For a while now, I’ve been lusting after more megapixels. I have 8.2 right now (having started with 3.2 about six years ago. My mind’s set on 12.8 now. Not quite a Moore’s Law analogue, but not far from it either.
(Warning: photo geekspeak coming up.)
My current rig consists of the Canon 20D and four lenses: 10-22mm, 17-40L, 70-200L and the 24-105 L. AKA fat dawg, good doggie, big dawg, and… Bill. I also have the 2x extender for the big dawg (big dawg’s brother) and the 430 EX flash.
By far my most used lens is the 24-105; it’s got versatile reach, image stabilization, and it’s an “L” lens. It’s also my newest lens, filling the hole between the 40 and 70 focal lengths. The drawback is that it’s slow, at f4. The 3 stop IS advantage will deal with low light, but it will not stop the action.
The other drawback is that it overlaps with my 17-40, and as a result, I’ve been using it (the 17-40) hardly at all lately. Well, not at all, actually.
But I do have a plan to deal with that.
My favourite lens is the 10-22, which, on my small sensor 20D, still gives me an ultrawide 16mm. As I’ve recently demonstrated, it makes for dramatic wide landscapes, which I particularly love. It’s also good for indoor shots of my houses.
And so, as it stands, I have a nice body, three often used lenses, and one expensive, high quality glass paper weight. All this will change with my anticipated new purchase, the Canon 5D.
The current object of my desire is the Canon 5D. The 5D has at least three things going for it. Everyone knows that more megapixels is better, and 12.8 is about a 50% improvement. That merely provides more cropping flexibility, the importance of which I’ve demonstrated recently.
As an aside, there is both a website and a good Reddit discussion about the virtues of more pixels. The former beats the latter in terms of quality information.
Another thing the 5D has is a full frame sensor, which essentially means higher quality and better sensitivity. (Canon’s propaganda is over here.)
The final thing going for the 5D is the price; they’re exceptionally well priced at $2250 ish, minus an up to $700 cash rebate from Canon. I know that seems like an indulgence to many of you, but it is one of my few fetishes. I figure I’ll save that much in a year from not smoking or paying my supplier. Just don’t ask me to give up my wine, though.
Hmmmm, a $700 cash rebate you say? Extended an extra month past Christmas? There’s a reason for that, methinks, and it may interfere with my plans; the Canon D7. The D7 would be the D5 Mk II (5 + II = 7, right?). Rumour has it that it would come in around 16 million pixels (although 14 is a possibility) and add a few things that the Mk I doesn’t. I don’t much care for live preview, but the larger preview screen and 5 fps would be nice. I’m pretty sure I would not like the price which could be where the Mk I started out, around $3000.
But did I say 4 million more pixels?
The decision would then have to be whether the extra 4 million pixels (between the Mk I and the rumoured Mk II) would be worth the $1400. As it stands, I am prepared (I think) to spend $1600 for four million more pixels PLUS the full frame sensor (the upgrade from the 20D to the 5D Mk I).
Did that make any sense at all?
A bit of a bummer to the upgrade route is that my 20D wouldn’t be worth much, perhaps $250 on eBay. For that price I’d rather keep the 20D around, and use it for either wildlife photography (I’d get 200mm x 2x extender x 1.6 cropping factor, for a whopping 640mm of reach, which ain’t bad) or for travel, where it wouldn;t be so dire if it got lost, stolen or damaged. Then I’d keep the 5D for local, high quality use.
I’d still be able to get my ultra wide angle fix with the 17-40, with the added benefit of the higher quality “L” glass and the increased pixels of the 5D. But then I’d have a bit of redundancy with the 10-22. Only I think I’d keep it for my travel kit.
It seems a bit extravagant for me to have two fairly good bodies (three, if you include Ti’s XTi) in the house, but what are you going to do? Give the 20D to Ti? I asked, she doesn’t want it. She wants something a bit smaller, and the XTi would work perfectly for her. Plus I can get it for free. Well, for 7000 AirMiles, which ain’t bad. Or $750ish at Costco, with two lenses.
All the choices are making me dizzy. Who’s the photo whore-slut now, eh D’Arcy?
And I still need one more lens, the one I dreamed about last night. Swear to his Noodley Appendage, I had dreams about a lens.
There’s also a good discussion of the merits of the 20D vs. 5D over at CameraLabs. In fact it deals with the exact same situation I have, right down the specific lenses I own.