Worth upgrading my 7D?

Hello.

New to the forums . Got sent here by a friend whom only made my dilema worse.

I'm considering upgrading my 7D which has served me well for the past 2 years or so. Not because its bad. I love it. But because I just want something newer, maybe better

I shoot wildlife and macro, About 50-50, Sometimes in the rain.
I'm using 300 F/4 & 400mm F/5.6 for wildlife (I have sigma 1.4 TC but no AF with the 400mm ).
For macro I'm using 100mm f/2.8 and some tubes for get closer.
All of my gear I got second hand. Full price is too much price as I see it.

I thought of buying a 1D4 for the better weather protection and stronger body (I had to get my 7D repaired a few times from rain damage and because I'm stupid). I really wanted to buy a 1D3 because they are stupidly cheap for what you get, but I think 10MP won't be enough for me if I need to crop an image, and still have enough to quality for a print.

My friend told me that for almost the same price of the 1D4, I can get a new 5D3. I don't really need a 5D3, and I don't want to lose the "zooming" of the 1.6 crop. But its 22MP so cropping should keep in the game.

I'm mainly shooting AF with center point, so 19/45/100/1 billion AF points, don't care. I'm using burst & ai servo for wildlife (6-7 shots), and fully manual in macro.

I don't really get paid. I shoot on my own time and for my own enjoyment. Usually just sell a print or two if I got something really good at a local photostore, and help a friend as a second photographer in a wedding to pay off some of my gear (I borrow a short zoom lens from someone when I'm doing weddings or family events, as 99% of the time I don't need it).

So help me out. I have an hunger to get something new just for the excitment. I don't feel I need a new lens.
Also my young kid (16) wants a camera of his own, and I can give him my 7D. On the other hand, I can just get him a 600D as a birthday present and tell him "here, now go shoot some videos of you and your friends making a fool of each other", and he will still be happy.

Well, I did upgrade from 7D to 5D3 and, once I was able to ignore the price difference and judge the technical difference, I was *more* than satisfied. IQ difference is immense imho especially in terms of sharpness & ISO, ergonomics are better (and 7D was pretty good in that area!), AF is much more accurate (AF failure rate is insignificant as compared to the 7D), many more AF points, auto-ISO implementation is very good, MF adjustment is now available at both ends for zooms - I think I could go on, but you probably got the idea

Cannot speak of 1D4 or 1D3, but if you can afford a 5D3 then my advice would be to consider it seriously.

Note: I didn't use 7D with the latest firmware jump.

I love full frame and everything, but some part of me would choose the 1d4 over the 5d3...especially for birding. I know that the 5d3 is capable of doing it, but I would still choose the 1d4 for some reason.

To significantly step up from 7D...to a camera that will stay in production for awhile....you would need to go to 5DIII or 1DX. 5DIII has a slightly slower frame high speed frame rate. IMHO, that is more thank compensated for by the killer AF system. 1DX would be best of all...at a huge cost.

On the safari we did in June/July, I had my 7D and 5DIII. Most of my shots were with 5DIII and my 100-400. Only a few times did I need the 7D with a rented 500.

Which brings me to another point. You really want to have two camera bodies whenever possible. You never know when a camera bodies dies, has an accident, or simply does not have the best lens attached. Having two camera bodies gives you options....and a backup. So keep the 7D if at all possible as a great backup body.

You probably have to as you will in time destroy your 7d unless you invest in a good weather proof system for it. Consider also how big you print. If you have 10mp and crop to 5mp (quite a significant crop), you can still print apprx 9 inches by 6 inches @ 300ppi, drop to 200ppi (which many find acceptable) and your in around 13 inches by 9 inches (again approx)

I wouldn't upgrade. Nothing you have listed indicates to me that you would see a significant improvement. The only exception is the improved weather sealing of the 1D.

You shoot in the rain and you have had to get your 7D repaired twice as a result. Everything above is interesting, but bottom line, you need a 1D something. Now you need to ask yourself how much your in for (1,500 - 3,750 - 6,800).

Good luck.

The 1D Mark III and IV don't have a 1.6 crop factor, but 1.3, so if the 1.6 crop is important, you need to keep this difference in mind in making your choice.

Thank you guys for the advices

jaomul:
I usually print at 21x15 give or take, so I try to keep it at 14MP at 200PPI. Some times when I have to crop a lot more, I would print at about 150 PPI. I think in a worst case senario, 5MP will force me to go to 100PPI or so.

MCAsan:
I have an old 400D which I'm using when I have to. But it can't stand to the weather like the 7D so I will not use it in the rain. I admit I lost a lot of good picture because my 7D stopped working, or it got misty because of humidity.

Regarding the 5D3, I hear only great things about it. I think I can live with 6FPS.

But the reasons I'm hesitating if its 1D4 vs 5D3, is because that I can use a 1.4 TC with my 400mm and get a 728mm distance (while I"m currently limited to 640mm, 400x1.6), and because with the lenses I have now, I don't see the advantage of the new double-cross points, which are limited from what I understand, to f/2.8 lenses. For the rest its normal cross-type, like the 1D4?

neilrohrbacker:
Regarding how much, 3800$ is the very max limit I will allow myself. There is no chance I will go for the 1DX at this time. Its way more than I need, and way too expensive. I would love to have one just for the kicks, but I seriously don't need such a beast. I don't work in photography as my main job, so I just can't justify buying one.

Jon_Doh:
Yeah I know
A 1D4 will force me to use my 400mm more to get the same as I do with my 300.
But it will also allow me to use the TC with the 400, and get a 728mm distance.
A 5D3 will be even worst, but it has much higher MP, which allows me to crop and still maintain a good image size.
But I don't think I'm not considering dropping it and keeping my 7D because of that.
Its a hard choice, and its a lot of money

You a pro... you gonna make money at it? If not then keep the 7D and go shoot.

If you have weather trouble I think a 1D is your only choice. The 5D3 is going to suffer the same issues as the 7D but it will be that much more expensive if it does fully kick the bucket one day.

i have 40/50ds and 1d2n/1d3 - shoot the 40/50 in good weather and use the 1dwhaever in the rain/snow/slush/etc - happy both ways - you go 1d something you will need longer glass so include the cost of 500f4 is too

gotak wrote in post #14785448
If you have weather trouble I think a 1D is your only choice. The 5D3 is going to suffer the same issues as the 7D but it will be that much more expensive if it does fully kick the bucket one day.

The 5D3 doesn't have a better weather protection than the 7D?

Mostly the issues I had were more my fault. Shooting without good weather protection on the body, or changing lenses in the raid (yeah, I know its damn stupid, but I really wanted to take that shot... and yeah, I missed the shot).

BugNyou wrote in post #14786374
The 5D3 doesn't have a better weather protection than the 7D?

Mostly the issues I had were more my fault. Shooting without good weather protection on the body, or changing lenses in the raid (yeah, I know its damn stupid, but I really wanted to take that shot... and yeah, I missed the shot).

Not really. The only thing better is the lack of a pop up flash removing 1 one of the seams I believe. Otherwise it's not a weather sealed camera in the sense that you can leave it out in the rain for hours.

This is weather sealing on a 900 dollar body by Pentax.
http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=MYxtSOCOQLE

I have always envied Pentax and their commitment to weather sealing on their lower end bodies. Really think Canon's metal bodied DSLRs should be sealed to the same level.

BugNyou wrote in post #14785300
A 1D4 will force me to use my 400mm more to get the same as I do with my 300.
But it will also allow me to use the TC with the 400, and get a 728mm distance.
A 5D3 will be even worst, but it has much higher MP, which allows me to crop and still maintain a good image size.

But not as good as what you'd get with the reach of the 1D4.

The pixel density of the 1D4 is such that if it were scaled to full frame size, it would have 27 megapixels, while the 5D3 has 22.


No, considering your needs, it seems to me that the 1D4 is the most logical choice for you: more pixels on target than the 5D3 and better weather sealing (all bets are off if you change lenses in the rain, though! ).


However, nothing gets you the pixels on target of your 7D, which would get you 46 megapixels if its sensor were scaled to full frame size.

If pixels on target are of greatest importance to you (and they seem to rank right up there!), then stick with the 7D, use a rain hood with it, and stop changing lenses in the rain without cover!