5d, 40d or Mac Pro....please advise my financial destruction

[faux_toe]

I already have enough equipment to do what I do. But I want better equipment to

do what I do better or quicker.

 

 

I currently shoot with 2 20'd's

 

Lenses I own: 50 1.8, 85 1.8, 10-22, 17-55 2.8 is, 70-200 2.8 is

 

 

I do a lot of low light stuff and I am beating the hell out of my 20d's and

pushing them further then most sane people would do. The 40d has a lot of

features that look tasty and the price is right, but the 5d has better images

which is ultimately more important. By the end of the season I will have both

but I need to buy one or the other first. Plus the 5d Mark 2 might come out in

September. On the other hand if it is priced at 3k I will wait a year on it. I

know that half my lenses won't work on a 5d, but would love to use my 70-200 at

it's intended focal length, plus I would probably pick up a 50 1.4 and 24-105

soon after I got that camera anyway.

 

I also have a Mac Book Pro with 4 gigs ram, but I know I need a tower too. I

need a tower to have faster access to my drives, to have a machine that can

handle my large library, and more importantly so I have a back up computer.

 

In the end I expect to have all three but I am not sure what the best route to

my financial destruction should be.

 

Thanks.

[ellis_vener_photography]

given that a 5D replacement appears to be fairly imminent. I would wait on that and go with

either a Mac Pro or (not so destructively) an iMac with a full complement of RAM.

[faux_toe]

An imac I don't think makes sense for me. I want the drive bays that the Mac pro has. And if the 5d mark II is priced at 3k I won't get it. And there is a whole season of weddings to shoot before it might come out in september.

[rick_shanahan]

FYI- most agree that the 40D image quality is every bit as good as the 5D. I'd get the 40...

[peterlyons]

The Mac Pro is a satisfying investment. Mine is a year and a half old and is still wicked fast

(with 8 GB RAM). The four drive bays are great, and you can add eSATA ports for fast

external drive access too. It's painfully expensive, yes, but I'm glad I went with it. Oh yeah.

30" monitor? Worth every penny! What a difference.

 

Plus it stays nice and shiny since I don't take it out with me and beat it up like I do with my

cameras.

[peterlyons]

Regarding that Mac Pro--if you go that way, you can save some significant money outfitting

the RAM and drives pretty lightly, and buying that stuff from 3rd party vendors. If it were

me, I'd buy the largest drive available for slot 1, and leave the others empty. And I'd buy the

minimal amount of RAM available. Then I'd buy Seagate 1 TB drives to fill out the bays and as

much RAM as I need from macsales.com.

[hctran]

I?ve been shooting with the 5D for couple years now and love it. I would sell the 10-22 and 17-55 and purchase the 5D.

[pete_s.]

The longer you wait on cameras and computers, the more you will get for the same money. I'd probably go with the computer first. You also lack a fast wide angle, like 24mm f/1.4.

 

Peter

[picturesque]

Computer first. Then think and analyze whether you want full frame. If so, wait for the 5D II, evaluate and decide on it or the old 5D. If not, 40D.

[ken munn]

Computer first.

 

NOTHING is so frustrating (including working with beaten-up cameras) as waiting for a

behind-the-curve computer to do its stuff.

[colinsouthern]

"FYI- most agree that the 40D image quality is every bit as good as the 5D. I'd get the 40..."

 

Last time I said that the 5D owners took out a contract on me! But I do agree with you. Great camera - venerable in fact - but at the end of the day (technology wise) these days it's the "30D of the full frame world" - the 40D has caught up with image quality, and surpassed it in many other areas (feature wise).

[markonestudios]

40D, computer, 5D(II?) or 5DMkI, in that order. Sell one of your 20Ds to upgrade the baseline computer specs. Keep the 'newer' one (fewer shutter actuations) as your backup.

<p>(IQ-wise) Image Quality, not the other definition ;) I expect the 40D and 5D are both great performers, so you won't go wrong with either on that front. However, given your current lens cache and your low-light performance preferences, you might be better served with a 40D for now, in order to utilise the lenses optimally. You do however lack a fast wide prime as someone else mentioned. None of your glass is wide on a crop sensor. If you REALLY want to raise the hackles on your bank manager, get yourself the EF 14 f/2.8II ;)

[marlboro_smith]

Computer first. The newest iMac is up to 3.1 gigahz, and you can get a wicked big/fast external terabyte drive for it. When you upgrade to a 16mp or 21 mp camera you will need all the processing you can get to deal with the giant RAW images in PS.

 

Go with the computer.