DSLR Upgrade

I've been using an old Canon 300D for the last couple years and want to upgrade. I don't want to spend much more than £500 as I still want to be able to chuck the camera in my backpack and ride DH without worrying about wrecking something very expensive, so probably looking for something used. I don't want anything physically bigger than my current camera.

Main things I think are important are good low light sensitivity without needing flash. I tend to prefer to use no flash and rely on natural light where possible. I've no idea if a more modern camera will perform better in low light.

Mega pixels, I'm quite limited with just 3mp and no RAW mode on my current camera so think I want 10MP or more so I've got more room to crop photos.

Video shooting mode would be nice to have. Do the new DSLRs with video mode record sound?

I probably want to get a new lens too. My current sigma 24-70mm lens has slightly too poor a range for my needs. I'd want something like their 18 – 125mm lens, any recommendations or what to look out for?

From a casual look the 500D seems to suit my needs and a worthwhile upgrade. Slightly over budget with a lens. Any older models worth looking out for? I'm only really looking at Canon as I'm used to using it and with my skill level, doubt any other brand can offer something more. Cheers.

I don't know much about Canon to be honest but…

I'd get a newer 2nd hand body maybe and maybe a 50mm f1.8 prime for low light stuff. I wouldn't get a lens that covers that far a range. Something like an 18-70 would be fine for a do it all lens. You're price range won't really get you a f2.8 zoom but if you get a better body that will go up to maybe 1600 ISO without being too noisy you should be able to have a fair bit of fun.

Oh and a cheap 2nd hand flash with some eBay triggers will work a lot better when shooting in the woods.

Just bought myself a 500D today. If you buy it before the 20th of this month you can claim an additional £50 cash back from Canon, so brings it down to just over £500.
If youve already got a 300D can you not buy the 500D as body only then use the lens you already have??

SOny are doing £50 cashback until the end of the month too

Why not keep the 300D for mountain biking duties… I thought it was 6MP and had RAW… saves worrying about breaking a new one! This was my approach, albeit at the other end of the Canon spectrum (my riding camera is an EOS 5D)

Failing that I would probably be tempted to buy the best new body you can get your mitts on and use it for everything. I am not a big fan of used digital camera equipment – you just never know how it has been treated, and just how much abuse the sensor has had (kak handed cleaning etc). Given the rate of improvement you would be potentially getting a better camera going for something like a 500D than a used 40D (certainly it has more bells and whistles.)

I made a mistake, it is 6mp but no RAW option (however think you can hack that). However the noise when shooting at high ISO is pretty bad and one of the main reasons for wanting something newer. Plus using the dam thing is so slow, the chip appears to be clockwork….

Solamanda – I got a 10D (v. closely related to yours). I got it years back, and it's still the backup to my backup of main body (5d and a 1DS). I still like it and the prints (normal iso) arent radically different to today's latest/greatest.

I think you're determined to spend money? If so – go for it!

IME upgrading bodies to this years latest is great if you've got a business where you want to use depreciation vs taxes. Otherwise, buy used or buy fast / "L" lenses, neither of which depreciate near as fast.

If the high ISO noise is bothering you (I know it is poor) then I'd suggest a tripod and / or a faster lens with lower iso's. Both are great for learning technique.

Also, the camera is defn slow on startup, but shutter response is / should be near instant?

When the 10d finally dies (multiple drops, water ingress) I will be truly sad to see it go!

Think the 300d had basically 20d firmware with half the useful features "deactivated"? Pretty sure it must be hackable, and surely RAW would be one of the features reactivated? Long time since I looked at that though, so I may be wrong.
The 50mm f/1.8 mentioned elsewhere is handy. Weighs nothing, and costs little more than pocket money.

More pixels normally means more noise so you might not want to push the pixel envelope too much. Low light is a lot more possible to be noise free if you have a bright lens (small aperture) which is very expensive on big zoom lenses.

Newer cameras are better than older on the noise department and RAW is the way to go so when you do get noise you have some options to remove in in post processing.

I'd go for a D5000, brilliant high ISO noise and couple it with a 2.8F constant aperture zoom. Probably more than 500 in all though…

Had a 500D for a while now and can't fault it really, think you will notice how much better the screen is and the live view is handy at times especially for the DOF preview.

Yes it does have noise at high ISO, but sometimes its nice to get a shot even if it is a bit noisy, better than nothing at all

Worth experimenting with the in camera settings for sharpness correction etc, think i have found my ideal settings, but obviously that's a subjective thing

Haven't noticed the extra pixels causing any problems and they do make tight cropping easier, not sure they make much of a diference to the overall image though

the 300D definitely has RAW. I used one for a good few years – I got it when it came out and it had RAW straight out of the box – no hacking. Thats one of the main reasons I got it in the first place. I'd check you have the latest firmware on it. To be honest – the 300D is the ideal biking camera cos its little and light and cheap and 6MP is still decent enough.

But if you want something better then 500D will be great – and you get ability to take video dont you? Or you could get a secondhand 40D body – a bit bigger and more robust and has probably got better high ISO noise reduction. No video though.

Reckon the 500D would have better high iso noise reduction than the 40D although it certainly isn't as robust

300D Has Raw, You cannot select it in scene/creative modes though.

Put the camera in Manual and you will be able to enable RAW

The 500d lookslike the one to get to be honset. I'm thinking of upgrading my 350d to a 500d, my video camera's had it and I often carry the SLR around more than the camcorder so it'll work as both for the kind of stuff I shoot.

mossimus – Member

300D Has Raw, You cannot select it in scene/creative modes though.

You can if you apply The Hack. I got mine second hand with The Hack applied already, but as I understand it, it's a pretty simple firmware upgrade.

My 20D seems to do high-ish ISO fairly well, but really high iso (1600/3200) is a bit of a last resort. I think the 7D and a couple of the newer cams manage 3200 very nicely in good light, but in poor light they all suffer and higher pixel counts mean more noise, but likewise more resolution so it sort of balances out with post-processing. Personally I'd (and am) stick with an older body and get faster lenses if you're not a pro – you;re apparently unlikely to notice the switch up (unless it has features you really want like vid, better AF) when it comes to image quality.

Personally I would invest more in the lens than the body. The investment lasts a lot longer and wider apertures help speed up autofocus. Given that I'd go for a used body (not on canon so don't know what's best) but put the bulk into the lens. I assume if it's for biking then image stabilisation isn't really a problem. The superzooms are generally too much of a quality compromise in my opinion (with the exception of the Pana-Leica 14-150) and tend to be slow at the longer end. With the extra MP you're going to get with a new camera the little bit of extra reach can be compensated for through cropping, you'll still have greater resolution.

You could also look at a change of system selling on the 24-70 of course, but that's more of an upheaval.

I have a 400d with a beautiful Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens, the I.S. plays up on the lens so i turn it off, other wise its a wonderful lens, you could have the lot for £500 +p&p

One thing I find annoying with my 300d is it won't auto focus on a moving target (like it does in sport mode) when in manual. Is that hackable?

I've never noticed it being a problem, so I reckon it's probalby fixed in The Hack. I'd try ahacking the 300D first and potentially freeing up that £500 towards the lovely 17-55 f2.8IS USM lens to go on the front of it 🙂

And I hadn't even see HumanBean's post when I wrote that! Wish I had £500 knocking around!

Defo go for a hack and spend the money on a lense. Camera bodies are much of a muchness according to a few pros Ive spoken to. You really just pay for more pixels and tougher body.

Had a few different lenses some pricy others not so

Recently bought a Canon 55-250mm IS lens and i'm amazed at just how good it is, bargain of the year for me
If you want a lens in that sort of range give it a try

never mind "glass", why "lense" ??

I went from a 300D for biking and a 30D for everything else to a 500D. Same lenses, but the 500D is WAY better than either of the older cameras. Metering is better, shot processing is better even in RAW as the digic 4 processor is a huge step up.

Faster, wide aperture lenses are fine, but you lose depth of field. The 300D does have RAW, but processing speed and write speed is very slow. Start up time is slow. Download speed is very, very slow. There are fewer options in the RAW mode compared with the 500D.

If you can, go with the 500D, I have never regretted it for a second, and my photos are way better than before. HD video is great as well.

another 500D happy user here – the HD video is a nice bonus too, especially with fast m42 primes (cheap as chips! I picked up a Takumar 50mm f1.4 for peanuts)

Woffle, does it record sound with the video?

In terms of the fast/wide losing depth of field. You can select this for each shot but the lenses are generally much sharper and the wider aperture means faster focussing on any particular body.

In term of AF tracking, I would think the AF on the 300D could be set to C-AF (continuous) in Manual. It's one area where cameras have got a lot better recently though.

i have had a 300d 350d and now use a 40d the 40d is way better than the others and the best at handling noise this was taken at 1600 iso

and put through neat image

Woffle, does it record sound with the video?

Yes. It's a little hamstrung as not to compete with higher models, especially if you use Canon lenses ie. aperture control is tricky / if you use the kit lens and autofocus then it picks up the sound of the motor. However, using old manual focus lenses (or manual on newer lenses) allows more control, aperture selection etc and you can shoot some really nice video. it's just handy for when we're out and about with the kids etc.

Also, get a fast enough lens and then high ISO's aren't so much of an issue 🙂 – the f1.4 is great for indoors, flash-free photography at reasonable ISO's (that said the 500D is pretty good in that regard anyway).

Check out this video on vimeo for a quick demo of what you can do with m42 primes and a Canon 500D…