New purchase dilemma

I would appreciate some advice with my next purchase. I currently have a 30d, sigma 70-200 2.8, Canon 28-135 and debating on what to do next, stay with crop or go FF?
Buy 70d and 17-55 2.8 or
5d M3 and probably the 24-70 2.8 much later
I shoot a great deal of sports photography and didn't think the 6d was my best choice.
Thanks!

Since you shoot sports, a 7D would probably be better for you. You will have more reach with a crop body, and you can still use your 28-135. Full frame is better for portraits, landscape, and architecture. A crop sensor will be better suited for sports, wildlife, etc.

Yeah, what he said.

Are you both saying to go with 7d over the 70d?

Reddog 1068 wrote in post #16659306
Are you both saying to go with 7d over the 70d?

Oops, sorry, I thought you said 7D in your post. Really, can't go wrong with either. I personally like that the 7D is a magnesium alloy body, but the 70D is a newer camera.

Either, or... you'll be good. Personally I'd opt for the 7D but the 70 is very attractive. Do you shoot any video?

go 1/2 way and get a !D MK IV...

I do shoot some video and that is one reason I had the 70d on my short list. Curious as to why I would get the 1d mark iv when the 5d m3 is roughly the same cost
Thanks!

I use a 70D for sports (hockey) photography, and I'm very pleased with it. The 7D does have a couple of additional focus options (AF point expansion being one that I think I would like to have on my 70D), but it is so old at this point I can't see paying full price for a new one. If you can find a good used one that might be a viable option.

I also use my 6D a bit for hockey, but not as much as the 70D as I prefer the cropped field of view at the rink.

For both cameras when shooting hockey, I generally use the centre focus point and crop to change composition if I want afterwards. I started doing that with the 70D after a lot of experimentation, and I just carried that over to the 6D.

Ratjack wrote in post #16659303
Since you shoot sports, a 7D would probably be better for you. You will have more reach with a crop body, and you can still use your 28-135. Full frame is better for portraits, landscape, and architecture. A crop sensor will be better suited for sports, wildlife, etc.

Why couldn't the OP still use the 28-135 on full frame?

OP didn't specify which sports they shoot so a crop sensor may not be better suited. Sure if it's field sports the a crop sensor with higher pixel density like the mentioned 7/70D could be help but the OP's max 200mm is still too short and they should be looking at getting a longer lens. If it's gym sports 200mm should be long enough for FF and the the FF performs better at high ISO so it seem to me that a FF would be better suited in this case.

The OP didn't say why they'll looking to upgrade or how the current gear is holding them back. The 5DIII already has about the same pixel density as the OP's current crop senor body so if it's being able to crop more then it's not going to help but if it's about better high ISO it's got that covered.

Reddog 1068 wrote in post #16659934
I do shoot some video and that is one reason I had the 70d on my short list. Curious as to why I would get the 1d mark iv when the 5d m3 is roughly the same cost
Thanks!

The all 1DIV does all the things that are generally desirable for sports well. It has high FPS, large buffer, fast advanced AF system, long lasting battery, may custom features that could be useful that non of the other mentioned bodies have, etc.

It has more FPS and pixel density than the 5DIII so if that's something you want/need then it might be a better choice.

It also does quite well at high ISO's, not too far behind the 5DIII but also better than the 7/70D(at least on on RAW files-the new jpeg engine on the 70D is likely better and could produce jpegs just as good).

I generally choose my 1DIV over my 5DIII for action shots because it does many things desired for action better and things it doesn't do better it does them good enough.

Reddog 1068 wrote in post #16659306
Are you both saying to go with 7d over the 70d?

In a heartbeat. The only thing to be a 7D for wildlife or action sports is a 1DX, 1D4, or a 7D2....whenever there is a 7D2. For wildlife and sports you want a high frame rate, high ISO handling, and a fast CF card to dump the buffer. Bodies that only do SD cards are not serious candidates for that type of shooting.

Reddog 1068 wrote in post #16659295
I would appreciate some advice with my next purchase. I currently have a 30d, sigma 70-200 2.8, Canon 28-135 and debating on what to do next, stay with crop or go FF?
Buy 70d and 17-55 2.8 or
5d M3 and probably the 24-70 2.8 much later
I shoot a great deal of sports photography and didn't think the 6d was my best choice.
Thanks!

Indoor or outdoor sports, or both?

I would stick with a crop. You'll usually be reaching out at sports events, both indoor & outdoor especially. That means bigger telephoto lens. If your budget is infinite, you can definitely just get the longer telephoto lens with wide aperture and drop $7k~10k right there. Plus a $3k camera (5D3). Or you can just get a 7D/70D, mid-range telephoto zoom and spend less than $2k total and still get amazing photos.

7D + 17-55 & 70-200, or 300 F4 maybe if you really need more reach and wider aperture without spending a ton of cash for it.

Very best,

Another vote for the 1D4.
If you like sports then the 1D series are specifically designed for it. They are faster, more responsive cameras with better AF than their concurrent Canon stablemates. True the 1D Mk4 is one generation behind the 5D3 but it was built to a significantly higher specification/standard​. The 5D3 wins on the ISO front and is a better portrait/landscape camera. The 1D4 is very good at these but not quite the best choice, for sports only the 1DX and possibly the Nikon D4 will beat it.
Another factor to consider is sensor size, the 1D series use an APSH sensor (1.3 crop) which I have found to be a very good compromise between the pros and cons of FF vs 1.6 crop.
On a personal note I am always leaving batteries and cards behind, the 1D4 takes 2 cards and a nice BIG battery. I used 2 16GB cards in mine (1300 + RAWS) and the battery could fill them both almost 2 times on a good day. I also find the functionality of the AF system and the adjust ability of the frame rate settings handy.
Here, in the UK, a very good used 1D4 is cheaper than a new 5D3 and it's built to last longer - just food for thought?

MCAsan wrote in post #16660339
In a heartbeat. The only thing to be a 7D for wildlife or action sports is a 1DX, 1D4, or a 7D2....whenever there is a 7D2. For wildlife and sports you want a high frame rate, high ISO handling, and a fast CF card to dump the buffer. Bodies that only do SD cards are not serious candidates for that type of shooting.

The 70D does a better job of ISO handling, particularly in JPEG, but also the RAW noise is much easier to clean up. Shooting jpeg I have never hit the buffer limit during shooting.

The 7D is approaching 5 years old now. CF cards are harder to find and insanely expensive per GB. Their only consumer market now is the high end camera market, so they charge huge amounts knowing that people with high end cameras will pay it. If you end up needing more capacity or have a failure you can find a Class 10 SD card just about anywhere...but not so much on the high speed CF cards.

The OP mentions the 70D and the 17-55, which is a great combination. If you want Liveview servo AF, and video AF, the 70D is the only real option to go with. Personally I never used my 60D in liveview except for macro shooting and manual focus on a tripod...but now I use the 70D in Liveview pretty frequently, and I record a lot of video on it. It, like the touch screen, is one of those features that might seem like a gimmick until you actually use it. Combined with the swivel screen you can get shots from all kinds of crazy angles, either up high over a crowd or down low to the ground, while having fast and accurate full time AF. The Wifi features are also cool - remote shooting and being able to direct upload to Flickr is really enjoyable.

The 70D is like a swiss army knife, it does everything, and does it well. The 7D is now more of a niche camera - it does sports and birds in flight the best, but it can't compare to the 70Ds video and in camera jpeg processing.

Canon rumors hint that a new 7Dmkii could be around the corner... just sayin... Not sure on how flexible your timing is.