A newer body would give me 2-4 stops (ISO) more of exposure latitude there, which given the results I'm already getting, would be astounding! Granted that I'm already happy with what I get at 1600, the difference between 3X versus 4X that are pretty much moot.
So perhaps I ought to upgrade.
And so I did.
I now have a
Canon 7D body, supplanting the 40D.
It's a nice camera, very quick, lots of nice features including real weather seals, etc.. But despite having native ISO 6400, plus an "H" mode of 12800, it isn't really that much better for noise than the 40D was (native 1600, "H" of 3200).
The 7D here seems to be somewhere between 1 - 1.5 stops better than the 40D, though the built-in noise reduction firmware makes it hard to tell.
However.. since it has about double the number of pixels (18mp versus 10mp for the 40D), I suspect I can just save my images as half-sized "mRAW (10mp)" and see an extra stop or so of usable ISO from pixel binning. Not tested yet, but hopefully so. I've always been happy with 10mp, so no hardship here in continuing at that file resolution. And doing so keeps the storage/computing requirements more or less unchanged.
I'm enjoying the new camera, but also the second toy:
A new zoom lens in the bag: the
Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC Macro OS HSM super-zoom. This lightweight swiss army knife now replaces the Canon EF-S 17-85mm-IS as my primary travel lens.
Image quality looks to be improved
(versus the Canon 17-85mm), weight/bulk are down, the image stabilization works very well, and the zoom range is phenomenal. Focus is fast, but cannot be overridden manually
(as with the Canon ring type USM lenses) unless the AF/MF slider switch is adjusted first.
So now I can still cart the heavy 7D body along, but with only two lenses in the bag, both rather light in weight: the Sigma, plus the Canon EF-S 10-22mm for indoor shooting. All without cutting off circulation as I shoulder the kit bag.
Happy days!