Advice on gear?

frobisher

I've wanted to take up photography for while and have taken the step in buying a semi-decent quality camera and am have started snapping away. I plan on doing expressive/atmospheric out door stuff and maybe a little indoor portature.

At the moment I have a Sony DSCV-1, a 2 gig memory stick, a couple of photography books and a lot of enthusiasim.

What about a tripod? Will those ones in argos do the job for use outdoors?
What lenses should I be looking for? UV filter, wide angle, fish eye etc?

Any tips, thoughts or experiences are mucho appreciated.
Thanks!

Fajitas!

Best thing to do is start off with the basics, learn how to take a good photograph. No point in getting all the gear at the start, without the knowhow to go with it. Tripods are always handy, and as long as it's sturdy, it'll do the job really.


Just keep on taking as many pics as you can before you decide you're going to be an "expressive/atmospheric" photographer, no point in trying to box yourself into something.

Best of luck.

frobisher

Fajitas:
Good advice. Do you use a uv filter? Alot of what I point tha camera at has alot of sky in it and my books sugest using them but I'm interested in real experience.

Benster

From my experience, a UV filter doesn't have much effect at all, apart from protecting your lens glass. Your skies might benefit more from a polariser to deepen the colour.

B.

Shiny

The way i do it is, buy extra stuff only when you are
getting annoyed.

ie for me

I like night photography (Got a tripod for that early on).

Got a UV filter to protect my lens (Advice in a book).

My Default lens 35-85mm was not enough for distant
objects (So i got a 85-300mm zoom lens).

Eventually that wasn't enough (zoom) and a 400mm
zoom was a rip off so i got a teleconverter.(1.4x I think)

Then got a good camera case to hold all of that stuff.

Then I needed a wide angle lens as i do concert
photography and often could not fit in the entire
stage into a photo. again these are a rip off so I
got a wide angle converter. (0.5x i think)

I cant remember after that. I also got a cheap
digital camera for crappy pictures (pub, etc..).

What I want to get is a remote release so that i
can take pictures without touching the camera
but dont know if it is worth the money.

Hope this helps. I know you have a digital but I
feel most of these components are still relevant.

Fajitas!

Shiny wrote:

The way i do it is, buy extra stuff only when you are
getting annoyed.

ie for me

I like night photography (Got a tripod for that early on).

Got a UV filter to protect my lens (Advice in a book).

My Default lens 35-85mm was not enough for distant
objects (So i got a 85-300mm zoom lens).

Eventually that wasn't enough (zoom) and a 400mm
zoom was a rip off so i got a teleconverter.(1.4x I think)

Then got a good camera case to hold all of that stuff.

Then I needed a wide angle lens as i do concert
photography and often could not fit in the entire
stage into a photo. again these are a rip off so I
got a wide angle converter. (0.5x i think)

I cant remember after that. I also got a cheap
digital camera for crappy pictures (pub, etc..).

What I want to get is a remote release so that i
can take pictures without touching the camera
but dont know if it is worth the money.

Hope this helps. I know you have a digital but I
feel most of these components are still relevant.

All good advice, oh, and remote release's ain't too expensive, as far as I know the Canon one is €45!

I don't use a UV lens, but I do have a lens hood.

I know this is where photography gets expensive, but if you are very interested in photography, it might be of benefit to buy an second hand film SLR, or if you can afford a newer one, go for it. It will help you learn about aperture, shutter speed etc, and you'll get alot more control over them, also the fact that you can change lenses which as far as I know, you can't do on the Sony.

Shiny

I have lens hoods too but they dont protect your lens
while you are taking pictures.

ie Fingerprints, Hair, dust, sand, rain, etc....

AFAK the remote for my Minolta is around 80euro
even on Ebay!.:(

Dont spend anymore than 50euro on a tripod and
make sure it is as heavy and high as possible.

DotOrg

Shiny wrote:

Dont spend anymore than 50euro on a tripod and
make sure it is as heavy and high as possible.

that's horrible advice. If you have to lug a really heavy tripod around if you're shooting on location you'll end up hating it. Weight does not automatically equal stability. €50 would only get a very basic tripod

Good tripods are made of very lightweight materials such as carbon fibre

rhurja

The trick is to get a lightweight tripod that has a sturdy mount, which will hold up the weight of your camera / lens when you have it positioned horizontally & vertically (precisely what my cheap old tripod doesn't do). Having your tripod weighted can be important to avoid movement - most tripods have a center hook underneath from which you can hang a weight.

Dredd

Shiny: U don't need a remote switch for night time photography just use the timer on the camera. A remote is handy though note some do not allow u to
use the bulb setting => u can use a cable release instead. Also the disadvantage of using convertors is they decrease the maximum aperture of u'r lense so low light and distant shots can be difficult.

Frobisher: UV filters are standard for most people as it is cheaper to replace one than the front element on u'r lense/camera.
A card reader can be handy allows u to download without using u'r camera=> save battery and wear and tear on camera.
Manfrotto tripods are considered v.good
Lowpro bags are very good for all u'r gear especially the Mini Trekker.
Spare batteries are a must as well as a spare memory card.
Photoshop elements or photoshop are the best for image editing

dalk

Before you start buying extra things my advice would be to learn how to use what you have now. Dont get caught up in the 'i cant do this cause i havent got that' situation. Because with photography there is no amount of stuff that you can lust after...

Stick with the books and learn the photography basics. This will serve you well for any camera you use.

Learn how to use the camera you have. Take lots of pictures. Look at lots of other peoples work. Be critical of your own work. How could i improve that? etc What makes a picture i like special?

Try and visualise what you want the finished picture to look like when you are actually taking the picture.

Learn how to process your images. Subtle tweaks like extra contrast/saturation/sharpness/cropping etc can really lift a picture.

After that think about buying extra stuff that you feel you are missing.

It all depends on what you want to take pictures of.

Personally, i never use a tripod (except for a table top tripod which comes in handy when propped on a wall etc). Or long telephoto lenses. I also dont use UV filters. I have never scratched a lense, and having bought a few second hand lenses with scratches on the front element, i can say that a light scratch is unnoticable on a print.