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To Full Frame Or Not Full Frame?

Canon EOS 6D mk II (Full Frame)

So, wifey has decided she now wants to be a professional photographer, she had her first paid gig, worth a whopping $50 a few weeks back and it went fine, a few teething problems, but the photos were delivered successfully. My wife wants to do people photography, portraits, events, that sort of thing. I want to stick to real estate, I’m a grumpy bastard, I don’t like people enough to do portraits and groups.

Right now, for my work, I use a Canon EOS 80D with an EF-S 10-22mm USM lens, which gives me great results, however, that lens is way too wide for portraits and the other options I have are kit lenses, the 18-55mm and 55-250mm, non-STM lenses, which are not the best quality lenses, definitely not falling in the professional category, by any stretch of the imagination, so I have been weighing up our options.

One option is to jump in with both feet, shelling out $4,000 on a Canon EOS 6D MkII with EF 24-105mm F/4 L, EF 85mm F/1.8 USM and 16-35mm F/4 L lenses. The second option is to buy some L glass, namely the 24-105mm, and EF 85mm USM for my crop sensor EOS 80D. This brings the cost down to $1,100 and because these are full frame lenses, a full frame upgrade in the future would be easier on the wallet.

I’m very dubious about spending $4,000 on camera gear, we have just spent $998 signing up for a local chapter of BNI, which is a referral marketing system, whether that is a good investment, I have no idea. But I am reluctant to invest another large sum of money on something that may generate zero business, we have spent over $4,000 trying to launch my wife’s real estate career, which has yielded zero ROI.

If I am thinking purely as a photography enthusiast, I would go ahead and buy all the kit we need, which is really what wifey’s needs, as I am happy with my current 80D/10-22mm USM setup. As my wife is only working part-time right now, there is not an inexhaustible supply of money, I have just cleared close to $70,000 of debt using my inheritance from my late father’s estate, I refuse to lean on credit cards again.

I guess I could just skip getting the 16-35mm F/4L lens, which would save $1,000 and I could continue using the 80D/10-22mm combo for my real estate work. No, I think I will just get the two EF lenses and use them on my 80D, that is the most sensible path, at least until we start seeing a constant stream of work coming in. As a business venture, it’s already $998 in the hole, let’s not 5x times that amount!

I want to support my wife in this venture, but I also have to be sensible, I cannot sacrifice our family financial stability, throwing good money after bad, our living costs will be rising considerably in 2018.

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