opinion on kit for a newbie

rahenyguy

hi just took up an interest in photography,started putting together some equipment trying to cover most angles at the mo i have

canon 350d
18-55mm kit lens
cheap fisheye,wide angle sort of lens
sigma Lens AF 70-300mm F4-5.6 Macro Super II
tripod
mini tripod

do you think this is enough gear to cover most angles while starting to learn about photography ? ?

http://flickr.com/photos/34869400@N00/

Morlar

rahenyguy wrote:

hi just took up an interest in photography,started putting together some equipment trying to cover most angles at the mo i have

canon 350d
18-55mm kit lens
cheap fisheye,wide angle sort of lens
sigma Lens AF 70-300mm F4-5.6 Macro Super II
tripod
mini tripod

do you think this is enough gear to cover most angles while starting to learn about photography ? ?

http://flickr.com/photos/34869400@N00/

I think thats lots more than most people have starting out - if you start to hit limitations you can always add to the kit bag as you go along.

digitalage

Seems you have enough focal lenght for most situations, depends on what you shot and after a while as you gain more experince you will probably be frustrated with the speed and sharpness of your lenses then you will know exacly what you want...but only after you have used them alot you will know there weakness and then you can decide what you want. This is when you'll have a big hole in your wallet .

joe_elway

350D: a great body to learn on. Would say the same about a Nikon D50/D70 is someone asked.

Kit lens: it works. It's very cost effective. Can be a soft at either end but that's not much of an issue for a learner. It's important to learn the skills and then identify what you want to spend money on once you can make a knowledgable decision.

I've got that Sigma lens. It was the first additional one I bought. One of my favourite photos (a portrait I took at a living museum in the US) was taken with it and is hanging in my house. I've got the more powerful (and pricey) EF 100-400L but the Sigma still comes with me in my bag.

I'd forget about a true wide angle lens for now. 18mm (even on a non-full frame DSLR) is still pretty wide. It's done for everything I've needed. I rearely shoot at 18mm for landscape ... usually only for close up architecture stuff. A quality lens in this class is likely to cost you a bunch.

Instead of a wide angle I'd suggest you look at:

- Photo editing software (Photoshop Elements is a good place to start).
- A good magazine subscription - I'm partial to Practical Photography.
- A quality tripod/head. I've got a "cheap" manfrotto with built on head. It's solid enough for what I need but can be a bit heavy for long hikes. Buying one of these can be as time consuming as buying a camera.
- A good bag to carry the lot in.... some magazine subscriptions can come with a small Lowepro bag.

Zillah

The fisheye seems like a waste.

melekalikimaka

i second the fisheye comment

heffsarmy

why would you say fisheye seems a waste?

rahenyguy

it only cost about €70 from ebay and it delivers good results in my opinion for that price see below

joe_elway

How often would you really use a fisheye? I'd take that €90 and use it on Photoshop Elements instead.

digitalage

Depends on what you shot, I use a fisheye 'peleng 8mm' alot, if you use tools like ptlens you can defish alot of shots and makes for a really wide angle lens, I also use it for making pano shots.