At some point in the next few months i'll hopefully be upgrading to the 1D mkIIN (was going to wait until the replacement came out but i reckon it would be way out of my price range) and i can't decide if i should keep my 20D as a 2nd body or not, tbh i think a 5D would be an ideal 2nd body for it's full frame.......might have just answered my own question there :lol1:

You could do a lot worse than to buy a used 1DmkII rather than a new mkIIN - the differences are absolutely minimal and you could easily save hundreds. That's what I did and I'm very happy.

Whether you want a second body depends on what you think you might use it for. On safari last week I had my 1DmkII and my old 1D with different lenses, and I was able to swap seamlessly between them without having to think or adapt to any differences - just grab one body or the other depending on the focal length required and shoot away.

To be honest, the 1DmkII is such a well rounded camera I can't think of a good reason to have a second body otherwise, unless you specifically need full frame. IMHO it makes more sense to keep just the one DSLR body and get a little compact for those times when it's impractical to carry all that bulk.

Just looked at 5D prices.....so that's out the question :D i just thought i'd like a 2nd camera to carry around with a wide angle lens and flashgun so i didn't have to mess around swapping lenses all the time but i've got to be realistic, i don't get that many paid photography jobs to warrant it, maybe mid way through this year things might change where i might have to but until then it might make more sense to just sell the 20D to pay for the 1D mkII

I'm not that bothered about the N model, just thought i'd go for the latest version. Still got this nagging in the back of my mind that i should wait for the mkIII but i could be waiting till mid summer and a huge credit card bil as im pretty sure it'll be closer to the 3k mark if and when it does get released :D

You need a spare body if changing lenses is a problem (speed/convenience/dust) or your main camera goes tits up for some reason on an important shoot.

So keep the 20D, or get a little compact as Andy suggests.

Richard.

When I bought my 1DII, I thought I'd keep my D60, but very quickly I realised I wouldn't use it nearly enough. It was inferior in every way to the 1D and the controls were different enough to make it awkward to switch betweenthe two.