My wife’s hobby is photography. She currently has a Canon 550D. The main lenses she uses is the Canon EFS 10-22 and the EF 1.4 50mm prime. She does have the kit lenses, 18-55 and 55-250, but does not use them as they don’t take good pictures.
Most of her pictures are landscapes including night shots on the tripod. She also takes lots of pictures of the kids, often indoors and in bad light.
She does not like upping the ISO on the 550D as it introduces lots of noise.

My wife has a big birthday coming up, and I am thinking of getting her an upgrade. So I’m thinking of a Canon 6D and some replacement lenses.
I’m hoping this will allow higher ISOs, and not need to get massively fast lenses (like f2.8’s).
I’m thinking of the canon EF 17-40 f4, the 24-105 f4 kit lens, and a longer zoom.
There is also the Tamron 24-70 f2.8, and so many other options.

So, any camera experts out there that can point me in the right direction or offer any advice?

I’m not an expert, but surely

24-105

would be a stunning gift – from what I remember the 550d was similar to 7D in in internals. ~Whereas the ultimate walkabout Canon lens would make her day photography front, without imposing too much change at once?

Just a thought!

The 6D is a full frame, so it’s new lens time….

Bear in mind that the 6D is a full-frame camera, so any APS-C lenses she has won’t work.

I’m not sure that a new body is the answer to the problem. A Speedlite and / or external lighting might be a better solution for the indoor shots. As for outdoors, with respect, if she’s using tripods and agonising over ISO, that’s a technique issue not a camera issue.

She does not like upping the ISO on the 550D as it introduces lots of noise.

I assume she’s shooting in RAW not Jpegs and dialling out the noise manually?

I have a 7D and regularly use it in low light at ISO1600 with totally acceptable levels of noise.

No real problem, just passing on what she has said to me.

So no one wants me to spend money?

So no one wants me to spend money?

Personally, I do anything I can to avoid it.

I’d honestly look at technique or camera settings before shelling out for a 6D. And get that ISO bumped up! The noise can’t be that bad, especially if she already has a 1.4 lens. That’s pretty much the perfect indoor/low light lens.

I use Adobe camera raw to edit my images which is hardly hi-tech and I honestly never find noise an issue.

Yes, she uses Raw, and the 50mm, etc, etc.
She also does a lot of post processing and HDR as she enjoyed that.

It’s a birthday present. The current camera is 4 years old with heavy usage. Don’t worry, I’ll just decide on something.

Hi Shred, obviously this is dependent on your budget but if I was in your position I would be considering the 5dmk3, and stick with the 50mm until you could sell the 3 lenses you don’t want and then buy a 16-35 2.8. It may be good for you to have a look over on Talk Photography for some more advice.

Go down the better lens route.

Assuming the high iso problem happens when taking photos of the kids I’d be tempted to suggest a flash and a set of wireless triggers. Calumet do very cheap, very good wireless triggers.

The 6d would be a major step up from the 550d. The 5d mkiii would be very similar in terms of image quality but will do a better job of focusing quickly and accurately.

Personally I prefer to stick to fast lenses. And high iso. I wouldn’t want to have a lens slower than 2.8. You could get the 6d and the 85mm 1.8. Between that and the 50mm you’d have a pretty awesome setup.

I wouldn’t bother with the mk3 5D – the mk2 is absolutely stunning – £2k will get the body + lens kit (28-105 aspherical IIRC).

I would strongly suggest you ask her exactly what she wants. It would be terrible if you got the wrong thing, however well meant.

Wide aperture lenses are not just about low ISO, she may well wish to use them to get very shallow depth of field – very fashionable at the moment for pro photographers particularly as people with camera phones etc can’t reproduce this effect. She may feel a couple of wide apertures are way better than multiple cheaper lenses.

Its lovely of you to want to get her stuff, lucky lady to be cared for so much.

I love Canons BUT the mk2 is not a great camera, I had 2 replaced through the CPS before getting one that would focus properly. My money would go to the mk3

I wouldn’t bother with the mk3 5D – the mk2 is absolutely stunning

The AF is poor compared to the mk3 if you want to focus on fast moving objects or want to shoot wide open using the outer zones. The MK3 is in a different league.

I would get the 6d but not the old 24-105 but the 24-70 f4IS or the 2.8 (new model) if you can afford it.

Interesting to hear that – I have always found the mk2 faultless and it is widely used by many pro photographers I deal with too.

I have both. Most of the time it’s on a camera stand manually focused/live view and tethered to a computer but on occasion I have to shoot run and gun style or moving things and the AF on the 3 is very very accurate using all zones, only the center zone on the 2 is reliable, full length or 3/4 portraits using the outer on a face are often off even at 5.6. I’m not the only photographer who’s come to the same conclusion.

EF 17-40 f4 and the 24-105 f4 are probably the most obvious choices, and good allrounders. The 24-105 does not have the best rep for reliability, i dunno how bad they actually are? They are cheap at the moment. I got the Sigma 35mm at Christmas and it’s pretty much stayed on the camera since I got it….it’s a lovely lens.

To be honest, I think you original plan is pretty good.

The 6D is actually as good as the 5Dmkiii for landscapes and saves £600.
The noise difference between the 6D and 500D is very very significant (2,340 ISO vs 784 ISO according to DXOmark), so it will feel like a real upgrade.

The 50 f1.4 can stay which will be a ridiculously shallow depth of field when it’s needed.

The F4 lenses you mention are tried, tested and well regarded.

I’d be over the moon if I received that package.

–

Do you know where you’re buying from? UK/Import?

How old is the Canon 550d?

I’ve got a Nikon D80, which is a similar age, I think – perhaps a bit older.
The latest DSLR’s have massively improved low noise performance. A friend has a D7000 and it absolutely wipes the floor with my D80 in terms of noise at higher ISO’s. And I think the D7100 takes it a step further still.
I know you are not considering Nikon, but I mention them as that is the only comparison I have. I am sure that the Canon sensors will have seen a similar leap in performance.

Oh and the thing I notice the most when demoing SLRs is the Viewfinder.
Having a larger brighter viewfinder is amazing, especially because I wear glasses so can’t get right next to it.

I am sure that the Canon sensors will have seen a similar leap in performance.

Actually they haven’t. That’s been the single-biggest complaint about canon over the past few years.
40D, 550D, 50D, 600D, 60D, 650D, 700D are all broadly similar in performance. Thankfully the 70D, 5DmkIII and 6D seem to have moved on a little bit though.

With only one EF lens to keep, the OP could easily swap to Nikon, but it’s a very personal thing.

The latest DSLR’s have massively improved low noise performance. A friend has a D7000 and it absolutely wipes the floor with my D80 in terms of noise at higher ISO’s. And I think the D7100 takes it a step further still.

The D80 was the last of the CCD sensors for Nikon. From the D90 onwards they’re pretty much all CMOS which gives better low noise performance.

Oh and the thing I notice the most when demoing SLRs is the Viewfinder.
Having a larger brighter viewfinder is amazing, especially because I wear glasses so can’t get right next to it.

That only applies to full frame dslrs. APS-C viewfinders are universally crap.

OP – if your pockets are deep enough get the mrs a full-frame…

After way too much time on the internet, I am currently leaning towards:
Canon 6D body
Canon EF 16-35 f2.8 L
And a telephoto, possibly a 70 – 300 either the Canon or Tamron. The Canon DO lens looks interesting, but is quite expensive.

The 50mm prime can be used in the gap between these, with the option of another prime later on.
And, if it will be used, possibly the Tamron 24-70 f2.8 for a future present.

That only applies to full frame dslrs. APS-C viewfinders are universally crap.

Apart from the 7D – that’s a really nice viewfinder.

Shred – there are some good deals on 6D/24-105 L IS kits on import.
£1300 from Panamoz for example (read about them online).

After way too much time on the internet, I am currently leaning towards:
Canon 6D body
Canon EF 16-35 f2.8 L
And a telephoto, possibly a 70 – 300 either the Canon or Tamron. The Canon DO lens looks interesting, but is quite expensive.

The 50mm prime can be used in the gap between these, with the option of another prime later on.
And, if it will be used, possibly the Tamron 24-70 f2.8 for a future present.
Sounds like a plan.

Don’t forget a 70-200 f2.8 (my preference to a 70-300).

Don’t forget a 70-200 f2.8 (my preference to a 70-300).

It’s amazing how many 70-300mm zooms don’t offer any additional resolution beyond 200mm – definitely worth investigating.
(don’t know about this particular 300mm lens though).

You only have to look at the price difference between decent 200 and 300mm lenses to see how hard it is to make (proper) ones. The Nikon 200-400 costs £5k+!

OP, why are you looking for a long telephoto lens, given what you have said about the main subject choice of your Wife’s photography?

A long lens isn’t really what you want for landscape or pics of your kids. Might be better off using your budget to get fewer lenses that are more suitable to the type of things your Wife will be shooting?

The telephoto is because she has often mentioned that she can’t get some photos due to not having one. Also, zoo visits or holidays where a zoom would be handy to get pictures of interesting things.

But, due to their price, I don’t think it is worth going for a very fast telephoto. That is also why I was thinking of the 70-300 DO lens as it will be a bit more portable.

Keep in mind that on full frame a 300 is like a 200 on aps-c, so quite a bit shorter than her current 55-250.

Medium range telephoto is quite nice for kid photos IME. I have a 40-150mm (2x crop) that I find really useful – you can snap them when they are doing other stuff and don’t notice you which makes for lovely pictures. Also at long focal lenghts you get narrow DoF and blurred backgrounds for free, instead of needing large apertures. And it also works in bright sunlight 🙂

Shred – Member
The telephoto is because she has often mentioned that she can’t get some photos due to not having one. Also, zoo visits or holidays where a zoom would be handy to get pictures of interesting things.

Fair enough. Just thought it worth mentioning, in case you were thinking of getting lenses to cover all bases that wouldn’t actually get used.
If you can, get a stabilised telephoto. I don’t know what the Canon designation is, but Nikon has VR (vibration reduction) and I think that Sigma calls it OS (optical stabilisation).
I’ve got the Nikon 70-300 VR lens and having the stabilisation turned on really steadies things up.