Bad Time for buying a new body.

If you can, wait until the early fall. If there is a 70d or 7d mark II coming out it will be announced then. Once it comes out, you can either pick one up or pickup a 60D at an even lower price.

T2i4me wrote in post #14584221
Agree, would be a bummer to buy a 60D now only to have a replacement come out a few months later. I'm waiting for the rumored APS-C "flagship" 70D to arrive. Of course the high price can be the kicker on any new body design.

Not sure this is actually true. The 60D price right now is exactly the same as the preorder price for the 650D. Unless the new video features are what you're after, the 60D is actually quite attractive. The Rebel is still going to have Rebel control ergonomics - that is to say poor - so I don't really see any advantage for still shooting. I'll take my 60D anytime. I'd bet the price point on any future 70D is going to shoot up $300 or more over the current 60D.

The 70D isn't more than a rumor right now - you can have the 60D in your hands immediately.

I am in the same boat and for me I think that as kfreels said the timing is always bad, but this particular time I think can be timed right. I am waiting for the 70d and hoping it is close to as rumored, if so it is my current ideal body. True you can not buy a rumor, but that is stupid logic because we can all agree that canon will release another 7d and 60d successor before they go out of business and likely this fall, so i answer that with no one NEEDS a new body if they have a functioning one and patience pays. If the new 70d sucks for some reason(I think they are going to hit it out of the park though) then what a better time to grab a used 7d than after a 7d successor comes out. So really, if you are like me and been dealing with what has become an overwhelming amount of shortcomings the better you get(I have an xsi) then what is another few months to see if canon can answer the bell Nikon has rung on them as of late? I am very optimistic that the 60d successor will be worth the wait, I am nervous that it will be a pretty penny based on the t4 price basically being the same as 60d.

philwillmedia wrote in post #14582704
hmmm...I can't see why it's so hard to decide.
You only have one realistic option. The other two don't exist yet.

Really- about the time that you posted this post- Adorama was advertising that they had the t4i in stock !

Guess someone isn't paying attention..

Nick3434 wrote in post #14584741
I am in the same boat and for me I think that as kfreels said the timing is always bad, but this particular time I think can be timed right. I am waiting for the 70d and hoping it is close to as rumored, if so it is my current ideal body. True you can not buy a rumor, but that is stupid logic because we can all agree that canon will release another 7d and 60d successor before they go out of business and likely this fall, so i answer that with no one NEEDS a new body if they have a functioning one and patience pays. If the new 70d sucks for some reason(I think they are going to hit it out of the park though) then what a better time to grab a used 7d than after a 7d successor comes out. So really, if you are like me and been dealing with what has become an overwhelming amount of shortcomings the better you get(I have an xsi) then what is another few months to see if canon can answer the bell Nikon has rung on them as of late? I am very optimistic that the 60d successor will be worth the wait, I am nervous that it will be a pretty penny based on the t4 price basically being the same as 60d.

While your reasoning is sound, I have to wonder - if it takes 6-9 months before these cameras come out you may save a hundred bucks or so, but you will have gone all that extra time without it. Just thinking out loud here.

If you can buy something now, buy it now. I have $$ sitting in an account WAITING to buy a new body. However, I am in a certification program for my job and I have zero time to shoot. When my certification is complete in October I will buy a newer body. If the 700D or 7DII is out then I STILL won't buy either one. I don't mind at all being a generation or two behind the "latest and greatest".

Waiting for the next model to come out, which is ALWAYS happening, does nothing but frustrate and annoy.

Rent both cameras for a week. Buy the one you like. It's really quite simple.

rick_reno wrote in post #14583033
7D is a great camera, and I don't know about you but I've never been able to buy a rumor.

Hell, the 1Dx was officially announced in October and you can't even buy that yet...

Nukehed wrote in post #14584988
If you can buy something now, buy it now. I have $$ sitting in an account WAITING to buy a new body. However, I am in a certification program for my job and I have zero time to shoot. When my certification is complete in October I will buy a newer body. If the 700D or 7DII is out then I STILL won't buy either one. I don't mind at all being a generation or two behind the "latest and greatest".

Waiting for the next model to come out, which is ALWAYS happening, does nothing but frustrate and annoy.

Rent both cameras for a week. Buy the one you like. It's really quite simple.

Lots of wisdom here.

With the refurbished 60D going for $639, the 7D for $1089, and the 5D2 for the low $1400's on the Canon Loyalty Program, you can get into a nearly new (in most cases) body for hundreds less than retail. Even if you want that $1700 70D2 (or however much they will want for it) when it comes out, you can pretty much get your money back out of that refurbished body and put it towards the new one.

It is nearly dummy-proof.

Get the 7D...the Rebels feel like toys to me.

kfreels wrote in post #14584973
While your reasoning is sound, I have to wonder - if it takes 6-9 months before these cameras come out you may save a hundred bucks or so, but you will have gone all that extra time without it. Just thinking out loud here.

Valid point. I love my xsi, kinda like that love your first car thing, so another 6 months with it won't kill me. I learned photography with it so it will always be a favorite camera for me. I am not one for the latest and greatest, just that my timing is working out close enough to canon releasing cameras in my range.

This is my take. I am far from a professional photog, but I am an accomplished professional at what I do for a living, and we don't buy machines and new technology until we simply have to out of need or profit capability. We are good enough to produce results without them, and that much better once we get them. Some people just buy top line machines, but without the foundation, their work with those machines is nothing great at all, as opposed to companies like mine that grow into them so to speak. So I kinda take that mentality with this hobby. I know I will be better in the long run by earning technology and being fully competent once I get it rather than trying to buy results because I can. If the best professionals can create success with what they have everyday when options exist that are technically better than what they currently have, then surely I can spend that extra time with my xsi still growing while waiting for that Nikon killing
70D

Sometimes limitation forces creativity, although most of the time it is annoying

Edit- just want to add that the 70D is going to be a radical camera, I just have a gut feeling canon is going to come out guns blazing with it....

wayne.robbins wrote in post #14584959
Really- about the time that you posted this post- Adorama was advertising that they had the t4i in stock !

Guess someone isn't paying attention..

Got that right.
Don't care either.

Nick3434 wrote in post #14585858
Valid point. I love my xsi, kinda like that love your first car thing, so another 6 months with it won't kill me. I learned photography with it so it will always be a favorite camera for me. I am not one for the latest and greatest, just that my timing is working out close enough to canon releasing cameras in my range.

This is my take. I am far from a professional photog, but I am an accomplished professional at what I do for a living, and we don't buy machines and new technology until we simply have to out of need or profit capability. We are good enough to produce results without them, and that much better once we get them. Some people just buy top line machines, but without the foundation, their work with those machines is nothing great at all, as opposed to companies like mine that grow into them so to speak. So I kinda take that mentality with this hobby. I know I will be better in the long run by earning technology and being fully competent once I get it rather than trying to buy results because I can. If the best professionals can create success with what they have everyday when options exist that are technically better than what they currently have, then surely I can spend that extra time with my xsi still growing while waiting for that Nikon killing
70D

Sometimes limitation forces creativity, although most of the time it is annoying

Edit- just want to add that the 70D is going to be a radical camera, I just have a gut feeling canon is going to come out guns blazing with it....

And that really is a reasonable method of purchasing. The Xsi is a good camera. If it does what you want, then there isn't even a real need to upgrade even when the 70D comes out. You may even wait until the Xsi breaks. The only reason to upgrade is because that body is imposing limits on you that another body would free up. At that point whatever body covers those limits would be sufficient. So I'm curious - what limits are you hitting on the Xsi that you want to move past?

I pretty much agree with the others, if you can be patient wait to see if there is a 70D or 7DII. I sort of doubt 7DII because Canon is updating its firmware with new features; which is something they generally don't do. Makes you wonder if they want to extend the life of the 7D, delaying its refresh.

Other things to consider: ergonomics/controls of the 7D/60D vs. 4Ti. That control wheel on the back is extremely useful. Makes doing exposure shifting/manual control a lot easier. On the 7D, you also get that little joystick that you could use to quickly select AF points.

You could get faster operating a 4Ti with practice, but, it is still not the same.

In the end, I would suggest you reflect on how important is video capabilities are to you. I've noticed a number of wedding videographers shooting with 3Ti and 60D with cheaper lens (e.g., EF-s 60 macro) and get acceptable results for their purposes.

They certainly came out blazing with the T4i

Things annoying me on xsi and why I am ready to move on. All of these are things I never had a problem with until I reached a certain point, mainly about the last 5 months.


Focus in general, but I pretty much only use center point auto focus, recompose when I can, or crop when it is a moving object. Ai servo mode is very ehh at best, and for my surfing pics this last winter the fps stood out.

Viewfinder. Looking through a 7d viewfinder is quite a different experience.

Switching aperture/shutter fast and also switching from continuous to one shot etc quickly. I am very used to the xsi layout, but all this talk of configurable buttons and dials seems very appealing once you are very competent in knowing what settings you want to take a shot at, and having a few seconds to make it happen and compose, or better yet, not leave the viewfinder. Which you can do with the xsi, but I am sure it is a safe assumption that I will enjoy a step up with top LCD/better viewfinder.

High Iso straight sucks on the xsi. Shooting at 800 needs crazy noise reduction, then you guys post 1600 shots that look much better. I shoot interior for work and setting up a tripod isn't always an option, and neither is a large aperture to capture what I sell, so if I am stuck with f8, and a 1/30 shutter speed minimum, something has to give handheld and it is the iso. Xsi makes me scared to shoot over 400, 800 if I have no other choice like when I went to the Sistine chapel and honestly I spent more time switching back to 400 when I could than enjoying shooting.

Image iq from the xsi is great, I really don't feel like my still shots are far off of anything the digic 4 guys are showing, at that point use of light and composure makes much more of a difference. Whatever is gained here is bonus, but not reason to upgrade.


Sorry for the long winded response, but you asked