Investing in better camera or buying a cheaper body and expensive (and better) lenses

Thanks to limited budget, many of us run into this dilemma. I have always struggled to find a right answer on this question would love to hear from you all

As long as the body has the functions you need, glass is most important. It doesn't matter if your body can make you a latte: crap glass=crap image.

Middle ground. I've got a semi-pro body (Canon 50D), not full frame, not the best APS-C. With kit lens, which is adequate for my needs, for now. Someday I may replace it, or I may just keep adding other stuff instead.

cheapskate

Definitely glass !

Learn to make great images with a lesser body and better glass. Then, when you get to the point where you're truly getting the most out of your lenses and pushing the capabilities of the body its very limit, you'll be at the point where upgrading the body makes a difference in the quality of your photos.

Yes, glass is the way to go. You can have a super high end camera but your photos will be substandard if you use low quality glass

Glass before body. And if you're thinking of making a purchase, you could always try renting some different lenses to see what you think.

Well so far I will have to disagree with the statements that you need top end glass to make top quality images. This is a fallacy. You can create top quality images using inexpensive glass, and once again it is in knowing how to use your available tools, and where their limitations are. This is just like bodies in that some believe you need the top end to get the best results. The only time that cheap glass gets in the way is when it is so poorly assembled that it has major optical defects, or that the reason they are cheap is because the optics are not coated to kill reflections internally or chroma.
The reason to own top end is for greater flexibility and better images through out more of the f-stop range. The premium cost gets you a few more stops with more clarity. Which is great but they still suffer at the extreme on the two ends. The reason to invest in high end glass is an economic one, in that when it comes to resale value the upper end retains that value to a greater degree. But it has never been a case of that inexpensive lenses are so bad at making images. I dare any of you to take any image and say what level of lens made that image when the lens was used within its sweet spot.
Here is the other thing now. The newer sensor resolutions are becoming so great that even the top end glass is the Achilles Heel to the process. The glass that will be needed to fully optimize this resolution will be even more expensive. This is because it will require more precise optical design and finishing. In reality photographic optics are not as great as people think, if they were sold as astronomical instruments they would be considered the K-Mart level.
So my advice is get what you can afford or save for and learn to use it to its best potential. If you do that you will be fine.

SVAP wrote: Thanks to limited budget, many of us run into this dilemma. I have always struggled to find a right answer on this question...

There is no one right answer to this question. Tell us more about what you shoot. What is your budget? What are you using now? Etc...

Price tag is a lousy way to judge whether a tool is a good choice for you or not. Consider specific features, and how they would be useful for your photography.

Don't be afraid that cheaper gear will limit you. Anything by the well-known brands is usually wonderfully amazing gear quite capable of producing excellent quality work in the right hands.

With a limited budget, look at older lenses & camera bodies. I use a lot of older manual focus "Pro" level lenses. You don't say what camera system you have, but if it's Nikon, most of the older lenses will mount & work fine (with some limitations). You won't get metering if you have base model Nikon DSLR's with manual focus lenses (still useable though ), older AF lenses won't AF, but will still meter. With a D200 & up they will meter you will be able to meter with plus the older AF lenses will AF....What you plan to do with your images matters as well. If all you do is show them online, even the lit lenses will be fine. As Joves said, the base lenses are good optically, they just are not as fast , have all the features or have the build quality of Pro lenses.