New member w/ Canon G6

hi all, I'm so excited to have found this forum. i'm a newbie that only knows how to point and shoot. 1 year ago, my wife bought me a Canon G6 that i've been drooling over.. and since then i've been trying to learn as much as possible. But, i'm still a newb. So pardon my noobie questions, and I hope to learn from all of you.

first noob question.. well, i'm somewhat of a compulsive buyer for accessories, and today i went into Ritz and bought the Quantary circular polarized lense, UVHaze MC, and the fogmaker. Couldn't resist the buy 2 get 1 free pitch.

anyhoo.. i'm starting to regret it because my friends told me that first of all, i should've gotten the ones for the digital cameras because the ccd is sensitive to light, thus using regular polarizor may not work. then they said it's pretty much useless because i won't see much difference. are they right?

i'll be shooting some portaits shots here and there, but nothing special yet. but should i just return it and save the money for a flash with bounce instead? would that be a better investment?

thanks.

rui

i just used the 'search this forum' icon, and typed 'polarizer' and found some of the following that may be of use to you: you will notice the word 'polarizer' in red text in them:
https://photography-on-the.net …75022&highlight​=polarizer
https://photography-on-the.net …15116&highlight​=polarizer
https://photography-on-the.net …59930&highlight​=polarizer

happy reading : )
sorry, I do not have any first experience with them to comment more...

I don't think you did wrong with your purchases. Some people could give a valid argument about the quality of Quantary equipment vs. Hoya Multi-coated, Tiffen, or similar but the circular polarizer is what is preferred on these cameras. There are sometimes issues with the autofocusing system when not using a circular but I haven't been able to duplicate this in comparison tests.

A tip to improve your pictures, make sure you use the highest resolution and the minimum compression. Short of going to RAW mode, this will yield the highest quality picture the camera is capable of. Then if you crop out a section of a photograph the quality will suffer the minimum.

Welcome G6canon! I hope you like your stay here, people here at POTN are friendly, helpful, and most can go on for hours talking about Canon cameras (well, at least I do). About the polarizer, I see nothing wrong with that, though I must ask how did you also purchase a lens adapter for your G6? This is a metal tube that attaches to the front of the camera and surrounds the lens - it provides a physical base where you can screw on filters or accessory wide angle or telephoto lenses. Canon makes them, though a very good and lower cost alternative is lensmate; look here.

If I were you though, I would seriously look at a dedicated flash, especially if portraiture is what you like shooting. The most cost effective flash that you can get is the Canon 430EX, or the ealier model 420EX if you can get it. These units sync up perfectly well with the G6, and have swivelling and tilting heads for that all important bounce flash.

My prediction is that you will soon have a flash, lens adapter, and the polarizer filter. Soon, if you feel the need to go wider, you may opt to look at wide angle attachment lenses, but that's another thread. Anyway, it is wise to hold off any purchases until you get familiar with your camera, by then you will have a solid idea of what you need. Welcome again!

First of all wellcome to the forum.

As a newbie I would recomend everything that you are planing to buy, first to ask here for an opinion. That's what I used to do when I first bought the camera and I allways ended up with the best products. I don't think you did bad by buying the stuff you did, because I know the exitment when you start to learn about photography. I would also recomend buying some books like Bryan Petersons " Learning to see creatively"....you could search the forum for book advice since there are a lot of them out there.

I think Pio's question about the adapter is a good one, because without one you can't have any accessories atached to the G6.

As for if you should've bought a dedicated flash instead of your purchase I wouyld say YES, buy an external flash instead of what you bought, it will make a great diference in your nightime indor shots, especially if bounced. I have a speedlite 420ex for my G6 and it works like a charm.

Learn the modes that you have on your camera on how to use them and also get a hand on the manual mode so you know how aperture and shutter speed works...

check out this sites ...

http://www.photoxels.c​om …hotography-tutorials.html
http://www.cs.duke.edu​/%7Eparr/photography/f​aq.html
http://dpfwiw.com/inde​x.htm#site_index
http://www.photonhead.​com/exposure/

I am sure there are much more but I think you will enjoy these.

Regards,

Quantaray is pretty much garbage for filters of any kind, but Hoya and Tiffen make some really good ones.

wow.. thanks everyone for such a warm welcome. as for the filters, they are going back tomorrow. I decided to buy the hoya's from lenmate online instead. got the hoya UV for digital camera and the hoya cicular polarizer for the digital camera as well. Should be arriving by next wednesday or so.

Here is a list of what I have now..

Camera: Canon Powershot G6
Lense: Canon Tele-converter TC-DC58N
Adapter: Lensmate G6 adapter
Flash Storage: Apacer Photo Steno II - 512MB
Backup Unit: Apacer Disc Steno CP200 (CDRW) & CP300 (DVD)
Bag: LowePro EX140

I would like to get the 430EX next + a diffuser (Gary Fong's or Sto-Fon Omnibounce). I've thought about wide angle lens... but I think even with the teleconverter may be too much for me now.

I still have a lot to learn from my G6.. and sometimes, I guess it's all about trial and error.. except i'm all in the error part for now. Trying to avoid the strong temptation of using the AUTO function. But still need to learn about the benefits of shooting in Aperture or Shutter.

Thanks RAW.. those are the site I need! Eventually my goal is to be able to shot in M mode and learn enough about PS or CS2 to work with pics in RAW mode. But one baby step at a time...

RAW wrote:
First of all wellcome to the forum.

As a newbie I would recomend everything that you are planing to buy, first to ask here for an opinion. That's what I used to do when I first bought the camera and I allways ended up with the best products. I don't think you did bad by buying the stuff you did, because I know the exitment when you start to learn about photography. I would also recomend buying some books like Bryan Petersons " Learning to see creatively"....you could search the forum for book advice since there are a lot of them out there.

I think Pio's question about the adapter is a good one, because without one you can't have any accessories atached to the G6.

As for if you should've bought a dedicated flash instead of your purchase I wouyld say YES, buy an external flash instead of what you bought, it will make a great diference in your nightime indor shots, especially if bounced. I have a speedlite 420ex for my G6 and it works like a charm.

Learn the modes that you have on your camera on how to use them and also get a hand on the manual mode so you know how aperture and shutter speed works...

check out this sites ...

http://www.photoxels.c​om …hotography-tutorials.html
http://www.cs.duke.edu​/%7Eparr/photography/f​aq.html
http://dpfwiw.com/inde​x.htm#site_index
http://www.photonhead.​com/exposure/

I am sure there are much more but I think you will enjoy these.

Regards,

I am very glad we could all help. Happy journey to the world of photography.

Regards,