Which full frame should I buy?

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jessyloo

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I have recently decided to upgrade my camera equipment and I am a bit unsure of which one to go for? I currently have a sony setup which I am really disapointed with. It has all sorts of issues, one in particular is that no flash transmitters of a decent quality are compatible. And that fact it has no flash sync ports is ridiculous. But it was my 1st Dslr and I never knew about these sort of things and was sold it by a guy in Jessops as better than a Nikon!! Ha I know better now!!
SO I am looking at buying a second hand full frame. Looking predominantly at Canon but this is why I am looking for some advice, I have quite a few lenses on my sony and and to buy new equipment for a Canon is going to cost me an arm and a leg. Do instead go for the sony full frame a900??

Needing some help pls!
 
Are the Sony lenses you have designed for full frame?
That could prove to be a factor in helping you choose.
 
Prehaps it may be better to take the financial pain to change now before spending anymore money on Sony kit.
 
I recently made the move to full frame. Went into the shop and had a good play with the 5D MKII and the D700. Now bearing in mind I already had Canon pro glass and a 40D, I made the decision to sell everything, 24-70 F2.8L, 70-200 F4.0, 40D + Grip and 580 EXII to buy the D700.
 
I recently made the move to full frame. Went into the shop and had a good play with the 5D MKII and the D700. Now bearing in mind I already had Canon pro glass and a 40D, I made the decision to sell everything, 24-70 F2.8L, 70-200 F4.0, 40D + Grip and 580 EXII to buy the D700.


Like you I bought the D700 and never looked back. The beauty with nikon is the choice of second hand lenses that can be used.

So Jessyloo sell the Sony equipment and but the D700, you will not regret it!
 
I just made a move to the Sony A900 full frame, I had a number of lenses and a setup invested in a Sony Kit. In addition I evaluated the D700 and a friend of mine just bought the Canon 5D Mark II.

From the whole lot I liked the Nikon sound (shutter) and feel. Other than the ISO issue everyone talks about with the Sony in comparison to the others mentioned, the camera just delivers. If you have invested in Sony stick with it. The price differential is not small. In addition You can still do with the Sony what you can do with the others. Picture quality is very good, ease of migration in terms of functions. Everything else is perfect in my opinion.

If at anytime Sony releases an update for the A900 firmware to reduce the noise in high ISO, Nikon and Canon will meet the perfect contender in that area.
 
icnoble said:
I recently made the move to full frame. Went into the shop and had a good play with the 5D MKII and the D700. Now bearing in mind I already had Canon pro glass and a 40D, I made the decision to sell everything, 24-70 F2.8L, 70-200 F4.0, 40D + Grip and 580 EXII to buy the D700.
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Like you I bought the D700 and never looked back. The beauty with nikon is the choice of second hand lenses that can be used.

So Jessyloo sell the Sony equipment and but the D700, you will not regret it!
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It's not all that easy. You can't tell someone to go and buy a specific camera because it is right for you. It doesn't mean it will be for everyone. As ever, when suggesting which camera a person should buy, go to a shop and try them out personally. All you need to know beforehand is budget and which cameras within your budget offer you the feature-set you require. That's my advice anyway.

Tom N.
 
Thanks guys n gals, I think I have decided to sell my sony stuff, problem being is I can't list it anywhere to sell, as the forums all have strict rules! However selling on ebay is disastrous as people want something for nothing on there and I hate dealing with that site and having to pay them and paypal!!
I have been making offers on a Canon 1ds mark II for £1500ish and think this would be a great investment into my business but I need to get lenses as well... My ideal lens would obvioulsy be 70-200 2.8... but havn't got £3000 for the camera and 1 lens!!

What would be the minimum amount of lenses I could get away with?? Remembering that I use them alot doing portraits and weddings!
jess
 
jessyloo- how many and what kind of lenses do you have. Changing systems is all good and well, if you don't mind the financial set back. Sometime it's not a luxury many enjoy to be constantly switching systems for the next "best" camera on the market.

More importantly I believe most cameras will take a decent picture do a search on Pbase, flickr etc you'll find good pictures from the Canon, Nikon and Sony contingent. I have used the 5D mkII, D700 and A900- I wouldn't say no to any of them. None of them are perfect, in my opinion/experience- the 5D's outer focus points aren't very accurate, D700 felt a bit heavy, A900 limited no/ of focus points & noise. But in respect theres things much to like, the canon has very good resolution & hi iso performance, nikon-supreme low light performance + rugged body, sony -magnificent 100% view finder & outstanding resolution/detail.

PS don't forget to factor in the cost of high grade lenses to make the most of the full frame sensor and maybe some extra computing power to process them.
 
I have a whole range of lenses.. 50mm, 10-24mm, 70-200mm plus 2 std kit lens. Which is why I am want to upgrade to the best now so i don't have to change again any time soon!!

Scot, i looked at the links you provided and thanks for pointing out the mark III 1d... this intrests me VERY much...!

I need a more proffesional camera as I am going on an Annabel Williams course in feb and want to get the most from it. I went to a Brett Harkness one in september and felt like a right ameteaur as my camera wouldn't even hold a pocket wizard... stupid sony's!!! Had to borrow one of his cameras which was a Canon 5d Mark II which was awesome!!!

So I have about £2000 to play with if I sell my equipment in total for £800... a bit of a loss from what i cost me but i never sell it for Face market value!!
 
jessyloo said:
What would be the minimum amount of lenses I could get away with?? Remembering that I use them alot doing portraits and weddings!
jess
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You could ease yourself into the Nikon camp by getting a Fujifilm S5 Pro (or older model) and restricting yourself to FX lenses.
 
jessyloo said:
I have a whole range of lenses.. 50mm, 10-24mm, 70-200mm plus 2 std kit lens. Which is why I am want to upgrade to the best now so i don't have to change again any time soon!!
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IF you need a camera for the type of business you do, the set of lenses if they are all Sony brand most likely they are full frame, hence, the fit with the A900 in full frame.

Otherwise it is a preference choice based on need and feel.
 
I have not really looked at the A900... maybe I should...
 
Just looked at A900 and its UGLY!!! plus its really expensive... £1800 is the best I found it for, however i would not need to buy many lenses as I have a few already. Although this dosn't resolve the issue with things like radio triggers and those sorts of accessories... the adaptors on these seem really large and make life akward! Does anyone have any ideas?
 
If you are going to be shooting weddings you will need 2 bodies and a range of lenses.

I'd suggest getting 2 5D's (£1400 easily) and that leaves you £600 for lenses.

Definately a 24-70 f2.8 and fit longer and wider around that one depending on your style. (I know that's just blown your budget but unfortunately that's what these lenses cost, have a look at Sigma and Tamron equivalents)

A 50mm f1.8 is as cheap as chips and until you can afford to upgrade to a good 70-200mm then the 70-300mm should suffice in good light (it's not f2.8 or anywhere near) and is well within budget at £300
 
As far as I know the Sony A850 is pretty much the same as the A900 but cheaper. As for ugly...I actually like it.

One advantage that Sony gives is in body IS, so all those lovely old Minolta lenses or anything else you mount on the camera will be IS too :lol:

Fancy a 50mm f1.4 with IS? :lol:

I'd love a Sony A900 / A850, or a D700, the advantage of the Nikon is that it has a built in flash.
 
not so worried about the inbuilt flash, got a coupel of flash guns already. But what i really want to explore if off camera flash and sony do an adaptor but charge £120 for that alone then you have to buy the radio triggers and flash guns to match... have not found radio triggers that fit sony cameras!
 
yeah, seen sony's new hot shoe adaptor... they want over £100 for it.... but it is slimline and will mean trigger is not sitting way up in the air!!
 
BouncyMelons said:
If you are going to be shooting weddings you will need 2 bodies and a range of lenses.

I'd suggest getting 2 5D's (£1400 easily) and that leaves you £600 for lenses.

Definately a 24-70 f2.8 and fit longer and wider around that one depending on your style. (I know that's just blown your budget but unfortunately that's what these lenses cost, have a look at Sigma and Tamron equivalents)

A 50mm f1.8 is as cheap as chips and until you can afford to upgrade to a good 70-200mm then the 70-300mm should suffice in good light (it's not f2.8 or anywhere near) and is well within budget at £300
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:agree: That is exactly my wedding setup. 2x 5d's a 24-70 2.8, 70-200 2.8 IS L and the cheap as chips nifty fifty 1.8.

I know the OP is leaning towards the newer FF bodies out there. but the 2nd hand 5D's are a steal at the moment (I picked up one a week ago for £625!) and I personally opted out of getting a MKII because I didnt feel the extra cost was justified by the benefits and improvements over a 5D (in my opinion only). My wife has 500d which is fairly decent at high iso's but the 5D which is 3.5 years older is still way better than the 500D.

Also dont buy any kit on Ebay, its a rip off and you'll always be outbid by idiots. Theres always good equipment at great prices on this forum so keep watching the classifieds when you have set out the targe/ideal kit.

Good luck! :thumbs:
 
jessyloo said:
yeah, seen sony's new hot shoe adaptor... they want over £100 for it.... but it is slimline and will mean trigger is not sitting way up in the air!!
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you can get a generic adapter for far, far less than that.
& it's only Sony's bottom end bodies that lack PC-sync. ports - A700/850/900 have 1.

if you have FF lenses & flashes already in Sony fit that's a significant saving.
RGB do the A850 for £1530 & WEX have a body/v. grip & spare battery bundle for £1650
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy...grip-and-extra-hahnel-fm500-battery/p10000740
 
jessyloo said:
It has all sorts of issues, one in particular is that no flash transmitters of a decent quality are compatible. And that fact it has no flash sync ports is ridiculous.
Click to expand...

So it sounds like you bought a budget / beginner model (2xx/3xx)? You would need something like this.

Hotshoe adapter and appears from the pictures to have a sync port as well. For under a tenner. When I started with a Minolta 7000i (film!) that didn't have a sync port either and I ended up buying an adapter from Jacobs or Jessops or somewhere for a few quid.


If you have a Sony flashgun already it will probably act as a wireless trigger, my HVL-F56AM will trigger my Elinchrom lights wirelessly from my A700. I've also got a wireless trigger that attaches to the sync port (which my A700 has) rather than the hotshoe.

Note that some of your lenses may not be FF, the Tamron 10-24 isn't and one of the 50mm lenses isn't (Sony 50mm f/1.8 is crop only. The Minolta f/1.7 and Minolta / Sony f/1.4 are FF)

Do you need full frame?
 
jessyloo - Lots of good advise here - But it sounds as if you are looking for an excuse to leave the sony and adopt one of the mainstream camera systems - I found in the long run if you are just not happy then go with your gut feeling - I have in the past bought an item that suited me now and was sorry in the long run - I know this is not the same but if you put more money into a camera system you are not 100% happy with.....then it will be good money after bad.

I will say though I know a few people with the sony system and they love it! However they are more casual photographers.

I hope you come to a conclusion you can stick with and are happy with - Myself it was nikon as the camera D300 just felt great in the hand - I am after a D700 back end of next year - when they bring a new model out and I can get one ex-demo:thumbs:
 
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