first dslr: what add ons?

This should be an easy question for those who already have a dslr. With a first purchase what things do you recommend to go with the camera? grip, flash, top of line storage disk etc etc


if it helps im buying the 50D

A good flash unit will help a lot - look into the 430EX or 580EX.

Sandisk Extreme III CF cards are very popular and have a good reputation for performance and reliability.

More importantly, though - what lens(es) are you getting?

seeing it is my first camera and everyone asks what are you going to shoot? Im smart enough to know that I dont know what I need. So this is how I figured it. I was first planning on getting the 17-85mm as a kit but the figured I would probably just sell it later on for a better lense anyways. So I decided agianst that. Now I am thinking of getting the 50mm 1.8 because it is so cheap and should still get me some pretty good shots. If I dont like it i havent spen any money. The only other glass that im really inerested in is the 85mm 1.8. I only want to buy lenses once (50mm being the exception) and if I bought the 85 now i will probably have i many years down the road as well.

JIM: do you think the grip isnt neccessary at the beginning? I was concerned about how long the battery would last without one.

A grip is not necessary unless you shoot 500+ plus shots between charges (probably more... haven't shot more than 500 in one day). If you think you need more battery life, get another battery. For one thing, it's lighter and much cheaper.

I would get more lenses, flash, tripod, camera bag, memory cards, (fill in the blank) before I would get a grip. Others would differ.

It's supposed to be easier to shoot in portrait orientation but you still need lenses etc... before you need a grip.

elitejp wrote in post #6263422
I was first planning on getting the 17-85mm as a kit but the figured I would probably just sell it later on for a better lense anyways. So I decided agianst that.

OK, so after you add the EF-S 17-55/2.8 IS to your list at about $1000, what's left in the budget?

Seriously, if you are a "do it right or not at all" type, then that is the lens you'll get. In the meantime, if you are only going to use cheap lenses, but still want decent quality images, your only options are the 50/1.8 you've mentioned and the 18-55 IS (that could well ship with the 50D in a kit).

I suggest go for flash since 50d is quite big if without grip should be not a problem or later then you get it.

bohdank wrote in post #6263593
A grip is not necessary unless you shoot 500+ plus shots between charges (probably more... haven't shot more than 500 in one day). If you think you need more battery life, get another battery. For one thing, it's lighter and much cheaper.

For me, using a grip has nothing to do with battery "life". I only use one battery at a time in my 20D's "grip". The "grip" is purely and simply for how it allows me to hold the camera. I use mine with the Canon hand strap.

Yesterday, for example, I used my rig for a couple hundred "portrait" format shots. Having the "grip" mounted surely made that easier on my wrists.

Also, the battery life is only really 'extended' with a grip if you don't have 1minute to spare when shooting to change a battery.

You'll need to buy a second battery anyhow when you get the grip as they need 2 to run the camera, so you could avoid the $150 for the grip and just change the battery when needed. As has been mentioned by others, you only really need a grip if you want the extra size (Which is the reason I have one)

Another thing to remember - you kind of need 4 batteries when you have a grip, because you'll be using 2 in the camera, so if they suddenly go flat (I have noticed the battery indicator is not very accurate with my grip) then you need something to replace them with all of a sudden.

great info: so there is really no dramatic need for the grip. And at around 500 shots before changing batteries that is also quite duable.
well it seems simplicity is really the answer to all of this.
My plans are to get the 50D add the 50mm 1.8 and a good highspeed cf card. Everything else can wait as I learn what i need and what I dont need.

kniteshade wrote in post #6263915
You'll need to buy a second battery anyhow when you get the grip as they need 2 to run the camera

You may need to send your grip in for repair, as mine and everyone else's that I know, work fine with one battery in the grip.

To the OP, seriously a grip is a personal preference, I personally go in phases, sometimes finding it essential, sometimes an annoyance. As for lenses a 50mm isn't a great sole lens for the 50d. If you really want to buy a single prime, then get the Sigma 30mm 1.4 or another fast lens in the 28-35mm range, which would equate to standard on the crop body.

Superfast CF cards aren't a necessity either, a flashgun could be useful depending on what you want to shoot, but it's a whole other load of stuff to learn if you want your flash photo's to be anything other than adequate.

The 50 1.8 is really a portrait lens. Its a bit too long to use as an all around lens. True, its a great deal, but its also something else to drag around. The 17-55 f/2.8 IS is nice if you don't mind the high price, or for $450 you could get a Tamron 17-50 f/2.8. I am very happy with mine.

My advice is to start with as few items as possible and go several months just learning how to use the basics. See what you really need for your style and then add one thing at a time. Especially, I would put off getting a flash until I understood available light photography.

A different approach, as this is your first camera, would be to buy an Xsi with kit lens for only $700. Its a much lower investment, and takes great pictures, even if it can't do everything the more expensive cameras can.

the reason I kinda decided on the 50mm as my sole lense is because it is just plain cheap and I could gain experience from it. I prob. wont be able to use any L lense to the fullest anyways at this point of time.Once christmas rolls around I will have an idea of what my next lense should be and I will have more play money. Also I can better answer the question "Do I hate primes or am I pretty satisfied." "is it too short? too long?" etc. As for the 50D Im going with this because I wanted a camera that had a fast shutter. I have been contemplating the 400D and the 40D for around 8 months but just felt like I should hold off until the 50D would be announced. The frames per second sold me on the 40D over the 400D but both these cameras are overpriced here in china. So I waited. The 50D however is selling at lower than msrp which makes it only $300 more than the still overpriced 40D. So 50D it is!

what cf card would be good for the 50D? Is sandisk II good enough or would III be better? im guessing IV is too fast.

elitejp wrote in post #6264122
the reason I kinda decided on the 50mm as my sole lense is because it is just plain cheap and I could gain experience from it. I prob. wont be able to use any L lense to the fullest anyways at this point of time.Once christmas rolls around I will have an idea of what my next lense should be and I will have more play money. Also I can better answer the question "Do I hate primes or am I pretty satisfied." "is it too short? too long?" etc.

I still believe there's some twisted logic at play here. I'm not knocking the nifty fifty, but if it was the only lens I had, I'd have very few occasions to get the camera out. It's simply not suitable for 80% plus of everyday photography.

Get the cheap kit lens, preferably with IS, optically it's not as good as the nifty, but it will give you a better understanding of what different focal lengths can achieve. And it's useful for over 80% of everyday photographic subjects, it's foolish not to get it at the price you pay for it bundled. If you use it every day and give it away after a year it will have paid for itself in the experience it's allowed you to gain.

Forums are full of advice that can sway opinion unnaturally, the advice to get the nifty as a starter lens, because bang for buck it's a great buy are fatally flawed. If you ask someone with a bag full of lenses whether they'd rather keep a slow std zoom or a fast prime, the answer's the prime almost everytime. But if you take the rest of their lenses away and ask again, the answer would be reversed. Very few people could live with just a short prime tele lens, if you were buying a 5d, it'd be different, many of us shot with a std prime lens when we started, but this is on a crop, it's not a std lens, it's a short tele.
As such, it's suitable for 3/4 portraits, usable (barely) for head and shoulders or full length portraits, and not a lot of use for anything else. The 18-55 IS will do over 90% of what most people really need. My 17-55 stays on my 40d nearly all the time, with a 2nd body swapping between a telezoom, UWA, Macro or fast prime, but they're specialist applications in comparison.

I've just come back from a family holiday with the 17-55 10-22 and an old 80-200 in my bag, I never took the 17-55 off once, if that'd been the 50mm instead, it'd have been used for maybe 20% of the shots.

If you're interested in collecting a bunch od photographic equipment, get the 50mm, you'll probably never get rid of it. But if you're interested in taking up photography get the zoom.

If you feel compelled to shoot a prime, the Canon 35mm f/2 would be a better choice, but it costs slightly more than the 18-55 kit zoom.

I started out with a fast "normal" lens as well. There is a school of thought (see photo.net) that believes one will learn more about photographic composition quickly shooting with a fixed focal length normal lens than a standard zoom.

you said one of the features you were looking at was FPS.

here's an Extreme III vs. Ultra II comparison (+ Lexar Pro 133) on the 30D
http://www.dpreview.co​m …ws/CanonEOS30D/​page11.asp

Extreme IV vs. Extreme III on the 40D
http://www.dpreview.co​m …ws/canoneos40d/​page13.asp

the IV does provide some noticeable speed advantages over the III, especially how fast it can clear the buffer and FPS once the buffer is full.