www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

It wasn't quite straight-on, but I get your point.

Then again, apparent strength and real strength are often two different things. The latter is found only by testing and I doubt that the lens reviews include quite that type of testing.

Hi Mate just joined this site, been having the same dilemma on cameras myself and have opted for the 7d. The new 550 is just a little bit
lightweight and not quite got the build quality of the 7 or the 5. This is due to the chassis they are built around. I'm not sure its all that weather protected either. I went for the 7d mainly because its a bit more robust than the 550 and my bank balance wouldn't allow the 5d, The main difference in the 5D is the full size chip so it makes it a real 35mm DSLR. Hope this might be of some help for you! phil

I have the 7D and also the 50D and they are both excellent bodies, though admittedly I've yet to use the 7D much. I needed a less weighty second body than my previous monkey, the EOS 1D mark III which was great for sports photography (10frames per second). Now the 7D has 8 frames per second and I'll be trying it out properly on the next holiday.

The only time I've dropped a camera was when the camera was on a tripod at a slightly jaunty angle. The lens banged a bit on impact and now works fine on autofocus unless I start pointing it downwards! Luckily it was a lens I use for landscapes and portraits, and not shots where I'm looking at my feet. So my best suggestion is don't drop the camera or lens in the first place. Oh, once my camera did 'jump' out of my bag when I was doing a wedding shoot and was trying to do too much at once. In this case both lens and body were fine, I just wouldn't recommend this sort of shennanigans.

I now longer see the point of getting the 5D Mark II because if you want a bigger landscape shot, buy a 10-22mm which is built specifically for the smaller sensor cameras (1.6 sensor size which the 7D and 50D sensor size, and presumably the 550D). Though I accept pro-shooters doing special work may want a full-sensor. Then there's always a digital medium-format camera, they're only - what - about 10 grand?