I´m planning to specialize myself to people / portrait photography. And I am planning to upgrade my body (1000D) for quite a while aswell, since it just doesnt satisfy me anymore in terms of handling, build, size and performance. After checking out a few different models I first thought I was pretty sure to take the 50D. It´s been known as a very trustworthy and good semi-pro camera for years now, and I dont doubt it would be a great camera to get along. Anyways, then I held the 7D in my hands for the first time. It felt awesome. After doing a few test shots with a 70-200mm 2.8 IS USM L and a 100mm 2.8 IS USM L Macro I was really impressed. the fast autofocus, the build quality and how it fit in my hands felt great.
Then I came back to a pretty old wish of myself. moving on to full frame. As I dealt with it abit more, I found out about the pros and cons of FF photography, and it turns out, for what I am doing, people and portrait photography, and landscape, full frame seems to fit my style. Since I cannot really spend 2 grand on the 5D Mark II I thought about getting a good used Canon EOS 5D Mark I for around 900€. I´d also add a 85mm 1.8 USM and sooner or later some more L´s like the 17-40mm f4 L and the 70-200mm 2.8 L USM. Have you had bad experiences with buying such "old" cameras used? Or can you recommend it?

Just pay attention to the shutter actuations. And if you are buying it from somewhere local, I'd go and check it out. Make sure everything works the way you want it to. I haven't had a problem with buying old used lenses on eebay. I pay a lot of attention to who the seller is and what their rep is like. But I haven't ever purchased a used body online.

I was considering that option too.

For what I learned the cons are:

smaller screen

no sensor cleaning

no live view

can rach only 3200 ISO

All rest seems to be fine.

I am sure you will be very happy with the 5D classic. It's a great and very affordable camera and for portraits it's much better than any of the crop sensor ones.
You may look at some other lenses than 17-40 at the wide end. Yes it is one of the cheapest L lenses but it's not very sharp and the narrow maximum aperture isn't
suited for portrait work. If you add like 400-500 bucks you will get the EF 24-70 f2.8L which is way better.

well I wanted the 17-40mm f4 L as a landscape lens. definately not for portraiture. Considered the 24-70mm 2.8 L USM aswell as a standard zoom.

I have a positive experience with Canon 100 usm f2, great lens, cheap, L class optic performance, lightweight, small, very fast AF.

I would say second best after 135 f2 L that costs double.

This post was edited by bialator on Nov 10 2010 12:34pm

Just remember 24mm on a full frame gives you the same field of view as a 15mm on your Rebel.
If you want a true landscape lens get the Samyang 14 f2.8. It's almost half the price of a 17-40L and much sharper and less flare prone the only downside is it's a manual focus lens but who would need AF in such wide lens anyway.

I personally would prefer the 7d over a 5d MK I.

The larger sensor in the 5D would create shallower DOF than the 7D which is quite important in portrait photography.
Also the 7D seems to have very strong AA filter which makes the images look softer than the 5D. There have been a lot of complaints
about the soft images created by the 7D and also you will need good lenses to take advantage of the 18 mpixel sensor.

Sharpness in family portraits isn't a priority imo. Commercial ventures are another story, but I wouldn't be using canon for that.

This post was edited by onepagememory on Nov 10 2010 03:13pm