What doI need to get started?

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nickyc

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Hi guys,

I want to get into photography. I have around £500-£600 to spend and I am interested in portrait and also want an all rounder lens for going out, taking photos of friends, scenary etc.

I'd like to go with canon and was thinking of picking up a second hand 40D which leaves me with around £100-200. Can you recommend me any lenses to get started? I was told about the 50mm 1.8 and the 18-55mm IS which can be had for £100 for both (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWAX:IT) Does that look safe?

Could I get some advice as to how to best spend the cash?
 
The 50mm 1.8 is the best cheap lend you could ever buy and it's great for portraits if all you are doing is for a hobby. Look at my post of some shots I've taken with this lens and a 450d herehttp://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=181109 you'll get it for about £85 new or £50 ish second hand. If you have enough left then pick up a 430 ex II speedlite for about £180 this will serve you well in portraits, mine were taken with this flash. If you have enough then yeah get a 40d but if not you'll do fine with a 450d and the kit lens for about £450 brand new
 
Hi Nicky

Good decision! but beware, photography is an expensive and addictive hobby :love:

If you're happy to buy a used camera, then the 40d is a superb choice (I have literally just sold my 40d body and made £430 on Ebay). If you went for the 17-85mm IS USM kit lens too you'd probably eat up most of your budget - but remember the 40D was a £1000 camera so you'll be getting a lot more in the way of build quality

If you'd rather stick to brand new then the 1000D, 450D & maybe just a 500D with a kit lens are all in your budget.

Generally you can't buy a rubbish camera these days - but you should buy the best you can afford.

The 50mm f1.8 Prime is a great lens for not much money.

If you are just starting out don't get sucked into buying loads of gear and lenses etc

Start out with the basic kit lens and find your way - experiment, see what type of photography you favour and above all have fun :cool:
 
Just picked up a 40D body with a new shutter for £380. How many shots will that keep me going?
 
Good choice Nicky - you won't be disappointed.

I believe the 40D shutter mechanism is rated for 100k clicks - but that doesn't mean it will explode at click 100,001 !

Just remember - you can always delete any rubbish shots, not like having to pay for processing on a 36 exp roll of film and finding 35 of them don't come out!
 
nickyc said:
Just picked up a 40D body with a new shutter for £380. How many shots will that keep me going?
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So you have £220 left. You can get a second hand 50mm 1.8 for about £60. The 18-55 IS 2nd hand should set you back around £70ish leaving you £90. Either buy a bag and have a meal out or put that away till you have about £130 and get a 2nd hand 420 EX II speedlite.
 
Tripod. Most under rated piece of kit there is. Vital for decent shots at low light levels without grainiing everything out by winding the ISO up.....400 is still charting new territory for me. Far too high to be of any good!
 
A tripod is mainly vital for landscapes etc, if you are doing portraits as you said in your first post then you'll be doing most of this handheld so tripod will not be a priority
 
The 18-55IS paired with the 55-250IS are both amazing lenses for the money, and will provide you with almost 14x zoom capability with IS to boot (which is especially useful for the telephoto one)! The 55-250 is also useful for portraiture due to long focal lengths = shallower DoF. One-stop Digital will sell you both brand new for about £230 all in, so it's possible you can find them both 2nd hand for £200, but I'd say it's definitely worth paying a bit more for them if you have to. :thumbs:
 
Nifkin said:
The 18-55IS paired with the 55-250IS are both amazing lenses for the money, and will provide you with almost 14x zoom capability with IS to boot (which is especially useful for the telephoto one)! The 55-250 is also useful for portraiture due to long focal lengths = shallower DoF. One-stop Digital will sell you both brand new for about £230 all in, so it's possible you can find them both 2nd hand for £200, but I'd say it's definitely worth paying a bit more for them if you have to. :thumbs:
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which 55-250 are you referring to? If it is this one http://www.amazon.com/Canon-55-250mm-4-0-5-6-Telephoto-Digital/dp/B0011NVMO8 then it only has an aperture of 4 which doesn't give a great DOF at portrait focal length i.e. 30-50mm on a crop. You aren't ikely to be doing portrait shots at 200+ when the DOF will increase

the 50mm 1.8 would get a much greater DOF. I'd pair the prime with either zoom above.
 
joescrivens said:
which 55-250 are you referring to? If it is this one http://www.amazon.com/Canon-55-250mm-4-0-5-6-Telephoto-Digital/dp/B0011NVMO8 then it only has an aperture of 4 which doesn't give a great DOF at portrait focal length i.e. 30-50mm on a crop. You aren't ikely to be doing portrait shots at 200+ when the DOF will increase

the 50mm 1.8 would get a much greater DOF. I'd pair the prime with either zoom above.
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It's only Canon that make a 55-250IS, and they only make the one version last time I checked ;)

If you limit yourself to 30-50 for portraiture you're quite right, but there's nothing wrong with using 100-150 on a crop for portraits; I've done so on a few occasions and got great results, and there are always times where the more distance between you and the sitter will result in a more relaxed subject.

For example, using my 50D:

50mm @ F/1.8, 6 feet from the subject = 0.28ft DoF

100mm @ F/5, 10 feet from the subject = 0.57ft DoF

Depending on the location, 0.57ft is still shallow enough to isolate the subject; was in my pics :thumbs:
 
Nifkin said:
It's only Canon that make a 55-250IS, and they only make the one version last time I checked ;)

If you limit yourself to 30-50 for portraiture you're quite right, but there's nothing wrong with using 100-150 on a crop for portraits; I've done so on a few occasions and got great results, and there are always times where the more distance between you and the sitter will result in a more relaxed subject.

For example, using my 50D:

50mm @ F/1.8, 6 feet from the subject = 0.28ft DoF

100mm @ F/5, 10 feet from the subject = 0.57ft DoF

Depending on the location, 0.57ft is still shallow enough to isolate the subject; was in my pics :thumbs:
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I mean sure 100mm will produce a reasonable DOF but it's not exactly a portrait distance, your flash has to travel further unless you have it off the camera, which the OP isn't going to get and you have to go for a faster shutter because of the extra focal range. If portraits are a main interest then wouldn't you agree that a 28mm to 50mm prime is the best choice here, especially since you can get these at much faster apertures?
 
The OP didn't say that portraiture was their main interest, just that it was an interest and that they wanted an all-rounder system.

If they did buy a flashgun like the 430EX II then there's plenty of power there for using flash at 100mm; even if they only use the onboard flash for fill in this still wouldn't be a problem in the example I've stated above; but I wouldn't want to be using the onboard flash for portraits much, anyway.

And if the camera is tripod mounted then shutter speeds aren't such a problem, and, if handheld then there's IS.

Also, I think 28mm is way too wide for portraiture, even on a crop; group shots perhaps, but not really portraits.

Anyway, I certainly wasn't suggesting the perfect portraiture set-up, but, given the OP's budget right now, and the fact that they want an all-rounder, and not least coz this thread is entitled "What do I need to get started?", which suggests that they may well build upon their initial equipment purchases, the set up I recommended is a good place to start; you're going to be able to learn the principles of portraiture better using a telephoto zoom than, conversely, you are going to learn how to use a telephoto zoom with a 50mm prime ;)
 
Nifkin said:
The OP didn't say that portraiture was their main interest, just that it was an interest and that they wanted an all-rounder system.

If they did buy a flashgun like the 430EX II then there's plenty of power there for using flash at 100mm; even if they only use the onboard flash for fill in this still wouldn't be a problem in the example I've stated above; but I wouldn't want to be using the onboard flash for portraits much, anyway.

And if the camera is tripod mounted then shutter speeds aren't such a problem, and, if handheld then there's IS.

Also, I think 28mm is way too wide for portraiture, even on a crop; group shots perhaps, but not really portraits.

Anyway, I certainly wasn't suggesting the perfect portraiture set-up, but, given the OP's budget right now, and the fact that they want an all-rounder, and not least coz this thread is entitled "What do I need to get started?", which suggests that they may well build upon their initial equipment purchases, the set up I recommended is a good place to start; you're going to be able to learn the principles of portraiture better using a telephoto zoom than, conversely, you are going to learn how to use a telephoto zoom with a 50mm prime ;)
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I wasn't suggesting 28mm, I was suggesting 50mm I was just using the range 28 to 50 because that is what people consider portraiture focal ranges.

OP has already expressed interest in the 18-55 for his "all rounder lens" so I'd say two zooms albeit covering different ranges is a bit overkill if the interest expressed was for portraiture. A zoom and a portraiture prime seems to cover the need for the walkabout lens and the portrait pics
 
joescrivens said:
I wasn't suggesting 28mm, I was suggesting 50mm I was just using the range 28 to 50 because that is what people consider portraiture focal ranges.

OP has already expressed interest in the 18-55 for his "all rounder lens" so I'd say two zooms albeit covering different ranges is a bit overkill if the interest expressed was for portraiture. A zoom and a portraiture prime seems to cover the need for the walkabout lens and the portrait pics
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Two different zooms covering two completely different ranges is overkill? OK...

Well I was only making a recommendation; it worked for me. But whatever you think's best Joe. :whistling:
 
A cracking walkabout lens which wont break the bank. Canon 28-135 IS F4.0-F5.6. I think they go for about £200 used in classifieds.

If your not sure about this then heres a few pics to see what you would get using it with a 40D.

170909-Brickets1.jpg


170909-Brickets6.jpg


2009_09_09_0030sharp.jpg
 
So, back on topic and ignoring unproductive posts. OP did you find the equipment you desired yet?
 
Gents I've tidied this thread up a bit - please can we keep the tone civil and not resort to personal abuse...agree to differ by all means but politely!!!
 
lol - I am here, will reply tonight when I get back from work. But yeah, just to confirm, I was interested in portrait and a good all rounder lens (just to start). I am sure in the next few months I'll invest in something expensive ;-)

I was looking at the 18-55MM IS as an all rounder but wanted to get your view on if there is anything better (without going crazy on the cash). Marcus, is the Canon 28-135 IS F4.0-F5.6 worth getting over the 18-55MM IS?

Just picked up a 4GB sandisk Extreme 3.
 
nickyc said:
lol - I am here, will reply tonight when I get back from work. But yeah, just to confirm, I was interested in portrait and a good all rounder lens (just to start). I am sure in the next few months I'll invest in something expensive ;-)

I was looking at the 18-55MM IS as an all rounder but wanted to get your view on if there is anything better (without going crazy on the cash). Marcus, is the Canon 28-135 IS F4.0-F5.6 worth getting over the 18-55MM IS?

Just picked up a 4GB sandisk Extreme 3.
Click to expand...

I think with the 28-135 IS you have a different focal range since it starts at 28 which might not be wide enough if you want to take any landscapes but you'll have a lot more scope at the other end, so the question is do you see yourself needing the zoom or the width?
 
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