How many, and what, lenses for you have for the Olympus E-3 EVOLT?
How many accessories do you have for the Olympus system?
What sorts of photography do shoot?
What do you wish to gain in making the move to a different system, and the Canon 7D specifically?
What budget?
How many, and what, lenses for you have for the Olympus E-3 EVOLT?
How many accessories do you have for the Olympus system?
What sorts of photography do shoot?
What do you wish to gain in making the move to a different system, and the Canon 7D specifically?
What budget?
I shoot portraits, parties, sports... looking for sharper images.
Can't spend more than 1800.00 on a body....still need $$$ for lenses.
Depending on the 50mm prime you have (and none of them are terribly bad), at least that lens should be providing sharp results. The other lenses that you have would need to be stopped down a bit to be at their best, but Olympus makes much better lenses too.
My emphasis, and where I spend my money, is prioritized in the following order:
Lighting
Lenses
Body
The Olympus E-3 EVOLT is a very nice body if you give it good lighting and good lenses. Unfortunately, a new body alone won't give you desirable sharpness, unless you put very nice, and fairly expensive, lenses in front and provide high-quality lighting too.
I suggest that you wait a bit until you have at least around $3000USD to spend. Then, if you still want to go Canon, Jack's suggestion of a Canon 70D plus a Tamron 17-50mm, f2.8, would make a good starter for $1500-$1700. Later add a 70-200mm, f2.8 for sports (a used Canon EF 70-200mm, f2.8L USM is a good sports lens for about $1100USD at KEH.com), and you have a pretty good, basic, 2-lens system for about $2600 total.
Do budget for a couple of flashes too, and I can recommend either used Canon EX 550 or used EX 580 flashes, both of which pack a big punch. Then add some DIY scoop flash modifiers (each costs ~$3 to build and they are easy to make) to lift the light away from the lens, as well as diffuse the light without a tremendous penalty in light output. (2-flashes give you some better options for lighting that are very difficult to do with a single flash alone.)
So, totally, you can look at around $3100-$3300 (or so) for a very capable system that covers most of what you want to do and can yield professional results. The below are taken with similar equipment to what I recommended to you:
I went from an E-5 to an EM-1. Love it and never looked back!!
I've gone almost entirely from a Canon 5D MkII and L lenses to an OM-D E-M1 with 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro and 75mm f/1.8 prime (and awaiting release of the 40-150mm f/2.8 Pro) - and I'm going anywhere else!
The 12-40mm zoom is outstanding, and the 75mm prime is so sharp it should come with a safety warning and a packet of Band-Aids.
Comments
How many accessories do you have for the Olympus system?
What sorts of photography do shoot?
What do you wish to gain in making the move to a different system, and the Canon 7D specifically?
What budget?
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
lenses: 50mm prime, 70-300mm f/4, kit lenses
FL50 flash
I shoot portraits, parties, sports... looking for sharper images.
Can't spend more than 1800.00 on a body....still need $$$ for lenses.
http://www.lisaanselmophotography.com
http://lisaanselmophotography.smugmug.com
Depending on the 50mm prime you have (and none of them are terribly bad), at least that lens should be providing sharp results. The other lenses that you have would need to be stopped down a bit to be at their best, but Olympus makes much better lenses too.
My emphasis, and where I spend my money, is prioritized in the following order:
Lenses
Body
The Olympus E-3 EVOLT is a very nice body if you give it good lighting and good lenses. Unfortunately, a new body alone won't give you desirable sharpness, unless you put very nice, and fairly expensive, lenses in front and provide high-quality lighting too.
I suggest that you wait a bit until you have at least around $3000USD to spend. Then, if you still want to go Canon, Jack's suggestion of a Canon 70D plus a Tamron 17-50mm, f2.8, would make a good starter for $1500-$1700. Later add a 70-200mm, f2.8 for sports (a used Canon EF 70-200mm, f2.8L USM is a good sports lens for about $1100USD at KEH.com), and you have a pretty good, basic, 2-lens system for about $2600 total.
Do budget for a couple of flashes too, and I can recommend either used Canon EX 550 or used EX 580 flashes, both of which pack a big punch. Then add some DIY scoop flash modifiers (each costs ~$3 to build and they are easy to make) to lift the light away from the lens, as well as diffuse the light without a tremendous penalty in light output. (2-flashes give you some better options for lighting that are very difficult to do with a single flash alone.)
Scoop Modifier
So, totally, you can look at around $3100-$3300 (or so) for a very capable system that covers most of what you want to do and can yield professional results. The below are taken with similar equipment to what I recommended to you:
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
The 12-40mm zoom is outstanding, and the 75mm prime is so sharp it should come with a safety warning and a packet of Band-Aids.
http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=248096
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums