Purchases that surprised you, usage wise?

Hey all,

Terrible title for the thread, but couldn't think of a proper name so I just went with the above.

Pretty much, I'm just wondering if anyone here has ever bought anything that they said "feck yeah, I'll be using that all the time" and then never used it, or picked up something that you thought would see very limited use, but turned out to be one of your most used pieces of equipment?


Earlier today I only really kinda noticed how much I'm shooting with my 10-20mm Sigma lens. When I was eyeing it up online and reading reviews and such, I was thinking "Yeah, this may be an alright purchase for the odd interior shot I may try my luck at. Bit hard to justify the price though, seen as it'll be used about once every two years".


The lens has barely left my camera since. I've always got it in my bag with me, and even when I'm doing something not suited to that focal length at all, I still find myself pulling it out "Just to take a look and see".


There's also this strange feeling you get when you're flicking through photos afterward and in the odd photo or two, you can see your shoes at the edge of the frame.


So yeah, it was a purchase that I felt was a genuine case of buying something just becaue I wanted a new toy, and it turning out to be something that gives me great joy to use repeatedly and hasn't lost it's novelty value at all yet either (I love playing with the distortion!).


On the other hand, a photography essential, and something that I paid a ridiculous €60 for, the Circular Polarising filter, has been on the top of my telephoto lens once or twice and that's about it. I keep reading up on it incase I'm using it wrong, but i'm not keen on the results it gives at all. Handy for water, sure (though I've not really used it for that at all) but when I'm doing landscapes or such I often wonder why I bothered with it at all.


I definitely thought I'd get a serious amount of use out of it, as I enjoy a bit of landscape, and I specifically spent €60 instead of €6 for a Hong Kong knock off because I wanted something that'd give good results or had a decent brand name and wouldn't ruin my photos.

(Also, €60 for two 77mm pieces of glass... only in the world of photography! And what's worse is that that's not the most expensive. I was looking at CPLs that went into hundreds of euro! What :eek:!?)



So yeah, that's my tale of joy and woe. Anyone got anything to offer? (I admit that I'm also partially making this thread to see if anyone says they love something that I never thought of before or never heard, so I can also consider purchasing).

Paulw

I bought the Canon 15mm fisheye. I thought I'd use it only the odd time, but I really like the lens. It makes for some really nice landscapes and great for group shots.

But, due to other circumstances, it looks like I'll have to sell it now.

Promac

I saw a canon 70-300mm in a shop in venice once for fairly cheap and I thought I'd get loads of use out of it for wildlife shots and the like but I honestly haven't used it since the day I got it. The only reason I don't sell it is because it was so cheap. Maybe some day!

I've also bought several camera bags that I thought I'd use a lot but I keep going back to my old eastpak shoulder-bag.

DaireQuinlan

A helios 44-2 screwmount lens that I bought on a whim on EBay as part of a bunch of stuff because it was only €5. I used it so much that I ended up buying an M42 body to mount it on because I couldn't get infinity focus with it when mounted on my nikon bodies.

Similarly to Promac, I got a 75->300 a few years back and used it for I think about 2 or 3 shots in total.

squareballoon

My monopod. I have hardly used it at all although it is handy for holding up the 70-200 if you're shooting all day.

My L macro. I just can't seem to get the hang of it at all.

LOVE my 24" softbox with flash attachments though. It means that my flash is being used more than it ever was and has opened up a whole new way of shooting for me.

NakedDex

A Lowepro back pack and a Tamrac shoulder bag.
I have my main Lowepro Fastpack backpack which I'd been happily using for a good while, but I wanted something with more storage space for other things (jacket etc), so I picked up the Rover AW II. I used it twice and never again. No room for my longer lenses, even off body, and it was bigger than the Fastpack somehow. It's been sitting in my loft since.
I get the impression it's more suited to someone doing a lot of landscape photography. The integrated tripod holder and waterproof cover is great, and the multitude of straps are chunky and well padded.

Ditto the Tamrac. Wanted something small I could just leave a body and short lens or two in, but I found it bulky and cumbersome. Used it once and then left it with the Rover. It's a terrible waste really. They're good bags but they'll see no use with me. Ended up going back to an old Slingshot.


Something I got a surprising amount of use out of was my Manfrotto monopod. I picked up the aluminium/magnesium one for €50 over the carbon fibre because I thought I'd get just the odd use out of it, and the expense wasn't justified. In reality it turned out I'd end up using it regularly and went nowhere without it. It even stood in as a boom-light one day, thanks to some duct tape.

ozymandius

Not a purchase, but a borrow. A Nikkor 105mm/2.5 AI. It's just ... yummy. Don't want to return it. Also, it makes me go full manual on the D90, no AF, no metering - which is a nice change. A bit long for DX, but really sharp and the backgrounds just dissolve.

kfish2oo2

My wireless trigger remote, and a Hahnel tripod.

I bought them thinking I'd get loads of use out of them, particularly at night and for landscapes. I used them for a few weeks while doing a stop motion project for college and haven't touched either since. I've started to realize that my shooting style is mainly what I like to call spontaneous portraiture and macro photography - I like taking pictures of people and flower-type things, and not so much landscapes. I do take the odd landscape, but I've never really invested the time to properly set up the tripod-trigger combo.

I wouldn't consider them wasted purchases though. I certainly will have a need for both eventually - and they were both pretty cheap as these things go. €30 for the tripod and €12 for the remote.

turner and hooch

Bought a benbo trecker tripod with great plans to take close ups of flowers and nature stuff, but have ended up using it as a regular tripod, and even though you can use it for this, it is a pain, would of been much better off with a good quality manfrotto or similar.

Carrigman

I bought a camera beanbag thinking it would be useful when carrying a tripod is not an option. I had visions of myself supporting the camera on it while it was placed on the car roof, a branch of a tree, a wall, etc. I think I used it once.

I have a polarising filter which should be essential for a landscape photographer like me but I rarely use it and when I do it is usually to complement my ND filter when shooting long exposures in sunlight. My problem with the polariser is that when used on a wide-angle lens - which is what I normally have on my camera - it's effect on a blue sky is not consistent across the entire frame: you get, for instance, a nicely saturated blue in the centre of the image but it falls off to the sides. Not nice.

I bought a Manfrotto monopod a few years ago with some misgivings as I am usually a tripod man. The monopod has proved very useful however and I'm very glad I have it.

Likewise with my Hahnel remote trigger. I do a lot of long exposures and a remote shutter release is essential for such work.

.Longshanks.

Blackrapid RS7 strap. Seriously, I don't why ever camera doesn't come with one as standard

http://www.blackrapid.com/product/camera-strap/rs-7/

af_thefragile

I use all my lenses fairly equally, well probably use the 18-55mm more than the others as its the most versatile lens I have.

I bought this Lastolite grey/white twisty reflector thing a long time ago mainly for using to correct exposure. It was only very recently that I realised it's worth in setting up the custom white balance and it gives really good results so I've been using it quite a lot lately and I guess I'll be using it much more now that I'm getting more into shooting video with my DSLR and it becomes that much more crucial to get the white balance right in the camera as its not something you can fix in post with the compressed video files the camera records unlike with shooting RAW images...

I might come to use my fader ND quite a lot too.

Also lately have been using my manfrotto tripod a lot. Especially for those long exposures during sunset time...

pete4130

KKV wrote: »

(Also, €60 for two 77mm pieces of glass... only in the world of photography! And what's worse is that that's not the most expensive. I was looking at CPLs that went into hundreds of euro! What :eek:!?)

It's not JUST pieces of glass. It's quality glass mounted into a threaded ring to fit onto the end of your camera, rather than a Cokin filter that goes into a hold on the end of your lens (which is far cheaper than the threaded variety). The more expensive it is, the thinner the glass can be, the less light it will stop coming through it, the less glare it will have. A cheap CPL might stop 2/3 or 1 stop of light where an expensive one might only cut out 1/3 of a stop.
So if you had a nice expensive 24-70 2.8 with a cheap CPL on it with a thick piece of glass and a thick threaded ring, effectively your lens becomes a 24-70 f/4 lens and will probably have vignetting from the filter at the wider end of the lens...meaning you've spent €1700 odd on a lens that is slower than it should be and isn't as wide as it should be.

It's just finding a balance of what's affordable, what you need and how much you'll use it.

Best purchases ever......Yasshica T4 Super/T5 and Canon QL's.

Decoda

kev_Longshanks100 wrote: »

Blackrapid RS7 strap. Seriously, I don't why ever camera doesn't come with one as standard

http://www.blackrapid.com/product/camera-strap/rs-7/

+1 on the blackrapid. Took a bit of getting used to, to let the camera hang but won't leave the house without it now.

DC