Photography equipment

[Pedro_lopez]

Hello new to the forum And photography.

With no prior experience and only mild research I decided to buy a Nikon d3300 w/ 18-55mm kit lense and Understandig exposure by Bryan Peterson 4th edition.

The kind of photos I'm interested in taking I now find require a tripod, filters and other lenses. And I know by now a good photo depends on the photographer not solely on the equipment. So here's my question:

What are some fairly priced equipment or maybe some ways you guys have saved money buying certain equipment on a beginner level?

In order of what I'm looking for first to last is:

Tripod for landscape and night time photography

Filters for uv, stops, and color filters

And then lenses macro for close up nature and wide angle lenses for landscapes.

What are some examples of what you started off with?

 

[goodguy]

Don't use most of the staff you need but I do own the D3300, fabulous camera for the money, you will be happy with it.
I can tell you for Macro lens if you are strapped for cash the Nikon 40mm 2.8 is a good cheap macro lens, used to own it, good lens
Of course the Nikon 105mm 2.8 is better but then its much more expensive as well.

 

[KmH]

A tripod needs to be steady.
When considering a tripod you can only satisfy 2 of the following 3 criteria:
• Cheap
• Stable
• Light weight
You also need to consider what type of tripod head you want - a 3-way pan head, or a ball head.
For landscape and night long exposure I recommend the 3-way pan head and make sure the tripod has a built-in bubble level and a weight hook.
You want a tripod that has a total weight capacity, including weight hung from the weight hook for added stability (like in wind), of at least a 2x factor.
If your heaviest camera/lens combo is 8 lbs and you would hang 10 lbs on the weight hook you need a tripod that has a total weight capacity of 36 lbs.

I would not recommend considering any tripod & head that is less than $150 or so, because below that cost most tripods are not stable.

Digital cameras have a UV filter right in front of the image sensor, so you don't need a UV filter.
For landscape shots made in the morning/evening when the the sun is less than 30° above the horizon you would want a CPL (Circular PoLarizing) filter. I recommend B+W multi-coated filters.
B+W 77mm Kaesemann Circular Polarizer with Multi-Resistant Coating
For daytime long exposure landscape shots to blur moving water you will want a set of Neutral Density (ND) filters that can me stacked to vary how much light they block.
Good filters are not inexpensive. Cheap filters usually cause soft focus and many other image quality problems.
Tiffen 77mm Digital Neutral Density Filter Kit (ND 0.6, 0.9, 1.2 + Wallet)

Buy filters sized for your largest lens filter threads, then use step rings to use those filters on smaller filter threads on your other lenses.

 

[Derrel]

Good advice above: PASS on inexpensive tripods, especially if you plan to do long exposure work on them, such as at night. A tripod can be used for several reasons, but if you need to keep a camera and lens combo STEADY, over a long exposure time, a cheap tripod can be terrible. Sometimes, a 'pod is just to support the weight, or to ensure correct framing over multiple shots, or to slow you down deliberately and force you to really,really LOOK at your compositions, but when a tripod is used to maintain absolutely rock-steady, slow-timed shots, then cheap 'pods are almost always gonna' be prone to failing you.

 

[Frank F.]

I started in 1983 with one SLR and one lens. A Zenit 11 with 58mm/f=2.0 Zenitar. All manual. Film. Buitin Selen measuring device. I caught fire.

Went to work after school bought an Olympus OM-1n with 1.4/50mm Zuiko.

Much better.

When you have understood exposure you might contemplate understanding the difference between perspective, crop and frame. Very difficult if you start with a Zoom that can change crop at any perspective and seduce you to change crop before you have found the best perspective.

To learn I would therefore recommend to put the Zoom into the cupboard and work with a single prime lens until perspective and lighting are your friends.

My 2 cent

 

[Derrel]

Macro lenses? Hmmmm....depends on the subject matter. Longer lengths, like 150mm macro, 180mm macro, 200mm macro are all handy for insects,bugs, stuff like that. For general use, a 105mm or 100mm like the ATokina AT-X Macro, would be useable and affordable. Tamron's 90mm AF-SP macro lens is pretty good.

Macro lenses shorter than 60mm tend to be better for close-range shooting (7 feet in towards about one foot distance), but in true close-up work, these lenses tend to get their 1:1 or life-sized images VERY close to the front of the lens, like say, one inch in front of the lens's filter threads! Needless to say, 55mm and 45mm and 40mm "macro" lenses are more for close-up work, and are not what many think of when we say "macro lens". Not that these are bad lenses--but the term "macro" means different things to different people. Much so-called macro is really just close-up work, from 7 feet down to say, 1 foot...for that it might be desirable to have a shorter lens, to get more into the overall shot.

Used macro lenses are plentiful, believe me; many are bought, and sold, with very little use on them!

Your D3300 needs AF-S focusing lenses to focus automatically, keep that in mind; some used lenses will have NO AF motor inside them.

 

[Gary A.]

Look for used or refurbished equipment. KEH Camera (keh.com), Craigslist and Ebay are good places. If you can team up with a local camera/photo club to help you with finding/inspecting the equipment would be helpful. Autofocus lenses for tripod landscapes and tripod macro work isn't necessary. Non autofocus lenses are significantly less expensive than autofocusing lenses.

Where are you located?

 

[Pedro_lopez]

So much great advice. Thank you all, Looks like I'm going to have to actually Invest in a really good tripod instead of skimping on that, but good to know lenses can be found at a fair price then. I live in south Florida.

 

[Gary A.]

If you were around here ... I could lend you some stuff.

 

[weepete]

I use a Velbon Sherpa tripod, it's not the most expensive of gear but I've never had a problem with stability with it.

Filters will take a bit of reaserch for what you want but I use mine regularly. I found a couple of brands that are good but significantly cheaper that the alterniatives. For a CPL I use Marumi Super DHGs, rated right up there with the B&Ws but significantly cheaper.

I'd also reccomend going for a 100mm square filter system if you want other types. I went with Kood, they are pretty good quality filters, and again significantly cheaper than the Lee or other competitors but have similar performance. I think they may only be availible in the UK though.

For a filter holder thefilterdude.com does a cheaper alternative but still more than adequate for holding them too.

As for lenses just buy the best you can.

 

[fmw]

My common advice on tripods is to stay away from the cheap carbon fiber models. Choose one with 3 leg sections instead of 4 and one with aluminum legs. The only thing that matters in a tripod is stability.

Most digital photographers get by with just a circular polarizer. It allows you to filter polarized light and can also act as a neutral density filter. Anything else can be done in the post process without any filters at all. The photo editing software is loaded with filters.

The 3300 limits the types of lenses you can use. In the Nikon line they must be G lenses. Third party lens makers provide some good options so you might look at those. I refer to brands like Tokina, Tamron and Sigma.

I buy virtually all my photo equipment through Amazon, B&H and Adorama. You can find virtually anything photographic there. Also you can find great deals on lightly used gear. I've bought many lenses that look and work like new from Ebay and Amazon. Frankly, some of these lenses are in such good shape that it makes little sense to buy new in my view.

 

[Frank F.]

I can very much support Gary's position.

An older but very good manual wide angle lens will be a very good choice for tripod work and non moving subjects.

If you are into tripod work / non moving subjects you work at base ISO which means alspo some older used bodies may suit you very well.

Plus: a very important piece of equipment will be a remote control, either IR or cable.

 

[KmH]

The only thing that matters in a tripod is stability.

That can't be stressed enough.
The fewer the leg sections the more stable a tripod will usually be
Note that with fewer leg sections a tripod won't collapse as much.

 

[Dave442]

A used tripod can be picked up very cheap. I have an old Bogen 3011 tripod with a 3063 fluid head and I just checked Craigs List for Florida and see an even heavier Bogen 3020 tripod going for $20 with head and a 3046 with the 3066 head going for $60 (the second is missing a couple parts). My Bogen is over 30 years old and still works like new. It does not have all the features of my much newer carbon fiber tripod, but it is rock steady and puts the camera at eye level without extending the center column (keep the center column all the way down to give the best stability).

Now, what I first had when starting out was a cheap Vivitar tripod and a set of close-up filters and a cable release. These were all cheap items that were given to me for birthdays, christmas, etc and was a way to try out different photographic techniques without breaking a student bank account. I had many filters, but today with digital I would spend the money on software before filters as good filters are expensive and cheap filters will degrade image quality. I also have always had a flash and recommend you pick up a flash unit that you can use off-camera.

In place of close-up filters you might look at Extension Tubes, however if you only have the 18-55mm lens the Extension Tubes will probably focus closer than you want, the extension tubes work better with longer lenses like in the 100mm to 200mm range. Add a remote shutter release to eliminate vibration from pushing the shutter release button when doing long exposures at night.

The close-up filters run about $20; the Kenko Auto Extension Tubes about $100; a used macro lens that will meter on your camera $200 and up; new macro lens that will meter and autofocus on your D3300 $500 and up.

 

[Frank F.]

I like my Linhof 3333. Very light and very sturdy