basics help for a Newbie..

[Talal]

Hi all,

I am new to the site and to photography, i bought my kit a few days a go mainly because i am going on safari later this year and though that i would give myself a reasonable learning curve for the camera and general photography..

I have not yet had a chance to get outside as I am waiting for delivery of my fast pack 250 before I try taking anything outside (just for safety)

I am starting to understand what ISO Aperture and Shutter speed will end up doing to the picture that I take but I don’t think I will truly understand it until I take some good shots and bad shots.. experience I guess…

Main thing I am looking for help on is what stuff am I likely to need before I go to safari? I have a 18-55mm kit lens and a canon 75-300mm lens, unfortunately I realized that these are not IS lenses and I have found that I am getting a fair bit of camera shake when zoomed in, Is it because I am not using the correct settings for ISO, Aperture or Shutter Speed or simply because the zoom lens will give shake when camera is in hand?

I don’t want to go over board with buying kit just for the sake of it and ideally would buy only the bare essentials, So far I have got a canon 500d the 18-55mm kit 75-300m and I have ordered the bag and two uv filters for the lenses..

Things I think I need :

Extending tubes (I think these will help increase the zoom so I can take photos from further away?

I was thinking of buying a gorilla pod (the thing with bendy legs) would this help attach the camera to the jeeps on safari and also be a cheap tripod alternative back at home??

I have seen somewhere that people use a bean bag on safari which gets rid of camera shake?

Ideally what I am looking to achieve is good photos taken with the zoom extended without blur, also I guess I might need to take photos of animals running so do I need anything specific for panning (or what settings are required??)

Sorry for long post, if anyone has any tips or comments I would be grateful..

Regards

Talal

 

[KmH]

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...allery/267492-info-those-new-photography.html

Teleconverters, not extension tubes, extend the reach of zoom lenses, but with technical penalties - less sharp images and smaller effective lens aperture.

 

[SCraig]

Forget the Gorillapod. If you have an expensive camera with an expensive lens do you really want to trust it to a flexible tripod mounted on a rail on a Jeep? I have one (and it is the "DSLR" model). I will not use it with anything other than a speedlight or a P&S camera.

 

[Talal]

I was thinking of these, dont actually know if it does what i think it does though...

MACRO EXTENSION Full Set TUBES Fits CANON EOS SLR: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

Ideally i want to spend as little as possible for now until i feel i have earned the right to spend more...

Thanks for your responce, appreciate it

 

[Talal]

Thanks for heads up, is there anything on the market i could fit into the fastpack 250?

 

[Talal]

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...allery/267492-info-those-new-photography.html

Teleconverters, not extension tubes, extend the reach of zoom lenses, but with technical penalties - less sharp images and smaller effective lens aperture.

Thanks for link will definately read