….camera should I buy? In particular, if I already have lenses, should I upgrade?

In general, I recommend you upgrade your camera body every 3-5 years because of higher ISO. So when a friend just asked me what to replace his old Canon 40D with, I thought it might be helpful for me to share my thought process in today’s post on the DAILY blog.

First off, I said yes, replace it. It’s time. Higher ISO is a good reason.

1/80th sec, f/6.3, 16,000 ISO (yes, 16,000, not 1600)

For my friend, his options if he wanted to stay in the mid range camera bodies would include the Canon 7D and the newer 6D.

• The 7D is a crop camera with a not-all-that-great sensor at high ISO values. It has pro features, like fast rapid shutter release,  great focus system, and more. Great studio camera, not as good when you need the high ISO values.
• The 6D is a more modern camera with great high ISO, and it has a full frame sensor. Great quality camera, but leaves out some of those cool “pro” features you would get on the 5D (of course).

Unless I needed the pro features, like the focus system, I would go with the 6D if I were him.

But then what about lenses? When you update to a full frame camera, you can no longer use your crop lenses (on some Nikon cameras you can, but then you get limited use out of them).

My friend had two EF lenses (can be used on any body) and one EF-S lens (can only be used on crop bodies), the 10-22 f/3.5-5.6 lens.

When you buy lenses today, keep in mind tomorrow you way upgrade to a full frame body. I only buy EF lenses for that reason. Which my friend did, except for the wide lens, which there is no other option for – he had to buy the EF-S to go that wide. So he only has one lens to replace. Only one EF-S lens makes it easy: I would sell the 10-22 and buy a 17-40 f/4L, in his case.

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And I have great news. The usual fee is $125 per hour plus any applicable taxes, but to encourage you to try it out, for July 2013 only, I am discounting that by 35%.

You need to book soon and the training needs to take place in July. Email me (michael@michaelwillems.ca) or call (+1 416-875-8770: Eastern US time) to set up your time and date.