DSLR dilemma

When the Canon 5D Mark II (5DII) was originally announced, I was finally set to upgrade my aging Canon 300D / Digital Rebel (the original rebel). My current camera had gone through an incredible amount of punishment and kudos to Canon on building a solid consumer-level camera that can last me over 4.5 years, probably over 30,000 shutter actuations (though unfortunately there is no way for me to really tell), three continents, and a dozen countries. I was looking forward to moving onto a whole new realm with full-frame and a semi-professional level of build quality.

That was then and this is now. The 5DII is now scheduled to begin shipping to buyers at the end of the month, but in extremely limited supplies. I had originally made a pre-order with Calumet Photography, a store here in the States, but ended up canceling it. With the then surging and now stagnant Canadian dollar below par, I was going to take my hard-earned US dollars and contribute to the Canadian economy, since the camera prices were essentially at par. Well Canon’s raised the Canadian prices to just over $3,000 CAD for the body, which still benefits me if I buy it there, but to a lesser extent.

Now with the most recent post from Canon Rumors, it will take at least till Spring 2009 to fulfill all the pre-orders. There goes my chance at snagging one of these bad boys for the Reading Week trip. So what to do in the meantime between now and then? Probably at least 6 months; maybe even more.

I seriously debated getting a D700, which is more inline with what I was looking for in a full-frame camera. I don’t need the 21.1MP that the 5DII has, though it could be useful for cropping if I were to shoot a wedding or two next summer (people supposedly liked my photos from my sister’s wedding enough to at least mention the idea in passing to her); I like the complete weather-sealing of the D700; the D700 has a flash commander built-in if I ever were to purchase flash units; but the D700 doesn’t have a movie mode, which isn’t a killer because I’ve never been really interested in video.

The major selling point of the D700 is that with rebates it’s retailing for about $200 USD less than the 5DII’s pre-order price. But I purchased the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens, so I’m locked in. I could resell it and get the Nikon equivalent, but that’s even more expensive.

So I now see three options from a Canon perspective.

The first is to just keep using my beat up, old camera till it dies or the 5DII is available, whichever comes first. It’s still missing the eye cup (I lost it while walking around Bank station in London), which isn’t a big deal though. What is a big deal is that the shutter button is starting to go. Last week when we went to Olympic National Park, half-pressing my shutter button would not auto-focus! I had to press all the way down for the camera to register, so instead of pre-focus, recompose, then shoot, it was pre-focus and shoot all in one, switch to manual focus, recompose, and shoot. It was frustrating to say the least. Now the camera still works and the auto-focus is flaky at best, but this is the cheapest solution.

The next cheapest solution would be to get a Canon 450D / XSi as a tide-me-over. With Live Cashback, I saw an XSi that would cost me $441 USD. Not too bad, but I’ll see if it can go even lower for Black Friday. If it drops to around $350 (which is pushing it, I know), then I might just get it. It would be a little more expensive than getting a tune-up on my 300D.

The last option is to go up one level and get a 40D or 50D. The 50D does sound intriguing, but I would really have to read up on it more and see what the benefits of it over the 40D are. I quickly read over the DPReview.com review of the 50D and they didn’t have glowing remarks over it. The high ISO wasn’t so hot, and that’s what I wanted in a new camera, hence the 5DII. Then again, anything on the market, even the 4/3rds cameras would be better than my current sensor.

It’s really unfortunate that Canon couldn’t ramp up its production of the 5DII’s sensor to a point where they didn’t have to do a market release like the Nikon D70 was all those years ago. I remember people trying to scrounge to find one and if there was one, it would be sold out in a heartbeat. Let’s hope I get the 5DII before I leave for my grad trip (location TBD) at least.