Maybe time for my first after purchase

[Gazman]

Hi,

In a month or so, im going on holiday to Greece with my wife and baby girl.

I own a Canon 400d and im extremely new to photography.

I had decided to try and learn a decent level of knowledge before i would start to buy accessories (lenses/filters and so on) because i really dont have the knowledge base yet to justify spending money on them.

However, im under the impresion that buying a Circular polarizing filter would help my sunny greek landscape shots. (i intend to take lots)

Is this the case, and are there any other accesories i should be thinking about?

 

[Big Mike]

I fully agree that getting a CP will be a good idea for sunny landscape shots.

Do you have a lens hood for your lens? If not, I'd suggest getting a lens hood because that will also help when shooting in bright sunny conditions.

A tripod is always a good accessory to have. For travel, you might consider a smaller tripod or even a monopod.

 

[Gazman]

No. no lens hood, simply the 400d body and kit lens (18-55mm)

 

[Dao]

Yes ... at least a small tripod so that you can take photos of your entire family when nobody around to do that for you or you want to have the control of the composition.

Spare batteries and spare memory cards.

 

[Crazydad]

Spare batteries and spare memory cards.

You definitely want these, especially the batteries!

My learning experience came at Disney World. Obviously I'm taking a lot of pictures of the kids and the people around. So we get in line for the kids to see Mickey and Minnie and as I take a couple shots of stuff, the battery runs out.

So now I have to buy the "professional" photos (not very good at all) of my kids with Mickey. Lesson learned. Get extra batteries.

 

[tirediron]

In [my] order of priority:

-LOTS of memory

-At least 2 spare batteries

-Circular polarizer

-Lens hood

-Tripod

-Neutral density filters

-Graduated neutral density filters

This: http://www.rthtg.net/john/crete/Buildings2_5x7 (Large).jpg is an image recently taken in Crete, which shows just how much effect a circular polarizer can have in the right circumstances.

 

[Dao]

Also, you may also look into getting the battery grip. The OEM one from Canon and most of the other clone allow you to use 2 camera batteries or regular alkaline batteries. Just in case the camera really ran out of juice, you can still buy some Alkaline batteries for the time being.

 

[Gazman]

excellent,thanks for advice, i`d not actually even thought about spare batteries as yet.

Oh well, best get the wallet out i suppose.