The Canon EOS and Photography Forums

My wife and I are taking a two week trip to India.  We are going to spend about half our time at national parks and the other half visiting forts/palaces and historical sites.  At home, our main camera use is for birds and nature.  Right now our setup is:
Body:  Canon 20D, 30D
Lenses:  Canon 300 2.8L, 24-105L, 100-400L
Recently our 30D has started to act up where it randomly does not save pictures to the CF card so we are going to need a new body.  Does anyone have any suggestions given our trip to India over which of these they would recommend?  We want to keep the total cost around $1500-$1800.

1.  Canon 7d body only
2.  Refurbished Canon 50d and 10-22 EF-S

Any suggestions are welcome.  We are planning to take the 300 2.8 and 24-105 with us as well.

Allen

It really depends on your priorities. If you want to have video capability, then the EOS 7D (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/xxxxxxxx/bobatkinsphotogr) is the obvious route.

However you have no real wideangle capability, so if you want that and you're limited to spending $1700, then the  refurbished 50D (http://www.adorama.com/Refby.tpl?refby=rflAID012417&sku=ICA50DR) and the 10-22 is the obvious route. An alternative would be to look for a refurbished 5D, and then your 24-105 will give you decent wideangle capability (though not as wide as the 10-22 on a 50D). You can get a 5D refub from Adorama for $1799.75  (http://www.adorama.com/Refby.tpl?refby=rflAID012417&sku=ICA5DR)

If you want both video and wideangle then you might consider the Rebel T1i. It has 720p HD video and a 15MP sensor equivalent to that of the 50D (my review is at http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/digital/canon_digital_rebel_T1i_review_1.html).

Though it's "only" a Rebel, it might give you the best of both worlds and you can get both a Rebel T1i (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001XURPQI/bobatkinsphotogr) and an EF-S 10-22 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002Y5WXE/bobatkinsphotogr) for around $1360

A point to note is that the 7D uses a different battery from the 20D and 30D, so you'd need to take the charger and maybe get a spare battery or two. The T1i also uses a different battery from the 20D and 30D and needs SD cards for storage (though you can get 8GB SDHC cards for  under $20 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000OF2F36/bobatkinsphotogr)). The 50D would give you both battery and memory card compatibility with the 20D/30D

Bob,

Thanks for the great reply.  I had not thought of looking at the 5d or the rebels.  Given what you told me about the battery differences, I am now thinking I may want to stay with a compatible camera like the 5d.  I had not considered the rebel combo before so may look into that.  I guess my only concern (in addition to the different batteries) is that they may not be quite as rugged as the others especially given the horror stories of dust issues I have heard about India.  Thanks again for the advice and for the great web site you run.

Allen