Help me prioritize accessories.

[DennyCrane]

The bag starts and ends with securely holding the camera and at least 1 lens. That's the investment to begin protecting right away. You're driving along someplace, where's the camera? Hit the brakes hard once and something will get damaged. Just my opinion.

 

[Felix0890]

Now that I think about it, I have a camera bag that came with an old video camera. Sure, it's not going to fit all the gear once I get more lenses and stuff but for now, it will fit the camera, lens, and any other small things the camera comes with. It's padded and everything so it will be a nice step-in for now. Guess that moves getting a good bag down to the bottom.

About the card, I'm gonna have to go with TJ. I didn't know how many shots I could take on one 4gb card. ~200 RAW's are more than plenty for me. I also have a couple more 1g cards lying around so in total I'd have 6-7gigs.

 

[ErectedGryphon]

Extra Batteries and Memory Cards, shoot lots, shoot what interests you, then you will know what else you need!

If you buy all the bells and whistles, then you have a closet full of bells and whistles!

I have to disagree with you on all the memory cards. He's not shooting weddings or anything where he is constantly on the shutter and runs out of space fast. Chances are he will be doing some shooting around town and coming back home and uploading the pictures and still having plenty of room on the card. Batteries unless he will be shooting tons at night or out all day long an extra battery is not as high of a priority as lets say a flash or good tripod.

And Denny I don't know if he will need a bag right away. I wouldn't consider that an essential because you could always put your gear in any type of bag and keep it well protected but a flash you don't just have one lying around and same goes for a tripod. GL and can't wait to see those cityscapes!
Tj

I used to think "I'll never fill up this 2 Gig card, or run out of battery", then I got handed VIP passes to a NASCAR Race, 260 pics at a 400 lap race goes by pretty quick! You have to shoot fast and many to catch the cars in frame, and while your busy deleting the bad shots (cause your card is full), odds are thats when something happens! Then come to find out all that shooting, and then deleting and shooting some more, runs batteries down quick. So then it's turn camera off, turn on when you think your shots coming.

Lesson learned, I have two 8 Gig cards, a 2 Gig(My original), and a 1 Gig for firmware updating. I have since added a battery grip, and a change of batteries (4 batteries total).

I ended up craigs listing all my unused bells and whistles.

 

[mtfd635]

Spare battery a definite.
A total of 4gb memory should be sufficient.
Nifty fifty, 50mm f1.8 is a great lens and should be added at some point, earlier the better.
Tripod, but worth waiting to buy a good one. Cheap will lead to a replacement, may as well save $$ and get a good one! 300$ worth of manfrotto with ballhead I'd best investment, though you can get sturdy quality for much less money.
Think it through, shoot and figure what u need as you're shooting, what you feel u should have and adjust your list accordingly

 

[fiveoboy01]

Filters are really cheap

Good ones aren't.

IMO as a beginner you have plenty of memory unless you're taking a trip somewhere or are in a situation where you can't dump your memory card onto your hard drive. I have no idea why anyone's mentioning RAW here, shoot jpeg until you get the basics down. Even JPEG fine should get you a crapload of images on what you have.

Good to see you have a bag as that would have been my first recommendation. If you're wanting to do cityscapes, then by all means get a tripod and spend as much as you can on a nice one with a nice head. If you can't afford it then wait, or you'll buy twice. It will be a must for evening or nighttime shooting where you have low light.

Spare battery is a good idea, depending on how many shots you can get on a full charge. Excessive chimping will run your battery down in short order.

 

[syphlix]

man... you haven't even stated what part of photography interests you... and i suspect you don't even know... cuz when i got my camera i didn't even know either...

i'm changing my recommendation to agree w/ the guy who said get a camera bag... the best thing you can do is carry your kit everywhere with you and shoot as much as you can... and the proper way to carry and protect your stuff is in a bag...

the rest of the stuff... you'll figure it out as you go along.... no point in say... getting a polarizer if you decide u like indoor shots... no need for an off camera flash if you like street shots... etc...

 

[Felix0890]

Yep you're correct. I don't know what type I'm going to favor most at this point. I love macro shots. I love outdoor (both day and night) shots. The only indoor shooting I'll be doing will be of my cats (love taking pictures of animals). I don't think I'll need a flash but I'll get one because a) they're not too expensive and b) I rather have one and never use it then not have one and miss a great photo op.

That reminds me, what are your feelings on the GorillaPod?

 

[Markw]

I'll get one because a) they're not too expensive

Well, Nikons SB-800 is $900...

Mark

 

[Felix0890]

I'll get one because a) they're not too expensive

Well, Nikons SB-800 is $900...

Mark

I'm neither rich nor a professional. Why would I buy that one?

 

[syphlix]

That reminds me, what are your feelings on the GorillaPod?

i have one and like it... it is in no way a replacement for a real tripod... but it's small enough to keep in your soon-to-be-acquired camera bag at all times... comes in handy... and you can do random crap like this...


video

think there are cheaper versions out there too but i haven't messed around w/ the other ones...

 

[Felix0890]

That reminds me, what are your feelings on the GorillaPod?

i have one and like it... it is in no way a replacement for a real tripod... but it's small enough to keep in your soon-to-be-acquired camera bag at all times... comes in handy... and you can do random crap like this...


video

think there are cheaper versions out there too but i haven't messed around w/ the other ones...

No I was not planning on using that as a replacement. I just saw it a long time ago and just got reminded of it when I posted this thread. While on the topic of tripods, are there ones that are compact enough to be carried everywhere in a bag? If not, I see myself just buying one of those beanbag pods and using random objects for support.

I just can't see myself carrying a big tripod around at night. :meh:

 

[syphlix]

I just can't see myself carrying a big tripod around at night. :no smile:

if someone tries to jack your gear you can bludgeon them with it

 

[fiveoboy01]

I'll get one because a) they're not too expensive

Well, Nikons SB-800 is $900...

Mark

Only if you're buying it from a certain dealer who's simply trying to rip people off because the flash is discontinued...

 

[fiveoboy01]

I just can't see myself carrying a big tripod around at night. :no smile:

You need a good tripod if you want to be remotely serious about taking good pictures, period.

If you don't like carrying it, get a shoulder strap for it.

On that topic, a couple weeks ago I wanted to get a few night pictures of the Veteran's Memorial here in town. The park was closed so I parked my truck in a business driveway just before the park. I'm walking down the sidewalk at 1am(I work second shift) with a tripod and big ass camera and a cop drives by, of course he stops and we chat. He came to realize I wasn't up to no good, but admitted that for a moment he thought I had just stole someone's camera

 

[Antithesis]

For the most part, one battery is all I've found I really ever need. And I have gone out for some pretty long outings with just one. I've actually assisted entire weddings with just one if I'm conservative.

If you find that you start to enjoy landscape or cityscape type photography, a tripod is a good investment. Your first one doesn't need to be super expensive, just a cheap sunpak or something. You can hang your bag on the bottom to weight it down and make it more stable too.

Mainly, don't worry too much about accessories, especially if you can improvise something. Just get out and shoot as much as you can. Things that you need will become apparent pretty quick when you find your strengths.