Christmas present to myself

Hey all, I'd like your opinion on gear that I am going to e treating myself for Christmas/a trip to South Africa. My thought is I sell my 1000d + kits lenses and buy.....

Canon 7d
Sigma 50mm f1.4
Sigma 120-300 f2.8
Canon 100mm f2.8 L
Sigma 2x teleconverter
Kenko extension tubes (the three set)
Canon 430 ex ii
Vivto flash cord (0.5m)
And 2 sandisk 16gb 60mb/s

Got any thoughts/recommendatio​ns?

Btw I have about $5,500 to spend

Africanphoto wrote in post #15212134
Hey all, I'd like your opinion on gear that I am going to e treating myself for Christmas/a trip to South Africa. My thought is I sell my 1000d + kits lenses and buy.....

Canon 7d
Sigma 50mm f1.4
Sigma 120-300 f2.8
Canon 100mm f2.8 L
Sigma 2x teleconverter
Kenko extension tubes (the three set)
Canon 430 ex ii
Vivto flash cord (0.5m)
And 2 sandisk 16gb 60mb/s

Got any thoughts/recommendatio​ns?

Btw I have about $5,500 to spend

That's a very fun problem to be faced with. A wise forum member here recently told me that it is dangerous to come to POTN forum and annouce that you have a large sum of cash burning a hole in your pocket. What types of photography are you interested in or will you be doing while over there? As a complete newbie, I won't be giving advice, but I think what you plan to do with the gear will help the folks here make better recommendations.

I am not sure where you will be going in South Africa and what you intend to shoot, but I would take a wide angle lens for landscape.

Is going to mainly be wildlife and I've wares to get into macro so I though I would dive in the deep end

$5500 to spend? Your monster Sigma just ate more than half your budget. Still, a very nice lens from what I have heard. It should do you well in Africa.

Yeah I know. I have managed to find a price for $2020.00 so I'm pretty keen on getting it. The reviews seem to fall in its favour. A very good/cheap alternative to the canon 300 2.8

sebr wrote in post #15212217
I am not sure where you will be going in South Africa and what you intend to shoot, but I would take a wide angle lens for landscape.

I gotta say though, shooting with a telephoto lens in portrait made @100mm or higher and taking 10+ shots from left to right and stitching photographs together using Autopanogiga makes for WAY more interesting results than a simple wide angle lens.

Yeah I find the 50mm is honestly as wide as I like to go but have been to like 18 and that's about it not much inbetween.

That would be a nice Christmas, toss in a 10-22 or 17-40 and you're done

rick_reno wrote in post #15216641
That would be a nice Christmas, toss in a 10-22 or 17-40 and you're done

+1 I agree

Speaking as someone who lived in Africa for a few months doing contract work (safaris, people, news, everything you can think of) I think you are a little overboard. A 70-200 with a 1.4x converter will be long enough for safari work. If you are worried just get a 300 f.4L IS ($1000 used) and couple that up with the 1.4x converter to make it extra long when you need it. Any safari work you will do will be in daylight anyways.
What you need is a camera body, a wide angle, a midrange zoom and a telephoto. Thats it. Honestly the whole time I lived in Africa not once did I use a flash, and I shot in a lot of low light situations. I was documenting village life and a number of other situations where a flash would have been detracting to what was happening. Besides the on camera flash of the camera body you get (unless you get a 5D or 1D) will be enough to use for fill if you require it.
Another thing to consider, if you load yourself up with tech gear you'll be too busy screwing with your equipment to actually take in whats happening. I did most of my work with a single camera body and a 24-70. Thats it. Less time messing with equipment, more time documenting life.

50mm on your 7D is going to be a portrait lens..... With all your long lenses, I'd get a "normal" because you really need a 35 prime in that kit. I'd get the new sigma 35/1.4 if i were you.

I'd want a 17-50 or so. You don't seem to have much in the 'normal' range.

+ 1 thats about all I would change , looks like an awesome kit now you will have to find a good backpack to carry it all F-STOP make some good gear

I'd look at getting a general purpose zoom. Like a 24-70 mark I or 3rd party alternatives. That's a lot of money to spend at once...