Canon EOS 450D...Time for upgrade?

kevin36thi wrote:

Thanks for the advice and tips guys.

I'm going in April so I'm not in any rush as I also own a X10 for street shots. But night shots are concerning so I want something else just in case and my Canon is getting old.

Don't know if I can wait for Digic 5 if they won't be releasing it till later this year. Might got for the 18mp sensor...Is the T3i the best choice then? I might start looking to see if there are any bargains.

Anyone got any examples of night shots?

Thanks a lot.

Kevin

A few suggestions:

-More important than the camera body right now is your lens lineup. In Asia ultrawides get a lot of use, HK is very dense and there are shots you can simply not get without something wider than the standard kit lens' 18mm. I would suggest the Tokina ATX 11-16 f2.8 as you can get good wide angles shot even with dim lighting reducing the need for higher ISO or a new body. Note that you X10 is not going to allow such wide angles so this is of more value for your trip than a new Rebel DSLR body IMHO.

-Definitely wait for the next generation of Rebel to be released before changing bodies. The T3i shares the T2i sensor with the body being the biggest difference, the T1i seems to produce inferior pictures (in my opinion, and both for RAW and JPEG). Once the new generation comes out I would suggest you cross shop it with the 550d/T2i.

-While the newer bodies allow higher ISO, another poster mentioned you can emulate this in RAW with creative use of the exposure control. Also note that you get less detail at those higher ISOs .

-The main advantage of the newer bodies as I see it,besides better in camera jpeg processing and higher ISO options being available, is the ability to shoot video.

In this gallery are two sample HK night shots from a 350D with the 18-55IS kit lens (from a 450D). Note that even with the IS this aperture (f3.5) was pushing it and that the lens was also not wide enough for most street shots.

350