$1500ish To Spend: My Set-Up Plans...

StillStories

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Hi, everyone. I'm new to the forum, and while I've dabbled in some photography in the past (mainly in conjunction with my web design projects), I'm looking to get more serious about it in the very near future.

I'm planning to shoot in a lifestyle or editorial style, since that's what I like to see in a photographer. I'd imagine it will be mainly kids, pets, families, etc., with some engagement (or similar) photos mixed in.

Anyway, I sold my Rebel this week, and I'm going to be gearing up. Here's what I'm planning.

Canon 50D with EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens Kit - $1300
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Autofocus Lens - $100
Canon EF 28mm f2.8 Wide Angle Lens - $200

I'm hoping that the things above will leave me in good shape when it comes to camera/lenses to start. From that point, I can start working on building up some lighting equipment, flashes, etc.

Thoughts? Am I on the right track, gear-wise?

Thanks,
Mike
 
I think you should have just kept the rebel and used the $1500 for glass...

That 50D w/ kit lens is eating up a huge chunk of your budget that otherwise could have been used for some nice lenses, and maybe a flash.
 
I think you should have just kept the rebel and used the $1500 for glass...

That 50D w/ kit lens is eating up a huge chunk of your budget that otherwise could have been used for some nice lenses, and maybe a flash.

Thanks for your response! I got rid of the Rebel because I'm willing to continue to add to my gear collection. I was looking for a more solid/advanced starting point, which is why I'm upgrading to the 50D. I'm hoping that the gear outlined above is a good starting point for my purposes.
 
The 50 & 28mm should be fine - but if you can, I would try to get a 70-200 instead of that 28-135. That might be above your budget, but you will be much happier with the 70-200 than the 28-135...
 
The 50 & 28mm should be fine - but if you can, I would try to get a 70-200 instead of that 28-135. That might be above your budget, but you will be much happier with the 70-200 than the 28-135...

Josh,

Is this based on the other lens choices? As in, since I will have the 50mm and the 28mm, I don't need the lower range of the 28-135mm? If I were to buy just one lens, would the 70-200mm still be the one to buy?
 
I also wanted to add: I expect the majority of my shooting to be hand held, as I will be chasing little kids around. ;)

Are these lens choices suitable for that?
 
The 50 & 28mm should be fine - but if you can, I would try to get a 70-200 instead of that 28-135. That might be above your budget, but you will be much happier with the 70-200 than the 28-135...

Josh,

Is this based on the other lens choices? As in, since I will have the 50mm and the 28mm, I don't need the lower range of the 28-135mm? If I were to buy just one lens, would the 70-200mm still be the one to buy?

Yes and no.

The two primes (50 & 28) already cover half of the range of the 28-135.
Also, the 70-200's are just awesome lenses... Must have lens, IMO.

There are 4 of them - f/4 and f/2.8, with and without IS.
The cheapest one is the 70-200 f/4 L (no IS), $600. The most expensive one is the 70-200 f/2.8 L IS, $1700.

They are all great choices, and any one of them will absolutely blow the 28-135 away.
 
I also wanted to add: I expect the majority of my shooting to be hand held, as I will be chasing little kids around. ;)

Are these lens choices suitable for that?

Yes, the two primes you're looking at should be fine for that.
(Though I would consider the 1.4 50mm instead of the 1.8 - much better build quality, plus USM. Optically, they are very close.)

That 28-135 zoom is kinda slow (f/3.5-5.6). You may have trouble indoors.
The 50D should have pretty good high ISO performance though, so that may be a moot point.
 
I also wanted to add: I expect the majority of my shooting to be hand held, as I will be chasing little kids around. ;)

Are these lens choices suitable for that?
The prime lenses should be fine but the EF 28-135mm isn't exactly fast since it's a variable aperture lens. When zoomed out the biggest aperture you'll have to work with is f/5.6 so the shutter speeds will be slow and you may get camera shake or motion blur in your shots.

My suggestion is to the 50D body (without the kit lens) along with the 50mm f/1.8 and 28mm f/2.8 and keep the difference for now. Save up until you can get a constant aperture zoom or a longer prime lens that would fit into your style of shooting.

Variable aperture lenses are fine if you have really good light, but in low light situations they're not so good.

The EF 50mm f/1.8 and EF 28mm f/2.8 are consumer grade lenses and okay for the occasional shooter but if you become serious about your photography you'll probably replace them with the prosumer or professional grade lenses in the future.
 
for chasing kids n stuff the 28mm would be best i would think as 1/30 would be sharp hand held whereas with the 50mm you need aleast 1/50 and the 70-200mm you need at least 1/200 (just as a rule of thumb your minimum shutter speed for hand held shots should be the max length of your lens.)
 
Using a 1.6x Canon crop body, the 28-135 is a lousy choice for people photography; the lens is slow in aperture, and the angle of view at 28mm will be far too narrow for anything even remotely resembling a wide angle of view. The Canon 50mm 1.8 EF-II is a lens I had,and one which I gave away--it produces horrible bokeh, and has a clunky, 5-sided lens diaphragm that yields big,ugly pentagonal out of focus highlights, plus its a crappy lens when shot against the light.

I would seriously consider suggesting you buy a full-frame Canon body, like a used 5D, and a 24-105 f/4 L zoom if you want a single,reasonably-priced combo to use for a wide variety of stuff. if you cannot afford the zoom, just look for a clean, used Canon 5D body, which will allow you to use a zillion good, used Canon lenses, and to use them the way they were intended. A 5D plus a 35 f/2, a 50/1.4 and an 85mm 1.8 would give you three capable lenses, with a semi-wide,normal,and short tele lenses looks, PLUS the ability to shoot low-light work WITHOUT flash; the 28-135 is an amateur zoom lens, and is far too slow for low-light work without flash.
 
I would agree the 50 f/1.8 is a pretty bad lens from the standpoint of usability. It's slow focusing and often misses focus (not good for chasing kids around) and it's cheaply built. Manual focus is next to impossible due to the tiny little focus ring that's paper thin. I would save another $200 and get the f/1.4. It's a far better lens.
 
The 28-135 isn't a bad lens. It's not great, but mine produced nice sharp images. It has a few quirks but for "chasing kids around" it would be a fine lens. I would eventually upgrade it to either the 24-70 or 24-105. But I wouldn't say it's a bad lens. I actually liked mine while I had it.
 
Thanks everyone for your input. I talked to the wife, and my budget for all of my gear (sans actual lighting) has been upped a bit. Here's what I'm looking at buying, all of which puts me at right around $2500. I got a chance to shoot the 50D today with the kit 28-135, and it seemed like it would be suitable in the meantime.

Anyway, here's the list. Some additional thoughts would be appreciated.

Camera/Lenses:
Canon EOS 50D SLR Digital Camera Kit with Canon 28-135mm Lens - $1300
Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM - $375

Flash/Lighting Stuff:
Canon 430EX II Speedlite TTL Shoe-Mount Flash - $270
Gary Fong C3 Lightsphere II Inverted Dome Cloud Flash Diffusion System - $40
Lastolite 48" Tri-Grip 1-Stop Diffuser - $94
Lastolite 48" Collapsable Reflector - Circular - Sunlite/Silver - $64

Tripod:
Bogen/Manfrotto 190XDB Tripod Legs - $100
Bogen/Manfrotto 486RC2 Compact Ballhead with Rapid Connect System 2 - $75

Memory/Storage:
4 x SanDisk 2GB Ultra II CompactFlash Card - $14 each
ProMaster Universal Memory Card Reader - $30
CF Card Holder - $12

Accessories:
Canon BG-E2n Battery Grip - $190
Extra Canon BP-511A Battery - $55
Canon BP-200EG Backpack - $45

And...I'm spent. Thoughts would be appreciated. Does this stuff leave me pretty much all set for outdoor (daylight, vast majority of the time) shooting?
 
Personally I wouldn't get the Gary Fong C3 Lightsphere II Inverted Dome Cloud Flash Diffusion System. I'd put the $40 towards something else.
 

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