Thom's thoughts on upgrading bodies

[kiwi]

I like thom, in my opinion pretty spot on advice about most things

I like his take on whether to upgrade your body....or not

http://www.bythom.com/

[maccaroneski]

Yeah who would have thought that one of the "big" bloggers would advise restraint. Not the sort of thing that you hear from the shills that populate that part of the internets.

It's posts like that which let me take his other stuff pretty seriously.

[landteacher]

Yes, read that this afternoon Darren. As usual good advice there. Take him more seriously than some out there.

Mick.G

[arthurking83]

Yeah, I like Thom too.

His Oct 9 entry titled "Will The Complaints Ever Go Away?" is pure gold!

made me laugh.

[Kym]

What about us gear freaks & geeks? Huh!

[kiwi]

Well, you'll always buy new toys cause you can and you have the gadget bug, not because you need to

Hmm ,sounds familiar, my d300s arrives tomorrow, lol

[mithrandir]

Would it not be nice, if you could just buy a sensor/processor module that would slide into your body to update it? Sort of like the old days when an upgrade was just a new type of film away.

[arthurking83]

Would it not be nice, if you could just buy a sensor/processor module that would slide into your body to update it? Sort of like the old days when an upgrade was just a new type of film away.

it would be, but then again I think this is generally an incorrect way to determining whether the user really needs an upgrade.

That's basically what Thom's article is about.

Body upgrades are more than just about the sensor. sliding in a new sensor doesn't help the camera autofocus better.

imagine an old (Nikon specific due to my understanding) D1 with a D3s's sensor in it.. it would be slow as hell and I think the high ISO noise ability wouldn't be anywhere near as good as it currently is in the D3s.

part of the advances in a sensor's actual ability is in the electronics. The maximization of signal quality all throughout the electrical path from the sensor to the storage card.

so if you want a speedy camera as well as a slightly better sensor ability, you not only need to update the sensor, but the DAC the CPU's(noting that the D3 has two CPU's where the D1 has only one).. just about everything in(and on) the body is there for a reason.

[Colourised]

its because of readings thom's upgrading advice im still sticking with my trusty 2 year old D60! and i still love it

[mithrandir]

it would be, but then again I think this is generally an incorrect way to determining whether the user really needs an upgrade.

That's basically what Thom's article is about.

Body upgrades are more than just about the sensor. sliding in a new sensor doesn't help the camera autofocus better.

imagine an old (Nikon specific due to my understanding) D1 with a D3s's sensor in it.. it would be slow as hell and I think the high ISO noise ability wouldn't be anywhere near as good as it currently is in the D3s.

part of the advances in a sensor's actual ability is in the electronics. The maximization of signal quality all throughout the electrical path from the sensor to the storage card.

so if you want a speedy camera as well as a slightly better sensor ability, you not only need to update the sensor, but the DAC the CPU's(noting that the D3 has two CPU's where the D1 has only one).. just about everything in(and on) the body is there for a reason.

You make some excellent points. Fortunately for me, I have a ways to go to outgrow the present capabilities I have with my Pentax K10D and K7. For the present, I need to work most on my composition skills and no camera (presently on the market) can do that for me.

[arthurking83]

I suppose the idea of 'composition' comes from many aspects that can be gear related, or more specifically body upgrade related.

Composition is not only about the actual framing of the scene you want, but also encompasses the concepts of the rendering in terms of both separation of subject-background and also dynamic range(but dynamic range can be taken care of with digital enhancements ..

but there is no reason that (in Pentax terms) a 645D and one or two specialty lenses can't help you to compose differently.. and in ways that a K10D or K7 can never do!!(of course that means a ton of $$$) .. but you get the idea.

eg. for me.. now I want thinner DOF in some of the images I like to capture.. at the moment I need to upgrade to a D700(at least) which is a wholesale camera upgrade.. not just the sensor or the camera's hardware abilities(which will be quite similar to a D300.. and now a D7000).
ie. the actual format of the camera I want to upgrade too is the key for me. While the sensor is the key to why I want to upgrade, it's not the same reasoning as what most people want from a sensor upgrade(more pixels or better ISO performance) .. it's about getting the full 35mm format size, moving away from the APS-C format. The better ISO performance(of the D700) is just going to be a side benefit, as I use it very, very infrequently.

Hope that makes sense.

[ZedEx]

Makes perfect sense to me, and is my reasoning also. The only reason I sold my Canon 40D (aps-c) and bought a second hand 5D mk1 (full frame) is for this exact reason - shallow DoF for portraits. There were other benefits for me such as smoother tones in really bright areas. Really, I would like to end up with some 5D mkii's but there's really no reason for me to do this. It will be going from the same format to the same format.
Sure, I lust after new gear because i'm a bit of a gadget nutter, but you really do need to reason with yourself as you have aptly described with the 'change of format' description

I suppose the idea of 'composition' comes from many aspects that can be gear related, or more specifically body upgrade related.

Composition is not only about the actual framing of the scene you want, but also encompasses the concepts of the rendering in terms of both separation of subject-background and also dynamic range(but dynamic range can be taken care of with digital enhancements ..

but there is no reason that (in Pentax terms) a 645D and one or two specialty lenses can't help you to compose differently.. and in ways that a K10D or K7 can never do!!(of course that means a ton of $$$) .. but you get the idea.

eg. for me.. now I want thinner DOF in some of the images I like to capture.. at the moment I need to upgrade to a D700(at least) which is a wholesale camera upgrade.. not just the sensor or the camera's hardware abilities(which will be quite similar to a D300.. and now a D7000).
ie. the actual format of the camera I want to upgrade too is the key for me. While the sensor is the key to why I want to upgrade, it's not the same reasoning as what most people want from a sensor upgrade(more pixels or better ISO performance) .. it's about getting the full 35mm format size, moving away from the APS-C format. The better ISO performance(of the D700) is just going to be a side benefit, as I use it very, very infrequently.

Hope that makes sense.