Best Way to Spend $6000?!

Also membership in ASMP or PPA, depending on whether you're leaning commercial or personal.

You have the 135 already, now you just need the 85 1.2 and the 35 1.4 and you have the holy trinity of L lenses. If you bought the lenses used, you could just about do that and the 5D Mark III with $6K. Or you could do it with a bit left over if you went with the 5D Mark II. You could shoot anything with that combination.

elrey2375 wrote in post #14427531
You have the 135 already, now you just need the 85 1.2 and the 35 1.4 and you have the holy trinity of L lenses. If you bought the lenses used, you could just about do that and the 5D Mark III with $6K. Or you could do it with a bit left over if you went with the 5D Mark II. You could shoot anything with that combination.

+1

But you did say you want some lighting equipment so you need to work out what types and how much of it too.

a 5dmk3 takes a larger chunk of the $6k than i could bear...i'd go 5dmk2 and get better lighting equipment than you would otherwise be able to get.

Well everyone is telling you to get camera equipment I would go the other Route if you are wanting a studio, Lights, soft boxes and other light modifiers are what you need. You will all so want a battery system so you can take your studio on the road. I suggest the Vagabond mini it’s very cheap for what it does and works great. I would spend at least 2500 of your 6 on lighting. Now if you don’t have Photoshop I would by the new CS6. That will run you around 700. Then you will want to sign up for something like kelbytraining.com to learn how to use Photoshop. The rest I would put in the bank to save for a camera next time.

pbisfun wrote in post #14434616
Well everyone is telling you to get camera equipment I would go the other Route if you are wanting a studio, Lights, soft boxes and other light modifiers are what you need.

Post #11.

I would go 5d Mark III, it will give your lenses a new lease of life.

Also consider the sigma 70-200 2.8 OS, which is a suberb lens for half the price of the Canon equivalent, and at least equal to the old 70-200 2.8 but with better image stabilisation according to some...

Then flashes and boxes.

Don't be frightened of third party flashes like the Yongnuo 565ex's.

For real portability, small flash is the way to go.

Dragging studio strobes around with batteries attached is not all that portable.

Get a good starter all round kit for now and then upgrade it as time goes on.

But the 5d3 is the key.

I have had the 5dc, currently have two 7d's, a 5d2 and a 5d3.

Seriously, get the 5d3, it is all the camera you could possibly want.

I'll be the first to say that there is such a thing as too MUCH equipment. I've learned how to light with strobes that had no adjustability, and given the opportunity to shoot with high end strobes like profotos, I'm completely lost and my photos suffer from them. Don't buy equipment that is above your level of comfort or technical skill. Spending $3k on lighting that you don't understand how to use properly will be worse than spending $1k on simple lighting that you can understand and use properly. Don't spend money just because said product is the best.

I also haven't ventured into doing video because I'm not well versed enough to be able to handle full video production. My 7D shoots video and I've shot less than 1 minute of actual video in the 2+ years I've owned it because I simply don't have the knowledge or understanding to make that video work properly.

Thanks for all the advice. I think I made up my mind...

I'm going to get the 5D Mark III and some Paul Buff lights (2 Einsteins, and 2 vagabonds). The 70-200 L will have to wait. The lights should give me the ability to shoot a wider variety of jobs and help me out when natural light just isn't what I want.

Like all big purchases I am going to wait a week before I pull the trigger -- want to make sure I have no regrets.