Couple of Questions.....

1). Tripod - What is the best possible tripod that is affordable that one would recommend? What ball head do you recommend? One that is weather resistant would be superb.

2). Film/video - My T2i has a 32 GB memory card, but if I switch it to the "video" button it will only take about 3-5 seconds of video and that's all. Any idea on how I can take longer video and how I can have full control of filming something, especially focusing since when it is on video mode it will not allow me to focus on other objects?

3). Full sun - When I am taking photos in full sun, should I turn my WB to Daylight or just leave it on Auto? I was also trying to take a picture the other day of the sky, it took me forever to figure out what settings to take the picture at because it would either turn out WAY TOO over exposed or WAY TOO underexposed. I shot in Manual at f/29 1/320 ISO 400 at 70mm. The photo turned out alright but the trees were still too dark. I sat there for about 45 minutes setting different settings but the trees were either over exposed or under exposed. How do I suppose to get that perfect exposure in full sun? What is the recommend setting in full sun?

4). White specks - This has happened on every camera I have ever owned (I have owned a lot), but sometimes when I am taking pictures, the objects will have "white specks" on them, making them looks distorted in some way. It doesn't matter what setting it's on, what is this?

5). Sunsets - What's a good recommended shooting for a sunset?

6). Silhouettes - How does one take a silhouette and do you need a flash for that?

I may be going to the beach in the next couple of days, which is one reason I am asking for advice on the questions that I am asking. When any of you go to the beach, do you take your camera and tripod or the camera itself while walking down the beach?

1) Define "affordable".

2: Your card is not fast enough to handle the write speed of video, and the camera's buffer is full. I use these... You can see my review on them at the bottom of the page if its up already... They're cheap, and they're quick enough for video.
Link to Adorama: http://www.adorama.com​/KGSD10V16GB.html

moose10101 wrote in post #15964710
1) Define "affordable".

Anything under $200

3. Generally the correct exposure for full sunlight is the sunny 16 rule. That is f/16 and set the shutter speed to what ever iso that you are using.

5. Don't think that there are any real exposure rules for shooting sunsets. You are dealing with real difficult lighting situations and all of them will be different.

6. When shooting silhouettes expose for the background, your subject will the under expose and you will have a silhouette.

But under all these circumstances your best bet is to experiment with different settings and examine the results. Trial and error is the best way to learn.

2) You're wrong on your recording time for a 32 GB card. I'll guess you would have about 30 Mbps throughput, but you're right you do use a lot of space. Make short clips that you later piece together to make your final video. Record sound separately and you can put stills and video together with your sound track. Focus is usually done manually, using either a separate monitor to better see focus or else a magnifying adapter to go over live view screen. Or zone focus a wide lens and take advantage of the deeper dof. A follow focus device lets you make repeatable focus moves, e.g. from a foreground subject to a background object. The video stuff makes the stills stuff look cheap.

J Michael wrote in post #15964924
2) You're wrong on your recording time for a 32 GB card. I'll guess you would have about 30 Mbps throughput, but you're right you do use a lot of space. Make short clips that you later piece together to make your final video. Record sound separately and you can put stills and video together with your sound track. Focus is usually done manually, using either a separate monitor to better see focus or else a magnifying adapter to go over live view screen. Or zone focus a wide lens and take advantage of the deeper dof. A follow focus device lets you make repeatable focus moves, e.g. from a foreground subject to a background object. The video stuff makes the stills stuff look cheap.

Yes, but he is only getting 3-5 seconds. That tells me that his card isn't fast enough. He should able to get roughly close an hour record time with 32GB, methinks.
Of course, they stop recording after 4gb (close 15 minutes, typically) so it'd need restarted.

Your other suggestions are great!
And stills in video work is a pet peeve of mine.

2). I will also second (third?) the suggestion of a faster memory card. The manual of the T2i suggests a class 10 SD card for video, if I remember correctly. I shot several videos on mine, using class 10 32gb cards and I was able to get 5 minutes recording time easily.

and since nobody else has touched it,
4). Can you be more specific about these "white specks" you're talking about? I wonder if what you're talking about is digital noise, seen at high ISO levels. Definitely post some examples and we might be able to help a bit more.

Manfrotto 294, comes with the rc2 ballhead if you get the kit. Should be under $200 and that's a good setup. To get better, you'd have to spend twice as much, at least, IMO

Here are examples of photos I took today that were either overexposed or underexposed, maybe you can help me figure out what the problem may be.

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The camera tries to make everything neutral grey. It doesn't know what the "correct" exposure is. You have to take account of this in your photos. If your subject is dark, the camera will make it too bright. If your subject is light, the camera will make it too dark. You have to learn to compensate.

I suggest picking up the book:
Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson

For tripods, there really is something you have to understand: cheap tripods are a waste of money. You will buy a cheap tripod in the expectation that it is saving you money. It will fail on you at some point and may or may not take some of your other gear along with it, or prove so annoying/useless/quirk​y that you will replace it. The end result is the same: you will buy a more expensive tripod and will have wasted whatever amount you spent on the cheaper tripod to start off with, meaning you will have spent more money than if you'd just gone for a decent tripod to begin with. I suggest this as the bare minimum:
http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …ROB_Tripod_Kit_​Black.html

This would be better:
http://www.ebay.com …ipods&hash=item​35b6fd59ee

And this would be even better:
http://www.feisol.net …-ct3441t-rapid-p-107.html

Anything more expensive than that I cannot recommend as I have not tried (I have experience with the 3 models I listed), nor do I really see the point of recommending since my Feisol 3441T has been through tripod hell and is still performing impeccably.

Full sun, follow the sunny 16 rule for rough guidelines: shutter speed is 1/ISO at f16. e.g. 1/100 at 100 ISO at f16, 1/200 at 200 ISO at f16, 1/400 at 400 ISO at f16 etc...

White specks? Not sure what you mean by this, could you post crops?

Sunsets: I recommend a tripod, and either exposure bracketing or graduated ND filters.

Silhouettes are easy, you expose for a bright background with a dark subject in the foreground. No flash. Flash would do the exact opposite of what you want since it would light up your subject rather than making your subject appear black.

If I'm going to the beach specifically to take photos, yes, I will bring a tripod and camera with me. If I'm just going to the beach, I don't bring a camera, or I bring my s95 or gopro.