Tuesday, August 11, 2009

I don't have enough money for a new Canon camera and I'm glad

I haven't blogged in a while... so long that my photo blog has been deleted... Oh well I wasn't using it anyway. I was going to blog about... I guess I'll do it here.

I spend way too much time looking at camera gear. Canon, the stuff I shoot, as well as Nikon another brand I respect. Not sure if Sony is up there yet or to take Pentax or Olympus serious. I'm sure Nikon users have their gripes but now with full frame cameras there has to be a lot less of that. But in the true spirit of the grass is greener I'll vent about my Canon annoyances.

I don't have money to update my out-of-date 30D and I'm glad. If I had the money I might just spend it, and get what. The 5D MII, 50D or the oooold 1D or 1Ds MIII?

I shoot a number of things but some of those things are sports, low light sports. If there is a lot of light then the 1D MIII is the way to go if you have $5,000 that you can drop on an outdated camera, nice but outdated. However, if you want nice shots at ISO 1600 or 3200 that is not the body. Nikon has a great D700 that can go to ISO 25,600 and shoots nice stuff at ISO 1600.
Canon has an answer to the D700, the 5D MII. Wow, I waited for this thing last summer with the high ISO Nikons were coming out. When it came out it was great a nice pixel count, great low light but they have a focus system similar to the rebel on it. The Nikon D700 has a focus system on it similar to the D3. Why does Canon but crappy 9 point focus systems on their mid range cameras? Even the Nikon D300 has a focus system more like a Canon 1D than the 50D or the 5D MII. I get burned shooting cyclists in the woods and roller derby. You can't pre-focus because you don't know where the action will be (and we are not cave-men anymore) and auto-focus isn't reliable enough. I asked a Canon photog/rep what to do. I was told to activate all 9 points and let the camera figure it out. With my 16-35 F2.8 and my 24-70 F2.8 I get crappy pictures. The focus system cannot figure out what to do fast enough or accurately enough. Other than the auto focus system I'm happy with Canon bit that is a big deal.

I used a friend's D300 with the 70-200 VR at a soccer game,I know it was not a dark roller derby game, but I was amazed at how the zillion focus points found my target and locked in focus. This is what I want and I don't want to spend $5,000 for it. Canon shooters should have a good focus system on the 50D as well as the 5D. I want to shoot action too!

I never asked for video on my still camera. I'll probably use it but it isn't what the device is purchased for.