Canon 70D with normal 50mm 1.4 lens

I started my photography career with an old, manual Contax with 50mm Carl Zeiss T* lens SLR in school. When I graduated onto my first DSLR in 2003 with the Canon 10D, went to the 1D series, skipped the 20D, 30D, 40D; got the 50D, but skipped the 60D. Now I have the newest 70D. That's a lot of Ds!

This 70D is the first Canon in a while that really impresses me on almost all levels - its better than I expected. It combines the T4i touch screen, 7D focusing system with Dual Pixel CMOS AF to focus well in video mode as well. I feel this is the first camera from Canon that truly understands that fusing photography with video is the way the industry has been going, and this is one major step to the solution.

I've shot about a hundred shots with it so far and a few minutes of video and I feel I've made the right decision. The Canon 70D is easily worth the upgrade from any x0D series Canon.

There are some things I'll nitpick though:

Flash does not fire in Live View shooting mode
Wifi has to be off for a lot of things to work
The rotating dial by the thumb takes some getting used to. I miss the joystick.
No IBIS
No headphone jack
One single SD card slot

While your'e at it, I recommend getting the whole kit: Canon EOS 70D 20.2 MP Digital SLR Camera with Dual Pixel CMOS AF and EF-S 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 IS STM Kit.

Its a very good all-in-one travel lens that takes good advantage of the video focusing capabilities of the 70D. It sells for $549 separately, but with the kit its only $350 more.

Canon 70D kit with 18-135mm IS STM

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It's also being sold at local Best Buy stores in the US. One tip for you if you don't want the hassle of the sales guys - just do in-store pickup. That's what I did.

Buy Online, Pick Up in Your Local Best Buy Store-Same-Day Pickup Guarantee.

Update on 2013-10-18 03:34 by Mike Mu

Third party Canon 70D grips are out in force. $50 on Amazon:

Update on 2015-01-04 02:15 by Mike Mu

Here's what's inside a Canon 70D retail Body only kit - now dropped to $999 retail.