Choices, choices....

Panda_stunter wrote in post #9864286
true. thanks.

well, since im fairly new to DSLR but not to photography, i havent found my niche yet. so as of right now, i shoot anything and everything. I.e. landscapes, my sibling's babies, cars, racing, dabbled into some aviation, and everything in between.

ok. so ask yourself what your favorite thing to shoot is.

NaKiD EyE wrote in post #9869807
ok. so ask yourself what your favorite thing to shoot is.

actually, anything and everything! i like candid shots a little bit more than others.

this is your problem then

7D - sports, action, wildlife
5DmkII - portraits and landscape

both cameras can shoot all of those of course but that is where they excel.

Honestly i woudl just upgrade glass till you find your niche.

Got any examples of what you don't like about your rebels IQ?

A quick tip - Dont judge your photos by 100% crops for anything other that comparing lens sharpness. Whether an image looks good at 100% view size is irrelavent to almost anything.

Upgrading to another crop body is not going to improve IQ by much. Almost all modern crop sensors have VERY similar IQ from the 500D up to the 7D. It only becomes a bit leap if you go full frame. But you really need to ask yourself if you need that IQ. Is this a hobby? if so why do you need better IQ? Do you print your images out? if so do you find the prints lacking?

I find a lot of people upgrade for basically no reason other than they think they need to. You need to work out whats important to you before you make any of these decisions.

yes, as of right now it is a hobby.

but im aiming to have it as a second form of income in the future. and yes i do print out my shots, well, the ones that i like at least.

i do have an L lens (24-70L) and i know that the lens is sharp but i think the XSi is holding it back from its full potential. and since the next lens purchase im going to do is going to be the 70-200 2.8L IS, i dont want that to be held back as well.

well, i got the 450D/XSi. thats also the reason why i put the 5D2 in the choice, coz in my own way of reasoning, i already have a crop body so its kind of moot to upgrade to another crop body...so im thinking full frame. 5Dc is also in the choices but forgot to put it in. maybe i can add it on there.

though, 7D is a crop sensor, it has heaps of advantages that it has over my 450D.

as of right now, i do get paid BUT only by family members and close friends. not much but a little bit to cover for my time and prints, but mostly for my time. most of the time, they only want a copy sent over email.

but i want to get better pictures for them. and also, i overtly critical about myself and what i do. i guess you can say im a perfectionist and i will go out of my way to get everything (almost) perfect. im not gonna say i get anything perfect, but i want to be as close to it as possible.

damn...i cant add 5Dc on the poll. oh well....

wait and get the 5dmkII then.

Other questions

Do you shoot RAW and how do you process your images?

How big do you want to print? what dont you like about your prints? if they are soft do you know about the fact you have to oversharpen photos before printing?

Things like that we really need to know because i have no idea on your knowledge base.

Genome wrote in post #9874070
wait and get the 5dmkII then.

Other questions

Do you shoot RAW and how do you process your images?

How big do you want to print? what dont you like about your prints? if they are soft do you know about the fact you have to oversharpen photos before printing?

Things like that we really need to know because i have no idea on your knowledge base.

yes, i do shoot raw. i dont think ive ever shot in any other file size....wait, i did shoot large jpeg when i went to kentucky and i thought that i would fill and run out of memory space, but all the time i shoot RAW.

i process through lightroom 2.6. my print size ranges are from 4x6 to 8x10 normally, but havent gone bigger than that, though i want to. but my experience with printing from 4x6 to 8x10, is kinda pixelated (to me anyways) and just a little on the soft side. ive printed 4x6s but theres artifacts/noise. i shoot mainly on ISO100, but if im shooting on higher ISO (800/1600) i always shoot to the right (1/3 over) to compensate and to try to avoid artifacts/noise then bring it down to the right exposure on PP. On ISO 100-200, i sometimes shoot to the left and bring it up to proper exposure on pp so as to not lose or blow out any detail on the highlights.

when i sharpen the images, it looks pixelated so i put some USM on the images.

im pretty proficient on post-processing but i want to make my workflow better, like eliminating the step to do unsharp mask to get the images sharper.

got an example shot i can see? you seem to know the ins and outs of processing. Sometimes we see flaws in our shots where there are none. Could be the printer, paper etc etc.

I have printed pictures out at A4 size that were shot at ISO 1600 and they look fine.... its hard to say without actually seeing the stuff.

The best way to get sharper images is the lens. I have posted this a few times but here it is again.

I got my brand new 70-200L yesterday and here is a test shot. Taken in RAW and put through ACR with no sharpeneing or noise reduction what so ever....This is just so much sharper than my old 55-250 its hard to believe. I doubt my 500d (t1i) is much sharper than your camera.

farm5.static.flickr.co​m/4054/4462211973_1849​693c82_o.jpg

What you need is a 1DMKIII. You can pick them up used and it will handle "all" your shooting requirements. But that should not be your first step. I would expand and improve my lens collection first. This process will basically be a result of what you end up shooting most and therefore require. The 1DIII body though will give you superior weather sealing, autofocus as well as great IQ.