I have a £1000 budget what should I buy?

[CrackedButter]

Please help me decide for practical reasons, I'm doing my head in making my mind up and my friends only suggest Canon (specifically 5D for its full frame goodness), I have a budget of £1000 ($2000) and I have a 4 week photo assignment in Cuba in September so there is time with this to decide.

At the moment I have the £1000 + another £4000 in savings but unless you have some amazing skills of negiotion I'm not intending to touch that £4000 as I need it to save for other things.

Besides that 1 grand I also have in my arsenal, 1 EOS 50mm EF f1.4 lens which I'm willing to sell for extra capital and 2 medium format bodies (mamiya 645) each with a lens I could make 2 kits out of and put on ebay.

Now as I stated, I'm in Cuba for a month and I'll be doing mostly street photography, portraits, interviews and visiting a few indoor locations such as hospitals and people's home. Higher f-stops would be preferable incase of low light conditions. I'm not intending to do any landscape work.

I'm willing to use film camera's especially EOS bodies because I have the 50mm lens already and that would save me money, the only trouble is, those film bodies are quite noisy so I've been looking at rangefinders such as the Contax G2 for example.

I would like ideally to have 2 bodies, in any combination except for film, film, and a few lenses to go with.

Now if you do want to help please note that I will not buy anything to do with Nikon and I won't buy anything less than full frame digital, after owning a 5D in the past I wouldn't be satisfied with the crop factor. Other than that I'm willing to look at nearly other brand of camera. I'm particularly interested in the Olympus lineup because of the cost and then to buy a decent rangefinder like the G2 with a 45mm lens, maybe that is the way to go if people don't suggest otherwise. I would love to however just buy the 5D again second hand but it would soak up a large part of my budget and then I wouldn't have a backup body incase of breakage and besides who in Cuba could fix it!

Thanks if you can help.

 

[compuwar]

Now if you do want to help please note that I will not buy anything to do with Nikon and I won't buy anything less than full frame digital,

I'm particularly interested in the Olympus lineup because of the cost and

You do realize that Olympus is 4/3rds in digital, that's more crop than APS-C?

 

[CrackedButter]

You do realize that Olympus is 4/3rds in digital, that's more crop than APS-C?

A lightbulb flashed on in my head after I posted that, what I meant is in the respective manufacturers line up. I'm okay with the Olympus system being half of full frame but not when it comes to Canon cameras for example. Whoops!

 

[Everythingisnt]

Canon is the only lineup with an affordable Fullframe out there right now.. (5D)..

So I'm not sure what else you are looking for. You aren't interested in Nikons offerings so there's no sense in waiting for the mythical full-frame 'D10'.. And the soon to be released full frame Sony will be above the 2000 pound budget.

I guess you could wait for the 5D Mk II, but you will have to dig into your extra savings as well as wait for a long period.

I think you should go with the 5D, but to save money see if you can find a good deal for a lightly used one.

 

[CrackedButter]

If I do get the 5D (again) I won't have anything left for another lens.

 

[ChrisA]

You have limited your choices to the point that nothing will meet your requirements. You simply will NOT find a $1000 full frame digital Canon SLR. And you do need to reserve budget for a lens or two. With your budget you really should be spending 1/2 of it on the lens(es) More if you can.

Why can't you use a "crop body" DSLR? The only valid technical reason is that your final end-product requires better quality. That would only be the case if you are making quality prints larger then about a foot along the longer edge. Below that the crop bodies wil do fine. If you are down sampling the images for the web or smaller size prints then sensor noise is not an issue as the down sample process in effect makes the pixels larger and less noisy.

If you do need full frame. Go with film. Get a couple bricks of that 160 ISO portrait film. I like Agfa the best. It scans very nicely, sharp and with natural and smooth color and little grain. It holds up well even to 4000 DPI scans. With film you can use an older manual focus camera system and not even need to take batteries, except for your meter. But then what to do with the other 90% of your budget? $200 would get you a nice 35mm film camera

If you are a fan of full frame and know how to use film and are mostly shooting people why use 35mm film? Buy a Haselblad. You budget would cover a nice used system. Look at the Mamiya 45 also if you don't like "square". My opinion now, in 2008, is that if you are going to shoot film, don't bother with 35mm film. Digital has taken over the space once occupied by small format film

 

[Everythingisnt]

If I do get the 5D (again) I won't have anything left for another lens.

Then it looks like you're in a pickle

 

[compuwar]

A lightbulb flashed on in my head after I posted that, what I meant is in the respective manufacturers line up. I'm okay with the Olympus system being half of full frame but not when it comes to Canon cameras for example. Whoops!

2x is ok, but 1.6x isn't? Seems like a silly corner to paint yourself into to me, especially given that your lens investment goes nowhere but 2x if you go Oly, where you get the choice if you go Canon. But you've successfully painted yourself into a 4/3rds sized corner- so that's your answer.

 

[harcosparky]

If I do get the 5D (again) I won't have anything left for another lens.

If the 5D is out of reach, take a look at the 40D.

I have a 5D and just picked up a 40D.

I paid about $1200 USD and got the 40D and another 28-135 IS lens. ( it was a kit )

 

[CrackedButter]

2x is ok, but 1.6x isn't? Seems like a silly corner to paint yourself into to me, especially given that your lens investment goes nowhere but 2x if you go Oly, where you get the choice if you go Canon. But you've successfully painted yourself into a 4/3rds sized corner- so that's your answer.

With Olympus there are practical issues involved as well. They are cheaper, smaller and less noisy with having a smaller mirror slab. I've also realised as well that if I get 2 Canons for example, my bags won't accommodate them whereas 2 Olympus's (or 1 Olympus and a rangfinder) will fit fine. I don't want to buy another bag

Having posted this in another forum, my best best would seem be an Olympus camera and a rangefinder plus a few lenses.

@harcosparky, interesting comment, I will have a look just on the off chance it will fit,thanks.

 

[leighonigar]

Olympus tend to be noisier (image wise). Personally I think you're nuts with this 'no nikon' lark. For example, aren't the D40/60 supposed to have quiet shutters, light weight, cheapness and good quality (lower noise than the olympus series). It sounds like you're moderately serious, and quite into film so I'd probably just stick with it if you're serious about your restrictions. You've cut yourself down to nothing!

 

[CrackedButter]

Olympus tend to be noisier (image wise). Personally I think you're nuts with this 'no nikon' lark. For example, aren't the D40/60 supposed to have quiet shutters, light weight, cheapness and good quality (lower noise than the olympus series). It sounds like you're moderately serious, and quite into film so I'd probably just stick with it if you're serious about your restrictions. You've cut yourself down to nothing!

As a Canon user and surrounded by other Canon fans, I can't be seen switching now can I? On a serious note, I just don't like Nikon's, I use a D40 and a D60 for work and I just can't stand them but hey, they're not my cameras so I won't complain to the boss.

After posting the same question in 2 other boards, I'm leaning towards an Olympus digital and a Contax G2 for my setup. Thanks for the input everybody has had it's been a big help to clarify things for me.

 

[leighonigar]

Which oly are you thinking of? The 410/20 and the 25mm pancake for ultimate smallness? The 520 for IS? ??

 

[CrackedButter]

If I bag a decently priced G2, I will go for the E420 with a pancake lens and a zoom, I think I will need at least 1 long range zoom though (a wide angle zoom as well would be nice) because the G2 (that I've looked at) will have a 28mm and a 45mm lens to accompany it.

I realised now I won't need to buy any new bags so I can save money there and get the light meter as well.