new to the forum and have a question?

Hardrock · Apr 8, 2009

Hi guys! Im new to the forum and Ive been into photography for about 3 years. I bought my digital canon rebel xt new in 06 and it has taken some excellent pictures but I think Im ready to upgrade so my question is what do you guys think about these 2 deals. I mostly plan on taking pictures of landscapes but would like to start taking some family portraits. I mostly would just like opinions ,ideas , thoughts on this camera , and these lenses. Or what you guys would suggest otherwise. Thanks!
Canon EOS 50D Digital SLR Camera +Image Stabilizer Kit - eBay (item 350186629456 end time Apr-08-09 16:01:37 PDT)

Canon EOS 50D Digital SLR Camera Body +28-135 IS +8GB - eBay (item 300306331698 end time May-07-09 09:48:20 PDT)

Overread · Apr 8, 2009

much of what you are getting in those deals is a waste of space - very cheap quality stuff that is not worth having;
deal 1) wide angle lens and telephoto lens - both of these you have in the two main lenses supplied with the deal - these two appear to be cheap (probably point and shoot aimed) addons - not worth it; 3 piece filter kit - cheap filters which will most likley cause detrimental image quality issues; delux tripod - its cheap quality, light and limited use, ok to start with but if your as keen as you sound then you want a decent tripod - a manfrotto or gitzo; screen protectors - cheap and if they are no good they will just fog up your LCD and probably attract a lot of scratches on themselves; Flash - its got no name and will probably not meter well with the camera nor have an adjustable head; canon backpack - ok might be decent, but backpacks need to be got in person in a shop after you ahve stuck all your kit in it and tried it on for comfort.

The second deal is very similar in content - though the backpack is lowepro which is a very good make - but again its might not be the right one for you.

All in all there is a lot of rubbishy bits in these kits - I would not encourage you to go for these since your upgrading - no point upgrading your camera body and then putting bad stuff on it as you will get bad results.

My full advice would also be to hold off upgrading your XT and instead look to lenses, tripods, flash and other things first - get a Pro bit of glass (lens) and stick that on your XT and watch the image quality make a big jump up! Flash will give you much easier low light work - a tripod will really let you get into landscaping - a quality wide angle lens will help there too (sigma 10-20mm)

Hardrock · Apr 8, 2009

Overread said:
much of what you are getting in those deals is a waste of space - very cheap quality stuff that is not worth having;
deal 1) wide angle lens and telephoto lens - both of these you have in the two main lenses supplied with the deal - these two appear to be cheap (probably point and shoot aimed) addons - not worth it; 3 piece filter kit - cheap filters which will most likley cause detrimental image quality issues; delux tripod - its cheap quality, light and limited use, ok to start with but if your as keen as you sound then you want a decent tripod - a manfrotto or gitzo; screen protectors - cheap and if they are no good they will just fog up your LCD and probably attract a lot of scratches on themselves; Flash - its got no name and will probably not meter well with the camera nor have an adjustable head; canon backpack - ok might be decent, but backpacks need to be got in person in a shop after you ahve stuck all your kit in it and tried it on for comfort.

The second deal is very similar in content - though the backpack is lowepro which is a very good make - but again its might not be the right one for you.

All in all there is a lot of rubbishy bits in these kits - I would not encourage you to go for these since your upgrading - no point upgrading your camera body and then putting bad stuff on it as you will get bad results.

My full advice would also be to hold off upgrading your XT and instead look to lenses, tripods, flash and other things first - get a Pro bit of glass (lens) and stick that on your XT and watch the image quality make a big jump up! Flash will give you much easier low light work - a tripod will really let you get into landscaping - a quality wide angle lens will help there too (sigma 10-20mm)

Thank you very much for the advice so here are some more questions. I currently own 2 canon lenses 18-55 and 75-300 both are not IS. what portrait lense would you recommend? Also I was mostly wanting to upgrade my camera to the 50d for the 3 inch lcd screen and the 15.1 mp, so besides the rest of the crap in the package is it not a good price for the 50d and lenses? Or should I just buy the body and buy different quality lenses? Just another thought. So do you not recommend getting the 50d due to the fact it is not much of an upgrade to the xt or that the best way to improve the quality is buying a better quality lense? Sorry for all the questions just want to make the best decision for my purchase!

Overread · Apr 8, 2009

I can't comment on price as I am in the UK so I have no idea what the US market is like for pricing.
As for upgrading my advice is that a camera body is a recording device - it records what the lens sees on the settings the photographer sets - if the photographer is no good then the shots will be no good - just as if the glass the lens is made of delivers poor quality light that is all the camera has to work with - leading to lower quality results. If the light comming in is good then even a lower end camera can produce fantastic results.

That is why I advise people to think of the glass first - also a few pro grade lenses will last you many many good years of use whilst camera bodies are upgraded very quickly. I am not saying that the 50D is not worth it since it is a very good camera, but that if you take poor glass and put it on a camera (especaily that camera with its larger MP sensor) then your image quality might even go down from what you have currently - which is clearly not what you want from an upgrade. The 50D is very demanding in the glass used on it so you need some really good glass first

For portrate work I am not the best to ask since its not an area that I deal much (at all) in so I will leave that for others to answer.

Hardrock · Apr 8, 2009

Thanks again Overread!

photogincollege · Apr 8, 2009

If you enjoy landscapes and want to start portraits, and dont want to kill yourself with spending a ton of money, a few really good primes might be up your alley. Get them all used and you have a killer set-up for pretty cheap. I should have asked, do you mind using primes or would you want to stick to zooms?

Canon | 85mm f/1.8 USM Autofocus Lens | 2519A003 | B&H Photo

Canon | 50mm f/1.4 USM Autofocus Lens | 2515A003 | B&H Photo

Canon | Wide Angle EF 24mm f/2.8 Autofocus Lens | 2506A002 | B&H

Hardrock · Apr 9, 2009

photogincollege said:
If you enjoy landscapes and want to start portraits, and dont want to kill yourself with spending a ton of money, a few really good primes might be up your alley. Get them all used and you have a killer set-up for pretty cheap. I should have asked, do you mind using primes or would you want to stick to zooms?

Canon | 85mm f/1.8 USM Autofocus Lens | 2519A003 | B&H Photo

Canon | 50mm f/1.4 USM Autofocus Lens | 2515A003 | B&H Photo

Canon | Wide Angle EF 24mm f/2.8 Autofocus Lens | 2506A002 | B&H

Ive never used primes before only zooms. If I buy one of these lenses and decide later to upgrade to th 50d will they work? Are primes mostly used for portraits? Thanks!

photogincollege · Apr 9, 2009

Those primes will work with any canon dslr I believe, none of them are DX lenses. They are used a lot for portraits because they usually provide better image quality (then zooms) for a better price, while still being excellent for other low light applications. Though now adays the top of the line zooms with get pretty close or match primes, though they still cant get quite there IMO. Plus the zooms that are close or matching are 1000-2000 each lol.