Canon body upgrade advice please.

[freiston]

I've got a 350D and I'm itching to upgrade it. I've been keeping my eye on the 60D and it's going for about £800-£850 at the moment (seems to be slowly rising) but tonight I saw a refurbished 50D going for £600.

I'm tight by nature and not particularly 'flush' with money, and having another £200+ in my pocket has thrown me into a dilemma - is the extra expense of the 60D worth it?

[operanut1972]

Hi Freiston,

If you are going to upgrade your body anyway I would be inclined to say go for the 60D. It will have a full warranty and be a bit more future tech proof than the older 50D. I am sure that the 50D would give you what you want, but I personally stick to the "buy the best you can afford" guideline.

Hope this helps
OpNut72

[GME]

Difficult one. I'm in a similar position also owning the 350. I'm often tempted to upgrade and would love either the 50 or 60D. However, I always become even more undecisive as I get too tempted by the glass! Can't help thinking that if I buy a better lens I'll get better results than buying a better body...

Not sure what to suggest in answer to your original question, other than I think you'll be happy with either I'd go for the one that your gut tells you though (i.e. if you bought the 50D would you still be hankering for the 60? If you bought the 60 would you be worried you'd 'wasted' the extra money?)

Good luck, let us know what you go for in the end

[eeyore]

you could also do a lot worse than a second hand 40D (arguably the best so far in the xxD series) -the 50 was basically a reworked 40 and the 60 in someways is a step back - I dont like that flippy screen , although it could be useful i can see it breaking before the shutter does.

check out the usual suspects such as camtech, T4, mifsuds, MPB etc for decent second user gear ( i've just bought a 450D to replace my aging 300D as my back up camera from MPB - I got body in mint condition, grip and 4 batteries for 330 notes - s/h 40Ds in good condition usually go for about 400 )

the other thing to consider if you do want to buy new is that there isnt that big a price gap between the 60D and the 7D , and the 7 is a lot more camera for your money.

and finally whatever you buy dont forget to go through quidco to get about 3% back (plus if buying new there will be canon cash back too)

[MeadsMan]

I recently got a 60D and am very very pleased with it,My friend has a 50D,and he rates my 60D as being a better Camera than his 50D.I would without question buy the 60D over the 50D.

[Geoff F]

Recently, I was checking out some prices and specs for a friend who was upgrading. And I was surprised to find that the few remaining new 50D cameras were actually selling for more than the 60D.

He eventually bought a 60D and likes it; but to be honest, I prefer my more basic 'no nonsense' 40D than his new 60D.

I would say, think about what you really want from a camera. Personally, I don't want video or flip out screens but for some people that is the main selling point.

And what sort of guarantee is offered with the refurbished 50D? I would assume it is a proper Canon refurbishment.

[freiston]

The 50D is described as "REFURBISHED TO NEW CONDITION BY CANON" and comes with a "90 day seller repair warranty covering parts and labour".

My aspirations lie in bird/aircraft photography and I have the Sigma 150-500 for that purpose. So one thing that I'm beginning to think might be important is good high ISO/low light performance. I'm also keen on upping the number of pixels from what I currently have so that I can 'crop in to the action' a bit more comfortably.

The best I've seen the 60D for is £779 at Mifsuds - otherwise from £800 to £850 at some more well-known outlets and that's about as far as I can stretch - so the 7D is well and truly out of my reach.

I understand that the AF performance of the 60D is very similar (the same?) to the 50D but the burst rate of the 50D is better.

Yeah eeyore, I know I will worry about breaking/stressing/fatiguing that swivel screen! It's for that reason that I stick to 'candy bar' phones and am very happy with my 5 year old nokia!

I'm sure (hope?) that no-one will know by experience how good (or bad?) the weather-sealing and ruggedness of each camera is but the 50D does seem to be a tougher beast. Not sure if that's the case.

If the 50D was brand new at that price, I'd think I'd snap it up and be proud of my end-of-line bargain-grabbing prowess - so based on that 'hypothetical', maybe I'm being a bit 'precious' because it ain't brand-new. If the price difference was a bit bigger, this would be a lot easier choice!

[eeyore]

90 days isnt that great - both mifsuds and MPB go to 6 months waranty on second h9and kit.

If you really want a fast deep burst you might also want to consider a second hand 1Dmk2 - MPB have several low activation examples for a tad over 600 notes

[freiston]

Edited in: How rude of me - I didn't thank you all for your replies - please accept my apologies and thanks.

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The burst rate isn't a clincher - I was more chalking it up as a plus for the 50D.

On account of a 'DC' flavoured Sigma 10-20mm lens, I want to stay with an APS-C sensor. Also I want a decent upgrade in pixel-count from my current 8MP cropped sensor, so I don't want to go the early 1D/5D route.

I do find it a bit concerning that the warranty is on the low side. The company is 'photodirect' on ebay and their feedback rating is 99.5% with 12,115 feedbacks.

[camo]

The best time to buy a new camera is when it is about to be replaced as the cash backs are more generous. Check out when the 70D is due i am sure it is on the horizon. I have a 40D but am begining to get frustrated at it lack of mp and reduced ISO. The 60 must be better but i will move onto either a 7D or a 5D mk2 as they bring out mk3.