Upgrade advice please! :)

[roastman]

If you have the 70-200 at the moment, one thing to remember is you will lose the extra magnification of the crop body if you move to a 5D. I have the 17-40, 24-105 and 70-200f4 and love all of the lenses. To be honest, I have hardly touched the 70-200 and it will typically be my most unused lens, as I am shooting mainly landscape stuff at the moment. I would love to shoot sport, but unfortunately getting close access to the sports that I like (I am a mad AFL supporter and enjoy golf) is difficult. Even if I could get access, I would need a larger piece of glass for it to be useful.

The 24-105 has shot more than 75% of the frames on my 5D MKII and I have been happy with it. The 17-40 has shot nearly all of the rest, with just a few shots on the longer lens. I think with any lens you will get some good or bad examples. I have been fairly lucky that I have not even had to adjust the calibration on any of my lenses, as they seem to be quite sharp on the focus point.

If image quality is the most important thing, a 5D MKII is excellent and the $ you save on the MK III may get you some better glass. While the 7D or 60D may be faster, the image quality will be superior on the full frame and the 5D II is no slouch in terms of speed. OK, it is not a sports shooters body, but for someone who is casually shooting animals etc it would be fine. One other factor with shooting moving subjects is how well you know your subject. Before I "quit" photography quite some time ago, I had a film body that could only shoot under 3FPS. I got some very nice shots at my footy club, because I knew when to press the shutter. It is a lot easier now, because rather than wasting a lot of film if you don't get it right, you just delete the poor images from the card.

Having said all of that, I kicked myself for buying the MKII not long before the MKIII came out, as you always long for the latest model!

[fabian628]

Would love to hear any suggestions of combinations with either body, also suggestions for filters would be appreciated.

could get a cpl or neutral densiy filter for wide lens, that may be useful for landscape. i would not reccomend using uv/protective filters on the lens.

[Bella]

Arg - thanks heaps for the 7D/lens combo suggestion. Where did you get your prices from? I'm assuming those are grey prices? I've never brought grey before, being too worried about warranty but perhaps it's something I should consider? I did a rough price from a local store and for the kit you suggested plus extra battery was about 3800. A 16gb CF card was another 85. I've got an 8gb CF card currently. I'll put the tripod and flash on my list of things to consider - down the track. I've got a tripod currently, albeit not a high quality one, but it does an ok job.

Thanks to speedway, paddyob, reaction, roastman and fabian for your input too, much appreciated! (sorry if I missed anyone)

The overall impression I'm getting is to go for the 7D because it allows for some good lens to go with it within budget. #

In my search for prices on the 7D I came across the 5D III with 24-105 F4L IS in local store for 4500

[roastman]

There is a major Australian photo chain offering 10% off all Canon at the moment (ends today). Check the prices though, as they are not always the cheapest, so 10% off may just mean they are closer to competitors. BH Photo are usually well priced out of the US (and they are reliable), but the freight costs can be a killer. Also, not sure if you are liable for GST over $1000, so once again it may not be worthwhile.

[ricktas]

You can compare prices at places like : www.shopbot.com.au but up to you if you decide to buy from any of those, as most tend to be 'unknown' online sites.

[Bella]

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for their advice, it was much appreciated. I ended up making a decision after a fair bit of deliberation and a rather timely recent injection of $$. I decided to go full frame and am now the proud owner of a 5D Mark III with 24-105 and 17-40 lenses.

First impressions - WOW! The build quality and image quality is awesome! I quite like the size and weight, it feels balanced to hold.
Second impression - omg where's the manual LOL So many more buttons and differences in layout to the 400D! Looking forward to learning more about photography and improving my skills so I can do this camera justice!

Havent had much of a chance to play with it yet as I'm interstate at the moment but I did take a couple of pics which I'll endeavour to put up for CC when I have access to a PC to download them.

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks again to the very helpful people on ausphotography

[roastman]

Congratulations! Have fun with the 5D MKIII - it will be an awesome camera.