Well. I am looking really hard at the 55-300 Thats a pretty big price difference. Maybe Ill earn the high speed ones a little later.. So I want the lens, a filter kit, and a hot shoe 3 axis level. because I have a stigmatism amd a remote. that would be a good start I think.. .. lol
Lol.. sounds like a pretty good start. As for filters, really I wouldn't worry to much about them, you don't really need much. In my bag for the telephoto lens I have a UV filter and a CPL, and that's pretty much it. There are really two schools of thought on the UV filter, some folks really dislike having them on the lens at all and then some folks prefer to leave them on all the time. Me, I'm in the leave it on crowd. The arguments basically break down into two major camps, the folks that say the UV filter "protects" the lens and the folks that say that it really doesn't and it degrades image quality.
Being the resident heretic I actually don't agree with either camp - I've shot both with and without the UV filter and even using photoshop to pixel peep, I couldn't find a difference. You might see a bit of difference in some limited situations such as ghosting or flaring but really unless your shooting into a pretty bright light source, which is something I can't imagine myself doing anytime soon, it's not something that your likely to see so I just haven't in my experience seen where shooting with the UV filter on degrades the image quality to any noticeable degree.
I also am not in the "it protects the lens" camp for the most part, again in very limited situations (blowing sand or debris, for example) it would probably protect the lens, but how often do you find yourself taking pictures in such a situation? For me that would be pretty rare. So why do I leave the UV filter on pretty much all the time? Two reasons. First whatever glass is exposed on the end of the lens is bound to get dirty. It's going to pick up thumbprints and dust and condensation, etc, etc - and it will need to be cleaned. When you clean it you will eventually, no matter how careful you are, impart cleaning marks - very small scratches. These won't affect image quality of course, but I'd much rather put them on a relatively cheap filter as opposed to my expensive lens.
I could of course take the UV off to shoot, put it back on again later, etc, etc - but I'm basically pretty lazy and since I can't really tell the difference in the final product, I just leave it on. If I were shooting with a higher MP camera or full frame? Well maybe that might make a difference if I tried it with our without UV - but since I'm not and there just doesn't seem to be any difference, well I'll leave the darn thing on there for now. As far as filters are concerned I prefer to spend a little more and get the better quality. You don't have to get completely crazy and go top of the line, $100+ filters - I generally look for Hoya, I prefer multicoated and they usually are in the $20-$30 range.
The CPL I don't really use much, it comes in handy in certain situations for cutting down on reflections - which is great for shooting through glass if you have a light source behind you that is reflecting off it. Comes in handy occasionally at the zoo. Other than that most of the other "filters" I might consider I can do all of that with photoshop at home after the fact. I might eventually pick up an NDL if I get more into landscapes but for right now just the two and I'm pretty much set.
The hot shoe level is really handy for shooting on a tripod and their dirt cheap so that would be a good one to pickup, also protects the hot shoe so it's sort of a double whammy really. Other than that it's just a matter of getting out there and shooting, and never be afraid of a bad shot. Those will be a lot more useful to you in the beginning than the good ones. Each time you get a shot that is bad, analyze it and try to figure out what is bad and why - did I miss my focus point? Was my aperture set wrong? Shutter speed to low? EXIF data can be a huge help in this because it records the cameras settings for each shot.
Most important of all of course, is have fun with it. Look forward to seeing some more images in your Flickr account, and if I can be of any help at all don't hesitate to ask.
the lens seems alittle soft at300 and searches some but for the price it is not bad .my eyes are old and i am amazed at detail i see in photos ,like being young again haha
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