Equiptment reccomedations for canon 500d?

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0202

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Hi, Myself and partner are new to photograpthy and have just bought a new canon 500d which come with the kit lens.

We are looking for recommendations for the following and a price guide for new or used items?

A lens for portraits?

A lens for macro Photos, bugs and water drops etc?

Also post processing which programme? (I already have photo elements 6 installed on my laptop is this okay?)

A book for learning all about post processing?



I also understand some lenses have to be used in full manual mode should we keep to automatic ones?

Thank you for any advice in advance :)
 
The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 "Nifty Fifty" makes a nice budget portrait lens for a crop frame cam like yours; it gives you equivalent to an 80mm focal length on a full-frame body, which is great for head-and-shoulder portraits, and with it's large aperture you'll get a lovely shallow depth-of-field. Should be able to pick one up for about £80 new, and if you keep your eyes peeled, there's often one knocking about on the classifieds on here.

I'll leave the questions regarding other lens types to the experts on here!

As for software, PS Elements is perfectly decent! Also, if you shoot RAW, Canon Digital Photo Professional (which should have come bundled with your camera) is actually very good, especially considering it's a freebie!

As for your last question, regarding whether lenses should be used in manual or automatic mode, I'm not really sure what you mean; all lenses, to my knowledge, that are compatible with Canon EF-S and EF mounts can be used with either auto or manual settings. Anyway, Ideally you wanna try to avoid using the little green box setting as much as possible if you want to learn how to really use your very nice camera!

Niffy ;)
 
The 50mm f1.8 with extension tubes would be a good start. However the Canon EF-S 60mm f2.8 macro would do both jobs admirably.
 
If you are new to photography then also consider "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson as a good read.

Welcome to TP:)
 
PsiFox said:
If you are new to photography then also consider "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson as a good read.

Welcome to TP:)
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+1 to that!

May I also recommend "The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos" by Michael Freeman.

Both of the books mentioned are less to do with processing than they are to do with capturing the image in the first place. Nonetheless, this is what it's really all about; there are no end of books and magazines explaining how to use Photoshop, etc., but I think the best thing you could do is to spend time learning how to capture light proficiently; if you can can do that, then all the post processing is a doodle!

:lol:
 
Hi, thank you for all your replies I really appricaite it. We ordered the "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson book yesterday and will have a look at the "Photograpers eye" book too.

We have had the camera for about a week now and avoiding the 'little green box setting' and enjoying the av mode at the mo. Can not believe how much there is too learn but its all fun!!

:)
 
I remember figuring out my first DSLR, wonderful times!

Don't worry too much about learning everything at once, reading the books is tremendously helpful but there's nothing like wandering the streets on a sunny day with your camera to hand :)
 
For help with PS Elements 6 I would recommend "The Missing Manual" by Barbara Brundage. I have found it very helpful.
 
0202 said:
Hi, Myself and partner are new to photograpthy and have just bought a new canon 500d which come with the kit lens.

We are looking for recommendations for the following and a price guide for new or used items?

A lens for portraits?
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The lens Canon intended as the partner to your kit zoom is the 55-250 IS. And like the lens you have, it is very good, and exceptional value. Great for portraits, and loads of other stuff too. £200.

A lens for macro Photos, bugs and water drops etc?
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Get a Raynox DCR-250 for £43 from Amazon. It clips to the front of a normal lens. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Raynox-RADC...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1257480263&sr=1-1 It will work on your kit lens and even better on the 55-250. Very easy to use and nothing comes near it for value.

Also post processing which programme? (I already have photo elements 6 installed on my laptop is this okay?)
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You can use Canon's DPP which came free with your camera and is an excellent Raw processor which also does basic stuff, then import the files into PS Elements and tinker to your heart's content. Or if you shoot JPEGs, load them straight into PS. Photoshop is the industry standard software for post processing.

A book for learning all about post processing?
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Dunno ;)

I also understand some lenses have to be used in full manual mode should we keep to automatic ones?
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The only time I would recommend manual focusing is with macro, in which case you just turn off the auto focus. At most other times manual focus is a right pain.

Thank you for any advice in advance :)
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:thumbs:
 
HoppyUK said:
Get a Raynox DCR-250 for £43 from Amazon. It clips to the front of a normal lens. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Raynox-RADC...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1257480263&sr=1-1 It will work on your kit lens and even better on the 55-250. Very easy to use and nothing comes near it for value.
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Apologies for thread hijack, I've just bought a 500d too and I am also trying to get as much help as possible! I've just ordered a 50mm 1.8 which I was intending to use extension tubes with. I've come across the Raynox before when I had an FZ30 and to be honest I was surprised to see it mentioned here in the context of DSLR. How good is the Raynox, would it be a better option than tubes and the fifty?
 
jj_glos said:
Apologies for thread hijack, I've just bought a 500d too and I am also trying to get as much help as possible! I've just ordered a 50mm 1.8 which I was intending to use extension tubes with. I've come across the Raynox before when I had an FZ30 and to be honest I was surprised to see it mentioned here in the context of DSLR. How good is the Raynox, would it be a better option than tubes and the fifty?
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How good is the Raynox DRC-250? Here are 12,000 examples :D http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=raynox+dcr-250&m=text

Your 50mm lens plus tubes will be better, and for sure it's not as good as a £500 macro lens, but nothing comes near it for forty quid and it is so easy to use. You will get a a bit of CA (colour fringing) around the edges but this often doesn't matter with macro subjects.

Basically it is a strong close-up lens - 8 diopters, made up of three elements. Most close up lenses are simple one element lenses so at least they have tried to make it as good as possible. Canon makes something similar, their 500D and 250D doublets, but they are much more expensive and won't get you so close. Hoya makes a range of close-up lenses too.

TBH I think it is a bit too strong for general close-up stuff, unless you want bug portraits. See the Flikr link. I would go for the DCR150 which is 5.8 diopters. Should be a bit better optically, too. Good for flowers and butterflies etc.

Raynox is quite small diameter so vignettes with wide angle lenses (darkened corners). Works best on a medium zoom like 50-200 or so.
 
I don't know why but I didn't even consider Raynox for macro, I came close to buying a 150 for the FZ30 but picked up a Hoya set for a song. I was going to buy the 50mm anyway as a lens to learn from (and I have so too late!). I might have a think about the Raynox over Kenko tubes, something to think about. Cheers.
 
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