Hello! I'm about to buy a 5DmkII and have questions

You guys are brilliant! Just in a few posts you've handed me a gold mine of information!

So, you've definitely sold me on the "kit". I'm going to get the following:
1. Body and the 24-105 lens kit. (B&H $2,999)
2. 430EX II flash. (Amazon $264)
3. Two spare LP-E6 batteries (Amazon $31ea)
4. Lexar 400-x CF memory (B&H pack of two for $97)

That's the red meat for getting me started. That leaves me wiggle room for a sun shade, UV filter, IR filter (trippy cool), circular polarized filter and maybe a few other misc filters.

That should keep me under the $4,000 mark and get me well down the road towards mega cool photography.

Later next year I can pop for the macro lens and a telephoto.

Oh and thank you guys again so very much for your help, you've all been very kind and extremely helpful. And thank you for the warm welcome to the forum.. I hope that I can soon start sharing my photos with folks. I'm sure that there will be plenty of pros to critique my work and offer tips. Well, I hope so anyway..

Thanks again! You guys are awesome!

Dee_Ann_2012 wrote in post #13455470
Oh, and here's a bonehead question.

Why does this state of the art camera use Fred Flintstone CF memory? Isn't that stuff totally yesteryear?

Are you being serious? CF cards are not old news. They come in huge capacities and are plenty fast for video. I like them better for the size because, to me, the SD cards are too small. Given the size of the camera body why would I need a card any smaller than CF?

An afterthought on accessories. If you are going to use your tripod much in the future, be sure and get an Arca Swiss style quick release, they are wonderful.

You should probably get the OEM batteries. They're about $60. A girl that i work with lost a whole shoot because a generic 5d2 battery corrupted her CF card.

http://www.amazon.com …tal-Cameras/dp/B001KELVS0

you will love the camera and it will keep your mind busy for a while mastering all it offers ,then you will discover the lighting,bags,more lens,tripods , tripod heads it just goes on and on enjoy..

you should also look into this site...it has taught me as much as my mind could absord, so by next decade ill put it to practical use
http://strobist.blogsp​ot.com/

goldboughtrue wrote in post #13455921
Are you being serious? CF cards are not old news. They come in huge capacities and are plenty fast for video. I like them better for the size because, to me, the SD cards are too small. Given the size of the camera body why would I need a card any smaller than CF?

Well, to be honest, yes I was being serious. I thought this was OLD technology.
I have (in junk box) an OLD POS Nikon point-n-shoot camera that uses these CF memories.
I junked the camera years ago and now my much newer (but now also old) Canon uses the little SD memories. I don't keep up with technology trends so I just assumed that the little memories replaced the older, larger CF flash.

As for the size vs the camera, I would have thought that using smaller memory would allow them to pack more goodies into the camera.

But then again, I'm not very knowledgeable about such things so I make a lot of assumptions.

Dee_Ann_2012 wrote in post #13455878
That should keep me under the $4,000 mark and get me well down the road towards mega cool photography.

Having expensive gear will not ensure you have great pictures. I can't believe no ones mentioned you buying a crop camera to start. ( A crop camera has smaller sensor than a full frame camera, which incidently has a smaller sensor than a medium format camera )

The 24-105mm lens will leave dogs/squirrels/birds as specs in the viewfinder. By the time you put them on a computer, and have to zoom in to make them a decent size they will be at best poor, and most probably crap. Sorry its a fact of life, 100mm is WAY too short for that type of photography you say interests you, hey even 400mm isn't long enough for most wildlife pics..... And the flash will be useless at illuminating a bird 50 feet away in a tree.

Honestly, everyone here understands gear lust, but you need to research what your need are and buy what will work best in those circumstances. You maybe wasting money on a camera body, when its the lens which is going to give you your 'mega cool' photographs

Ian makes a lot of sense DeeAnn. If you buy the kit specified above, you'll be back to B&H within a week to spend more money on a longer lens, guaranteed. You need at least 200mm at the long end to even think about the sort of pictures you want to take and even that would need serious trimming on full frame. As Ian says, 400mm is a stretch for bird shots - I just shot a woodpecker from about 25 feet and I had to trim to about 25% to get the size I wanted and that on a 7D crop body with a 70-200mm - equivalent to 320mm on a 5D.

My post yesterday was part joking, part amazement that anyone with self confessed limited knowledge of DSLRs would have decided on a 5D, battery grip and three lenses etc at such an early stage in the hobby, so maybe you can understand my comment. No offense intended, although I do feel you have chosen the wrong kit to start with - 7D/24-105mm/70-200mm L IS would be my startup kit and save for the 5D for later.

It's also a bit odd that you are looking at 4k for hardware but you say you can't afford Photoshop. PS Elements 10 - a stripped down version - is available even here in the UK for about £70 or less, about $100. It's a pretty basic accessory for any digital photography.

Anyhoo, good luck and let's see some early shots!

I'm sure I will be flamed for this, but I don't think it is a good idea to skip right over a crop camera to FF. For one, the narrower DOF offers an even greater challenge for someone new to DSLR photography. Second, the 5D2 is a massive camera. I tend to grab the rebel when I need to be mobile. Third, reach. I use my 70-200 on my rebel for my kids sports, with a TC for soccer. A rebel is small, cheap, powerful, and versatile. Don't get me wrong, the 5D2 has it's place, but I think a crop is more forgiving and versatile for a beginner.

Agreed 100%. FF and crop are different tools for different jobs and I know I would get loads of use from a 5D if I could afford one. I also know that it would still get less use than my crop bodies, especially the 7D which is streets ahead of anything else I have ever used.

buy a used 5d here on long. Then buy the glass. You will be happier in the long run.

JohnB57 wrote in post #13457492
Ian makes a lot of sense DeeAnn. If you buy the kit specified above, you'll be back to B&H within a week to spend more money on a longer lens, guaranteed. You need at least 200mm at the long end to even think about the sort of pictures you want to take and even that would need serious trimming on full frame. As Ian says, 400mm is a stretch for bird shots - I just shot a woodpecker from about 25 feet and I had to trim to about 25% to get the size I wanted and that on a 7D crop body with a 70-200mm - equivalent to 320mm on a 5D.

My post yesterday was part joking, part amazement that anyone with self confessed limited knowledge of DSLRs would have decided on a 5D, battery grip and three lenses etc at such an early stage in the hobby, so maybe you can understand my comment. No offense intended, although I do feel you have chosen the wrong kit to start with - 7D/24-105mm/70-200mm L IS would be my startup kit and save for the 5D for later.

It's also a bit odd that you are looking at 4k for hardware but you say you can't afford Photoshop. PS Elements 10 - a stripped down version - is available even here in the UK for about £70 or less, about $100. It's a pretty basic accessory for any digital photography.

Anyhoo, good luck and let's see some early shots!

I thought Photoshop costs several thousand dollars. I've never checked the price.
I have no idea how to use it and because I am not a professional I can't justify spending a few thousand dollars on a computer program that I really do not need.

Edit: I just checked on Adobe and photoshop is $700. I can't justify paying $700 for a paint program. Not gonna happen..

I have the free program, Gimp and I don't know how to do much with it besides very basic things.

As for spending, I have money which unfortunately I came into because my mother passed away. But I also have a budget to live by. I have set aside a budget for this camera.

I have no interest in a lesser camera. This is the camera I want and am buying. Apparently some people feel that is foolish of me. Oh well..

A few days ago I was not sure how much all the accessories cost. I had seen the camera online and seen that many accessories were available. They ended up costing more than I thought they would so I pared back my wish list to something more utilitarian and realistic. And within my budget.

My back yard, which is where 90% of my photos will be taken, is 66' x 120'.

As time goes on, I can budget for and purchase additional accessories, if I feel I need them.

One of the reasons I wanted to go with the battery grip is because I've had a very, very bad experience with camera batteries over the years. Batteries give me no end of grief.
My current Canon uses 4 AA lithium ion batteries. They are wearing out it seems because they don't last long at all anymore. I had a Nikon that used a fonky battery that you could only get from Nikon. I HATE THAT CAMERA AND IT'S BATTERIES. Passionately.

I'm still going to purchase two extra batteries for the 5D and will, over time, buy several more. Just to have them. Nothing makes me more angry than dead batteries when I want to take pictures or that frickin message "REPLACE BATTERIES" popping on the screen as the camera shuts down. THAT makes me extremely mad. I'm a red head and I do have a bit of a temper problem.

I've more than had it with crap cameras. I'm buying a NICE camera. I won't have to buy another one after this. At most I would only need to buy extra things for it.

I do have wiggle room on my $4,000 budget for this camera but I would of course prefer to keep my expenditures as low as possible. If I can get it all for $4,000 why would I get exactly the same thing for $6,000? I'm shopping for the best deal I can possibly get. To do otherwise would be foolish.

bobbyz wrote in post #13457782
buy a used 5d here on long. Then buy the glass. You will be happier in the long run.

Thank you for the thought but I do not want a used camera.
I want a brand new one that I know has never been dropped or abused or exposed to cigarette smoke. I want a brand new one with a full warranty so that if anything happens to it I can get it serviced or replaced.

A used car, maybe. A used camera? No thanks..

Well I like a woman who knows her mind! Agreed on buying new, especially as this is your first serious DSLR.

I don't think any of the above should be taken as criticism of your choices Dee Ann, just as input based on our many and varied needs and uses. The 5D, with the right lens (and that would include the 24-205mm) will give you luscious images that you will be able to enlarge to any size you need. You will get a pretty good wide angle at the 24mm end but the 105mm end will limit your wildlife shots - it will be no good at all for that. Also, it will give you adequate, but not class leading AF performance so great for landscapes etc, but not so good for action. The 7D, in contrast, would have given you the best AF for your money and have left a little over for another lens, which as I said above, you will be buying very soon. The 7D is really the next generation of DSLR to the 5D in both performance and features (notwithstanding the focus issues some folks seem to have) but it is a small sensor camera. One spare battery will be plenty IMO - technology has advanced quite a lot - but hey, they're only batteries. You should save for a good circular polarizer (77mm for the 24-105mm) - this is pretty much essential but can be added later.

Good luck.