Equipment for canon 400d

jono_jj · Oct 26, 2009

I currently own a canon 400d with the efs 18-55mm and the ef 75-300mm which come as the kit lenses in australia dont know about anywhere else. I am currently looking at getting another lense because im sick of switching them over, also am looking for a flash and battery grip. There are many third party battery grips are these any good if i use canon batteries in them? The flash i am looking at is a Nissin Di622, is this any good? The lense i am looking at is a Tamron AF18-200mm F/3.5-6.3 Di-II LD Aspherical (IF) Macro, will this fit my camera if i get a canon mount?i am unsure because the lense size on my lenses at the moment are 58mm and the tamron is 62mm(not sure what this means). sorry for all the questions. I am wanting to take this camera on holiday with me at the end of this year to take photographs of singapore and inside the zoo. anymore suggestions would be great about any other lenses or accesories i would or could need.
thanks
jono

Overread · Oct 26, 2009

The sizes of lens that you are quoting = the 58mm and 62mm are the lenses filter thread sizes - that is the size of the screwthread on the front of the lens where you can mount a filter (such as a circular polarizer). So it has no bearing on how your lens attaches to your camera. That is controled by the lens mount and for modern lenses a Nikon mount lens made by Tamron will fit your Nikon DSLR - the only times you have to check this are when dealing with oldergeneration gear (though for nikon they have kept the same mount design for a long time so you have even less to worry about).

Moving onto lenses I think its important to note that the lens your looking at - the 18-200mm is a popular focal range for what your after - a single lens which does a very wide range of focal lengths and subjects. Its popular even with photography addicts, especaily on things like family holidays since it lets you have the camera, but not have to be lugging around loads of gear and always changing lenses -- fine if its a photography holiday, but grating if your with others and always lagging behind and such.

However you have to bare in mind that the overall optical quality for this range of lens is not that great - it gets the wide focal range (and cheap price) by being made of lower quality glass. Its something that I would try in a shop before purchasing to make sure that this is not going to be a bother to you. But at the end of the day you are also going on holiday and looking for a single coverall lens.

jono_jj · Oct 26, 2009

thanks for your help any other lenses you would recommend? or different types of lenses? what about the flash and battery grip?

Big Mike · Oct 26, 2009

Welcome to the forum.

One thing to clarify, is that when you choose a 'super zoom' lens, like an 18-200mm' you are sacrificing image quality for convenience. The image quality will suffer, especially at the extremes...the widest zoom and the longest zoom and at the widest aperture etc.
If you are OK with the quality of your current 'kit' lenses, then you would probably be OK with a super zoom, although I think your lenses would be a bit better. However, if you want to step up in quality, you would probably have to forgo the convenience and carry a few different lenses.

As for the grip. I have heard that there are some decent off-brand grips. But as with anything, you tent to get what you pay for. They should work just fine with you batteries though.

I don't know about that flash. The specs look OK and it says that it will work with your camera for E-TTL (auto flash metering). But unless it's a whole lot less expensive than the Canon 430EX....I'd suggest just getting the 430EX.

jono_jj · Oct 26, 2009

price for the nissin is $140 aus compared to canon 430ex $450 aus so quite a bit different. would i be better off using canon batteries in an third party battery grip or the batteries by the same make?

Big Mike · Oct 26, 2009

I looked up that flash and it was $239 CDN, compared to $329 CDN (on sale) for the 430EX.
For the price difference you have there...I might give the Nissin a try...but again, you get what you pay for.

As far as batteries in the grip...I really don't think it matters which brand they are. It's a pretty simple connection.

Actually, I don't often use my Canon brand batteries. Instead, I use off-brand batteries that were much cheaper than replacement Canon batteries. They have a higher rating (last longer) than the Canon batteries as well.
Some have found that they have a shorter lifespan than the Canon batteries, but I haven't had one wear out on my yet. I get them from Digital Camera Batteries Chargers Memory Cards Readers