) do you tend to use for your low-light work? You going about with a prime or twain, or a wide-aperture zoom?
FireGryphon wrote:If it's noise you're concerned with, the 7D wipes the floor with the 50D. The 50D is actually worse than the 40D in terms of noise, and is pretty much the same as the 40D in every other respect, except for having a slightly higher-resolution sensor (which accounts for the worse noise)....The 7D needs good lenses in order to take advantage of its superior picture quality. For example, the difference between using my EF 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 IS and a 70-200L is like night and day. The former is muddy and dull by comparison on my 7D, but it's a bit harder to tell on other bodies (though, clearly, there's still a difference). Basically, if you don't have or don't plan to buy the best lenses (L or not) the 7D is a bit of a waste.
JustAnEngineer wrote:There's just not enough improvement from the EOS 40D to the 50D to justify purchasing a new camera body. If you really need better low light sensitivity, you'll want one of the newer camera models.
EOS Rebel T3i pricing
EOS 7D pricing
EOS 5D Mk. II pricing
he best deal is to get a unit directly from Canon through the Canon Loyalty Program.
SPOOFE wrote:There's the option of getting a few flash units and dealing with poor lighting that way. It's a whole 'nother chore, though, and your preferred work may or may not benefit from it. But for the price of a 7D, you could probably find three or four very powerful and reliable flash units, along with one of several options for sync, and stands, and mounts, and a bunch of other little doodads that quickly take up space in whatever bag you originally thought would be large enough to hold it all.
ludi wrote:What annoys me is that it looks like the cheapest retail price after the Canon instant rebate expires today (3/19) might be $1700. Amazon had been holding it at $1500 for several months but they might just shoot up, as well.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d7000.htm
The D7000 is Nikon's most advanced camera at any price. The fact that it sells for $1,200 make it a no-brainer, which is why it's sold out. The D7000 is Nikon's best DSLR ever.
Among the many things I love about the D7000, in addition to how much better and faster it handles than any other Nikon DSLR (and I also own a professional Nikon D3), is that the pictures I make with the D7000 simply look better than what I've ever gotten with any other digital camera. The effects are subtle, but as a prolific photographer, I see that the colors are simply better, especially under difficult light under which my D3 just doesn't look as good.
Unlike 2009's crappy D3000, Nikon really did their homework these past couple of years on the D7000, and everything about it just works better than older cameras, technically, artistically and ergonomically.
The D7000 has the highest linear resolution of any Nikon DSLR, and more overall resolution than any other Nikon under $7,500. The Nikon D7000 has technical performance better than every other Nikon DSLR priced under $7,500, and handles better than any Nikon DSLR, regardless of price.
The D7000 has the world's first 2,016-segment RGB meter, which is Nikon's first upgrade since the spectacular 1,005 segment RGB meter of the Nikon F5 of 1996.
The number of meter segments isn't relevant; what is relevant is the intelligence programmed behind them, and Nikon's meters have always been decades ahead of anyone else's.
Canon still has no full-color RGB meters in any of its SLRs; most of Canon's cameras, like the 5D Mark II, still only meter in black-and-white!
One of the biggest stand-out features of the Nikon D7000 is its fantastic autofocus system.
Whatever Nikon has done under the hood has made it the best, fastest, most precise and most accurate focus system of any Nikon.
This becomes more apparent as you've shot more cameras for longer; it's a subtle thing, but something I very much notice.
It feels about the same or better than my professional Nikon D3, and worlds faster in actual use than my Nikon D300.
Manual focus is spectacular: it has a precise three-way indictor like the D3X for exact manual focus, not the pathetically useless (for fast lenses) one-dot indictor of the D300s. All three dots ( > o < ) are green.
Not only is it precise, I tried my D7000 with a 58mm f/1.2 Noct-NIKKOR, and it was right-on shooting at f/1.2, even more accurate than my D3, on which that lens demands a slight offset.
Mit der Noct, the Nikon D7000 is the world's most sensitive low-light camera.
Overall
The D7000 feels like the fastest Nikon DSLR I've ever used, which means it is.
The D7000 just goes, with no delay at all for focus and shooting. Chasing my kids around, it never gets in the way, seemingly even faster then my professional D3.
By faster, I'm not talking about static frames-per-second; I'm talking about how fast everything locks-on and fires in the course of real-world photography. With the D7000, it's almost scary how fast and effortlessly every picture takes itself, even with flash.
The D7000 is fast, quiet, and well, just snaps faster than any other camera.
The D7000 has more linear resolution than any Nikon DSLR, including the D3X. The D7000 will make immediately apparent any limitations in your lenses and in your photo technique. If you can't get sharp pictures with a D7000, it's your fault, not the camera's.
Until recently, he argued that the D40 was better than any other camera ever made.
Ken Rockwell is one of the guys paid to sing praise of Nikon equipment.
ludi wrote:I want to keep my 40D as a backup, but upgrade to a new primary body in a month or so as I'm running into significant limitations in low light. Notably, the default ISO range caps at 1600 and the H1 expansion to 3200 is so noisy as to be worthless for what I do. The 7D includes pretty much everything I would like in a camera body right now, but the $1500+ price scares my wallet so badly that it doesn't come out from under the bed for several hours.
...
So basically, it's either a 50D sooner, or a 7D later (i.e. after saving more money toward the purchase). Anyone want to throw down a recommendation one way or the other?
JustAnEngineer wrote:Ken Rockwell is a Nikon goon and a bit of a wack job. Until recently, he argued that the D40 was better than any other camera ever made. Like a shock radio jock, he drives hits to his website by intentionally being outrageous and controversial.
In my opinion, Nikon makes good cameras from the mid-range (D90) up. For comparable performance, you're going to pay more for Nikon gear than for Canon gear.