Beginners Basic necessary equip

[theres126]

My daughter is a student at UNCW and has fallen in love with photography and Wilmington. Her favorite things to photograph are the pier at Wrightsville Beach at sunrise, and she goes to the very southern point of Wrightsville Beach to capture sunsets (over the inland waterway, I assume). She's also gotten some amazing shots at the marina area at sunset, at the bridge crossing into Wrightsville Beach. Another favorite spot of hers is Fort Fisher - a little bit south of Wilmington.

I haven't gotten her a ND filter yet - guess that will be next.

 

[480sparky43 42]

..........can anyone suggest a lense for shooting surfers from the beach?

Thanks,
Tim

Start with a 300mm.

 

[1broknrado]

My daughter is a student at UNCW and has fallen in love with photography and Wilmington. Her favorite things to photograph are the pier at Wrightsville Beach at sunrise, and she goes to the very southern point of Wrightsville Beach to capture sunsets (over the inland waterway, I assume). She's also gotten some amazing shots at the marina area at sunset, at the bridge crossing into Wrightsville Beach. Another favorite spot of hers is Fort Fisher - a little bit south of Wilmington.

I haven't gotten her a ND filter yet - guess that will be next.

I recently graduated and work at an Accounting firm in town. Couldnt go back to that cold weather in CT

Can you post some pics she has taken?


Also i should get a 70-300mm lens correct?

Thanks,
Tim

 

[1broknrado]

IMG_5779 by 1broknrado, on Flickr

 

[1broknrado]

IMG_5863 by 1broknrado, on Flickr

 

[cgipson1]

My daughter is a student at UNCW and has fallen in love with photography and Wilmington. Her favorite things to photograph are the pier at Wrightsville Beach at sunrise, and she goes to the very southern point of Wrightsville Beach to capture sunsets (over the inland waterway, I assume). She's also gotten some amazing shots at the marina area at sunset, at the bridge crossing into Wrightsville Beach. Another favorite spot of hers is Fort Fisher - a little bit south of Wilmington.

I haven't gotten her a ND filter yet - guess that will be next.

I recently graduated and work at an Accounting firm in town. Couldnt go back to that cold weather in CT

Can you post some pics she has taken?


Also i should get a 70-300mm lens correct?

Thanks,
Tim

Oops.. just remembered you bought a Canon, not a Nikon! lol! Not enough coffee yet when posting.. that is my excuse!

Some of our excellent Canon using members (like Tim below this post) will be able to make some good suggestions!

Surfers are usually a good ways out.. the longer the lens, the better!

 

[TCampbell]

Not to stray from thread topic however,

I am going to look around locally for a 50mm 1.8 lens, tripod, CPL, and can anyone suggest a lense for shooting surfers from the beach?

Thanks,
Tim

That's a tough one... surfers from the beach is a bit like shooting sports from across the athletic field... if you don't have a 400mm lens, then the subjects are going to be fairly tiny. Tiny subjects don't make for dramatic images, but 400mm are _not_ cheap.

A Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM would be great... but that's over $1600 (currently on Canon's sale it's a little over $1400, but it may as well cost a million if your in college with limited funds.)

 

[1broknrado]

There was a muscle car show downtown Sunday, so I brought the camera along. These are my favorites that came out.


IMG_5976 by 1broknrado, on Flickr

IMG_5979 by 1broknrado, on Flickr





IMG_5961 by 1broknrado, on Flickr



IMG_5947 by 1broknrado, on Flickr



IMG_5930 by 1broknrado, on Flickr



IMG_5919 by 1broknrado, on Flickr



IMG_5908 by 1broknrado, on Flickr



IMG_5905 by 1broknrado, on Flickr



IMG_5891 by 1broknrado, on Flickr



IMG_5888 by 1broknrado, on Flickr



IMG_5884 by 1broknrado, on Flickr



IMG_5879 by 1broknrado, on Flickr



IMG_5873 by 1broknrado, on Flickr[/QUOTE]

 

[TCampbell]

Also i should get a 70-300mm lens correct?

Thanks,
Tim

There are a few choices here... the EF 75-300mm gets marginal reviews. It's the least expensive, but read reviews before considering this lens because it's image quality and performance is less than pretty much all the other lenses in this zoom range. Images are soft... it doesn't resolve fine detail well anywhere in the frame and even shooting at the middle f-stops (where most lenses tend to do well) doesn't help much.

The Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM is better than the 75-300, but also more expensive. It's has decent center sharpness at wide-open and fairly decent all over at f/8. Read the review at The Digital Picture: Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens Review

The EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM is the best (and currently has a $200 rebate) but that still puts it at over $1300 (at which point you may as well buy the EF 100-400mm -- which is only about $100 more.) Most L series lenses tend to be north of $1000 and go well up from there (just a few are less than $1000.) They are extremely good lenses -- just not cheap.

Image quality is something that becomes more apparent when you view images in a large size. If you're looking to take photo that probably wont need to be displayed in a large size, then you can save quite a bit by going for the lower quality lens (you can hide a lot of lens problems if you limit the size of the image.) If a lens is used for sports or action photography this can be a special case... the lens has to be able to keep up with the action with respect to it's focus speed. If focus distance is rapidly changing and the lens has a slow focus motor then you'll never get a sharp shot because the focus will always lag behind. This assumes the focus distance is changing... action moving sideways maintains the same focus distance (something to think about when you're shooting.)