What's new

what will these do for me?

pic_chick

TPF Noob!
Joined
Jul 27, 2012
Messages
357
Reaction score
47
Location
new orleans
Can others edit my Photos
Photos OK to edit
I have an 1100D with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lens (I hope that is the correct way to id them i am way new at this)

Today I went to the store to pick up a tripod and the sales person tried to get me to buy these "on sale" items and what are they and what would they do for me? The sales person did not know.

- 58mm Wide Angle & Professional 2.0x Telephoto Lens
- 2.0X telephoto lens brings you twice as close to the action. Perfect for long-distance photo situations.
- 2-in-1 This wide angle lens features a detachable macro lens for close-up, high detail photography.
- 58mm 3 Piece Filter Kit: Ultraviolet (UV), Polarizer (CPL), Flourescent (FLD)
- 58mm Close-Up Filter Kit (+1,+2,+4,+10)

- 58mm Graduated Blue And Orange Color Filters

- Universal 58mm Camera Lens Hood

I am way new and on a budget I looked up the cost of the lens and the bundle looks like a good deal if I can make use of it. I take a lot of photos of my city in low light but i am looking to expand in to moving sports shots.
 
Lets see some pics from New Orleans! I have always ALWAYS wanted to get down there to take pictures...it always seemed like that area that would be conducive to my style...smooth, chill, subtle black and white sort-of-thing. I'm travelling across the US soon and thought of hitting that place up...and it's only like 1200 miles out of my way!
 
we should get to know each other i happen to have a couch for crashing 1200 mile out of your way and I will plan tour guide if you play teacher. I will post some tomorrow it is to late to do it to night.
 
I'd think about your long term goals in photography. If you get some less-expensive gear you may end up wanting to trade up for some pro-class glass. I wasted some money going through intermediate gear only to sell it and get the good stuff.
 
Nice...good idea...I'm always down to get to know another "wickedly crafty, bar hopping" soul. I have seriously considered going that rout but you are so ****ing far south! It would seriously be a dream to get there, though. Hmmm...we shall see I guess.
 
let me know when you think you would be hitting the city and i will see whats going on around then we may give always have something cool going on and that may you the drive to drive down hehe. Plus I live with in walking dis. from the F.Q. and my n.hood has 5 super cool hole in the wall bars with in 3 blocks from my door. Bring a bike if you do come down as parking sucks. Biking is by far the way to go.
 
I'd think about your long term goals in photography. If you get some less-expensive gear you may end up wanting to trade up for some pro-class glass. I wasted some money going through intermediate gear only to sell it and get the good stuff.

that is a very good point I hate wasting $$ on things I am going to out grow
 
Alright "pic-chick"...cool handle name by the way. Are you typing on you phone? There were some words I didn't quite get. So...I am leaving CA on or about the 15th of August....destination is NH. So, if I headed that way it would be probably about...maybe....the 25th or so. What no mardi-friggin-gras then? I want to hear serious **** zydeco cajun style music and drink in a bar and eat gumbo man!!!
 
Other than lighten your wallet by at least $100, there’s little to gain from this package deal. Although, the 58mm universal lens hood MAY be of some benefit. It may also cause problems.

The 58mm wide angle and 2x telephoto lenses are really cheap products. I learned the hard way. I bought a ‘set’ like these two on ebay about a year ago and on my first experiment with the telephoto, my autofocus 18-135mm lens could not focus (continuous hunting) so I went to manual focus. The results were worthless. Unscrewing the tele, the two parts of the tele itself unscrewed and the two elements and a couple of spacer rings went crashing to the floor. Both the tele and the unused macro immediately ended up in the trash. The 300 end of your 75-300 lens should be MORE than enough telephoto for you. And nothing says you can't zoom in on an ant from 5 feet away and get its picture.

As for the 3 piece filter set…the UV is worthless. Some may say it makes a good lens ‘protector’. But unless you deal with ocean spray or other watery, muddy, or other sloppy situations (doggie kisses?), it’s a decoration, and will likely degrade the image quality. The polarizer MAY be worthwhile. But as part of a low-price ‘set’ of filters, I’d be very leery. The polarizer will cut out reflected glare off surfaces like water, windows, etc. It can also be used to make the sky slightly bluer, if rotated just right. As a low-price filter as well, I’d be concerned with image degradation. And the FL filter, you have to be kidding me! Unless you are shooting film, and depending on which KIND of film, the FL filter is used to properly ‘color balance’ the florescent lighting and film. There’s all kinds of fluorescent lights ‘colors’ these days. Your camera has a ‘white balance’ (WB) setting, that can be set to ‘FL’ (fluorescent) or any other general setting such as daylight, shade, or even ‘automatic’. In many situations, using automatic will suffice. But it will bite you, especially indoors with incandescent lighting. Setting a Custom White Balance (CWB) requires a grey-card and setting it in the camera. If lighting changes, another shot of the grey card and re-setting it in the camera is required. It took several years for me to figure out I had to learn about the whole white balance thing. I still have a long ways to go before I could consider myself anywhere near ‘proficient’ at it.

The blue and orange filters? ??? Unless you want to experiment with unusual photograph coloring, they are probably worthless. If you have just about any photo editing software, you can change the colors to chartreuse or magenta or anything else with just a mouse click and drag or two.

One general note about filters. Myself and many others have found that in most cases, the lower priced, lesser-quality filters generally degrade the picture a noticeable amount. ANY glass placed in front of your lens will degrade the image. The quality of the glass and the quality and number of anti-reflection/diffraction coatings applied directly affect the results. One generally gets what one pays for. One lens rental dealer stacked a bunch of UV filters together and took a picture. The results were barely identifiable! Also, as expected, 10 ‘quality’ UV filters stacked together had significantly less degradation than 10 ‘cheapo’ UV filters stacked together.

Lastly, we come to the lens hood. I have strong reservations whether a ‘generic’ 58mm lens hood could work properly on both a wide-to-normal lens and a short-to-long telephoto lens. Frequently, hoods for wide to normal lenses are flower-petal shaped. This is due the rectangular shape of the image sensor and the wide ‘angle of view’ of the lens. The wider the angle of view, the shorter the lens hood, or else you’d see the lens hood in the corners of the image…or perhaps just a darkening of the picture corners, if it’s close. Telephoto lenses typically have longer hoods, as their angle of view is much narrower. Putting a short hood in front of a telephoto lens may not prevent much ‘light from odd side angles’ from entering the lens. Conversely, a longer hood on a wide angle lens would seriously limit the view to be very narrow. In short, a separate hood, designed for each particular lens, should be used. Check out your favorite web sites like bhphotovideo.com (my personal favorite) or amazon.com, and search on the manufacturer of your lens and range like: Canon 18-55 or whatever. When looking at that particular lens, on the right side of the screen are optional equipment to go with that lens. You’ll find the correct hood listed there. Where you buy one is up to you.

Unfortunately, it is common for photographic dealers to sell ‘packages’ of filters, hoods, cleaning equipment, or even camera bags. Most of these items are at the lower end of quality and the higher end of markup (profit) for the dealer. Rather than some package deal, first determine what you need, then do your homework (web sites like this one or others), then buy decent equipment from a reputable dealer.
 
thank you bratkinson I understand and I am glad I came on here and asked. Thank you for taking the time to tell why they are a bad idea.
 
hey not to hijack to much but i love new orleans though i have not had a chance to shoot much there. mainly down in jean Lafayette park. i want to come shoot some now that i got a new lens. did the guys doing the spray painting with fire ever return? they usually were right by cafe de mond (spelling). I used to live in terry town then moved to slidell area. so i know the city pretty good :D
 
That package they tried to sell you is mostly all crap (poor quality that will not give pleasing results to images you make) that they try to upsell folks to because they have a huge profit margin on it or are trying to clear it from inventory because no one else wanted to buy it. If a sales person ever tries to sell you something and then cannot describe the benefits or what it does run away fast and don't look back.
 
As the others have mentioned, there is no reason to buy this. Total waste or money.

My mother once got me a 50/1.4 for my birthday a while ago, the sales rep talked her into getting some no name filters for the lens. I had no use for any of them, Mostly because they were low quality. Save your money and use it on something worthwhile. Like beer.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

New Topics

Back
Top Bottom