$500 to spend, this is what I am thinking of getting...

[habers]

This is what I currently have

300D
Kit Lens
80-200mm Canon
512mb Ultra II Sandisk
RS-60 wired remote release switch
3 Batteries
Photoshop CS
Card reader for my computer
Lowepro Nova 4
Lowpro Top Loader

This is what I am thinking to get:

RC-1 Wireless Remote Control
General Brand Lens Cleaning Kit
Giottos Rocket Air Blower
Canon ES-62 Lens Hood with Hood Adapter 62 for EF 50mm f/1.8 II Lens
Canon EW-60C Lens Hood for Kit Lens
Canon ET-54 Lens Hood for 80-200mm f/4.5-5.6 II
Canon USA Normal EF 50mm f/1.8 II Autofocus Lens
Canon BG-E1 Battery Grip
Canon USA 420EX Speedlite
Battery #4

I would love to have a tri-pod in this budget but I dont see it fitting

A few questions:

With the ES-62 for the kit lens, is this a screw on type? That is can I have a filter on the lens with the hood?

Is it neccesary to have all these hoods? Or am I overdoing it?

Is the "General Brand" lens cleaning kit good enough? do you recommend anything special?

Should I get the RC-1 over the RC-5?

Whould you change anything or add anything? I am new to this whole photography thing and it is just taking me by storm

Thanks

Jon

[Digital Prophet]

I don't really know that I would buy Canon brand hoods. They just seem overpriced when you can pick up rubber folding hoods for like $3. And if you are just having to have a rigid hood buy an offbrand name and save some dollars. I mean that ES-62 is $22. Man you could get rubber hoods that block stray sunlight just as well and you would be alot closer to adding a mediocre tripod in that list.

Most, if not all, off brand hoods I have seen are front threaded to accept screw in filters. But I imagine that you can't use a filter holder (Cokin) with a lens hood.

And remember you can't use that IR remote from behind the camera.

- Digital Prophet -

[c0ntr0lz]

i'd go for
RC-1 Wireless Remote Control
Canon BG-E1 Battery Grip
Canon USA 420EX Speedlite
Canon USA Normal EF 50mm f/1.8 II Autofocus Lens
General Brand Lens Cleaning Kit
Giottos Rocket Air Blower

[till]

You should not take the Canon 420 EX flash for your 300D, as both the flash and the 300D do not have flash exposure compensation. Take the Sigma 500 DG Super and you can do the exposure compensation on the flash unit. And you can not only lift up the flash head to the ceiling but also turn it to the side. So you can bounce on a wall or you can indirectly flash on vertioal shots (and you will probably take a lot of verticals with your battery grip).

Till

[Tom W]

Good idea, Till. FEC is important if you do a lot of flash shooting.

As for the Canon hoods, and its considerably more important with wider lenses (like the kit lens), its good to have the "flower" shaped OEM-type hood, primarily for the purpose of blocking the most possible light from the sides and top, while having notches for the corners to prevent vignetting.

On the longer lenses, something deep even if generic might be just fine.

[Digital Prophet]

Ohhhh. Til that is a good recommendation. I am thinking that might be the flash for me.

Until now I was thinking about this (http://www.adorama.com/SUPZ40XEOSB.html?searchinfo=sunpak&item_no=95). I wonder if that TTL would work on a 300D?

- Digital Prophet -

[DocFrankenstein]

RC-1 Wireless Remote Control :?
General Brand Lens Cleaning Kit
Giottos Rocket Air Blower - I got a 50 ml syringe for that. Exchanged it for 200 ml of blood
Canon ES-62 Lens Hood with Hood Adapter 62 for EF 50mm f/1.8 II Lens :roll:
Canon EW-60C Lens Hood for Kit Lens :shock:
Canon ET-54 Lens Hood for 80-200mm f/4.5-5.6
Canon BG-E1 Battery Grip
Useless stuff ^^^

Canon USA Normal EF 50mm f/1.8 II Autofocus Lens - now THAT's a good one. Maybe you should spring to f/1.4

Canon USA 420EX Speedlite - this MAY be ok. But no tilt/swivel head. Who'd want that?

Battery #4 - just curious. Why do you need 3 batteries to fill one 512 card? Still confused.

I would love to have a tri-pod in this budget but I dont see it fitting
Maybe you should make a custom leather lens bag for your kit lens. That's gonna make sure you're not gonna get a tripod.

Is it neccesary to have all these hoods? Or am I overdoing it?
You definitely are overdoing it.

Is the "General Brand" lens cleaning kit good enough? do you recommend anything special?
Vodka + a cotton ear swab seem to work fine for me.

Should I get the RC-1 over the RC-5?
Do you really NEED it? Or will it make an add-on which would help the process a bit? What you really need is a nice tripod and the remote costs 30 to 50 percent of a nice tripod.

Whould you change anything or add anything? I am new to this whole photography thing and it is just taking me by storm
I can see that. Buy the stuff you NEED first and then consider the "nice to have" stuff.

Get a 50mm lens. Get a GOOD tripod. You can get a nice used one for less than 150 bucks. These things will last a long time and will help you get good images more than all lens hoods and remote controls in the world.

Here's a tip - if you're shooting and the sun gets into your lens, you can use your hand or a piece of black paper to cover it. Usually works better than a lens hood.

[Savagelogic]

Correct me if I'm wrong, and sorry but I didn't read all of the replies, but instead of getting a lens cleaning kit just go to Wal-mart or Target or something and buy a normal bottle of eye glass cleaner along with a eye glass cloth. I don't think either will damage your lenses or the coatings on them, and you should save.

[Tom W]

Correct me if I'm wrong, and sorry but I didn't read all of the replies, but instead of getting a lens cleaning kit just go to Wal-mart or Target or something and buy a normal bottle of eye glass cleaner along with a eye glass cloth. I don't think either will damage your lenses or the coatings on them, and you should save.

A note of caution - many of the eyeglass-cleaning kits aren't meant for coated lenses. I found this out because I wear multicoated eyeglasses. I didn't ruin my glasses, but the kits for non-coated lenses did smear things quite a bit until I finally read the fine print.

Considering that camera lenses probably have more unique coatings than eyeglasses, I'd opt for the camera lens cleaning kit, even if its the cheap one from Ritz.

[boone]

Maybe you guys have a different definition of tilting and swiveling than I do, but I have the 420EX and it does both. No FEC, though. May have to install the "other" firmware to get that.

[habers]

RC-1 Wireless Remote Control :?
General Brand Lens Cleaning Kit
Giottos Rocket Air Blower - I got a 50 ml syringe for that. Exchanged it for 200 ml of blood
Canon ES-62 Lens Hood with Hood Adapter 62 for EF 50mm f/1.8 II Lens :roll:
Canon EW-60C Lens Hood for Kit Lens :shock:
Canon ET-54 Lens Hood for 80-200mm f/4.5-5.6
Canon BG-E1 Battery Grip
Useless stuff ^^^


I think the grip is a nice addition


Canon USA Normal EF 50mm f/1.8 II Autofocus Lens - now THAT's a good one. Maybe you should spring to f/1.4


I think the 1.8 is more cost effective for me at this time (~$70)


Canon USA 420EX Speedlite - this MAY be ok. But no tilt/swivel head. Who'd want that?


So would you recommend a Sigma EF-500 DG Super TTL Shoe Mount Flash ?


Battery #4 - just curious. Why do you need 3 batteries to fill one 512 card? Still confused.


For instance, at first I had 1 battery and the 512. I would go out and not have the battery fully charged (it happens) and I would be SOL when the battery died. With the grip, if I did the same, 2 batteries would be dead and I would only have 1 to replace it with. If I had a total of 4 I would have a fresh set in that instance.

Is it neccesary to have all these hoods? Or am I overdoing it?


You definitely are overdoing it.


Thats fine

Is the "General Brand" lens cleaning kit good enough? do you recommend anything special?

Vodka + a cotton ear swab seem to work fine for me.

I like to drink the vodka $4 wont kill me for a kit


Should I get the RC-1 over the RC-5?
Do you really NEED it? Or will it make an add-on which would help the process a bit? What you really need is a nice tripod and the remote costs 30 to 50 percent of a nice tripod.


an add-on, is ~$20 30-50% of a tripod?


Get a 50mm lens. Get a GOOD tripod. You can get a nice used one for less than 150 bucks. These things will last a long time and will help you get good images more than all lens hoods and remote controls in the world.

Here's a tip - if you're shooting and the sun gets into your lens, you can use your hand or a piece of black paper to cover it. Usually works better than a lens hood.

Good point, the problem is that I know very little of tripods and what is decent, can I get a "good" tripod (complete) for ~$125...what would you recommend?

Thank you so much everyone!

Jon

[DocFrankenstein]

Good point, the problem is that I know very little of tripods and what is decent, can I get a "good" tripod (complete) for ~$125...what would you recommend?
I'm a noob too and don't know much about them either. What I do know, is that I wasted 50 bucks for a cheap one. It has plastic head and will only work decently for non-panorama night shots. Impossible to line up your shot and get the framing you want.

Especially when I got the big sigma... it's just a waste.

What you can do, is look for a local newspaper with used photo equipment. My friend just bought a nice manfrotto for 100 cad which originally cost 250.

All I can say.

[vfilby]

I don't really know that I would buy Canon brand hoods. They just seem overpriced when you can pick up rubber folding hoods for like $3. And if you are just having to have a rigid hood buy an offbrand name and save some dollars. I mean that ES-62 is $22. Man you could get rubber hoods that block stray sunlight just as well and you would be alot closer to adding a mediocre tripod in that list.

Most, if not all, off brand hoods I have seen are front threaded to accept screw in filters. But I imagine that you can't use a filter holder (Cokin) with a lens hood.


I have a screw on rubber hood for my kit lens and I would recommend against it as it is a pain. I never use it because it is not worth the effort to take on and off. Also you can't leave it on in the camera bag because the rubber can be deformed to the point where it interferes with the picture. It was also recommend on another thread ( http://photography-on-the.net/forum//viewtopic.php?t=39605&highlight=lens+hoods ) that they should never be used with lenses that have floating front elements. I don't not know if any of the lenses you specified have floating front elements so you might want to check that out.


A hood screwed onto the filter thread of a lens whose front element floats while focusing, is a BAD THING. (eg, 50/1.4, and most cheap zooms) Bonk a table with the hood and your lens is totaled. The voice of experience...

I'd get the Canon hood designed for the lens and leave it on the lens, usually I don't bother with a cap, so it's ready to get the next shot.


I wouldn't bother with the remote even though it is cheap, unless you want it for taking group portraits with you in the group. You can always use the built in timer to delay the shutter a bit. Check out the 300D tips and tricks page to see how you can built a super cheap wired shutter relase. Aparently you can also use hands-free sets for cell phones.

I think that having a flash is essential and the 50mm f1.8 is definitely worth the money, the battery grip is also popular here. I think it depends on what you shoot. Figure out what you want to do and then put your money towards that goal. I bought the 500DG Super flash and I think that it is pretty nifty Remember if you are buying a flash to allocate some funds for rechargable batteries.

I think that I would, and I currently do, want more flash cards. I have run into situations where I have to delete photos to fit more on, not so good. If you can swing it I think it is important, but again highly dependant on your shooting style.

You might also want to consider hovering over the buy/sell forums here and on fredmiranda.com. I have gotten some good deals from there. I just bought an impecable 500DG Super and 50mm f1.8 mkII complete with all original packaging for less than $190 shipped.

Regards,

[habers]

thanks everyone, a lot of good advice

jon

[habers]

can anyone explain the differences between these two flashes

http://www.adorama.com/SG500EOSDG.html
http://www.adorama.com/SG500STEOSDG.html

thanks

jon

[vfilby]

One is the super and one is the standard. I am afraid I don't know the difference then. I think if you go to the Sigma site you can read upon on each one, and hopefully tell the difference from there.

Cheers,