Upgrade camera body or lens?

I'm thinking about upgrading either my camera body or lens. I am not a professional photographer by any means, but I do enjoy photography.

My current set up is this:

Digital Rebel (the very first model that came out - it's old!)
the lens that came with it (not even sure what it is - never used it)
50mm f/1.4
28-135mm f/3.5-5.6

Would it be better to invest in a new body (say, the 7D) and use my current lenses, or to use my current rebel and get a new lens (say, 24-70mm f/2.4 or 70-200mm f/2.8)?

I photograph my children, take family portraits, and am considering taking sports team/individual portraits for our kids' teams.

Thanks!

I think in this case a body upgrade is in order. I think you mean the 300D (I had to google it). I think any entry level body you get now will be a marked improvement in all areas.

I'd get a T3i (or T2i if you can find one) body only, and then also invest in new/ better lenses that suit your needs.

I have an XTi, so you have me beat with your original Digital Rebel.

One thing I'd say is that the high ISO performance on these cameras sucks. I have always been into nature and landscape, so it didn't matter. However now with my kids and shooting indoors more often, I find that even with my Sigma 30mm f/1.4 I need to bump the ISO to keep shutter speeds down or risk blurry images, and in turn some of the shots tend to have more noise.

What helped me with this was actually not on your list, but I'll throw in the suggestion: I got a an external flash (580EXII) and it's made a world of difference. I can get nice shots indoors without blowing out my kids faces with the on-camera flash, and haven't had to bump the ISO quite so high as a result.

So in your shoes, I'd almost say for the kids and family portraits, especially indoors, you'll benefit more from a flash than either a new lens or a new camera.

You'll rarely use a 70-200 indoors, especially with 1.6x crop factor on the Rebel. And the 24-70, while sounds like a great idea, will overlap with your 28-135 and you'll still have low light shooting issues when taking pics of the kiddos at home or at parties, etc.

Outside, in a park or something, I can see the longer lens being a plus, so it's a wash if you think you take 50% of your kids/family shots indoors vs. outdoors. So now I hope I haven't made it worse - new camera, new lens, or new flash?

I agree, you are more than several generations old and the difference between the 300D technology and those in new cameras to day is quite dramatic. Go for the 7D, no question.

New body. Newer anyway. ISO performance and the ability to crop is a huge improvement. If the form factor isnt too much, look at the XXD line, a 40D or newer. They are a bit heavier, but the controls are much easier to use on the fly.

With the team portraits, you probably need a body upgrade and the 28-135 and the 50 will work just fine, but as mentioned above the best upgrade you can make would be off camera flash if your talking about team portraits.

I would recommend either the 60D or the T4i and a Speedlite 600EX-RT. The new T4i has an integrated speedlite transmitter built in for wireless off camera flash. The 60D does not have this option, but it is a great camera for a lot less money that can be put towards getting off camera flash.

The Dark Knight wrote in post #15014716
I think in this case a body upgrade is in order. I think you mean the 300D (I had to google it). I think any entry level body you get now will be a marked improvement in all areas.

I'd get a T3i (or T2i if you can find one) body only, and then also invest in new/ better lenses that suit your needs.

Word!Usually people want a new body and don't realllly need a new body, but in this case, I don't think anyone is gonna think you won't gain some substantial upgrades with a new body.

Yes upgrade the body, I have a 10D which is the 300D's bigger brother and it can still hang with today's point and shoot copact cameras but it will leave ALOT to be desired compared to recent DSLRs.

It's kinda sad when a newer camera's 3200 ISO looks like our 200 ISO :/

I'm saving up for a 60D though!