I'm a starting photographer and I'm buying a Canon EOS 400d, what accesories should I buy along with it?

Question

-please list everything (lens, accesories, cards, etc.)

Answer 1

I'm assuming your 400D comes with a kit lens.

Do yourself a favor and buy a Wide Angle EF 28mm f/1.8 USM Autofocus Lens. It will put you close the the normal 50mm focal length after your 1.6x crop factor. This is the BEST way to learn how to take pictures. Aside from the most expensive pro-line lenses, zooms are traditionally slow (f3.5-5.6) which can be a real limitation both creatively and conditionally. The faster your lenses, the shallower your depth of field. A shallow depth of field will allow you to blur the background of your subject, isolating it from it's surroundings. Also, the faster your lens, the more likely you will be able to hand-hold your camera in low-light situations. Not to mention that a zoom lens will make you lazy. A prime lens will force you to move around to find the proper composition for your subject while a zoom will allow you to compromise your composition by simply cropping the surroundings. While zooms are nice, they are built either for casual, snapshot shooters (cheap, soft, and slow) or seasoned pros who need the most flexibility possible (expensive, sharp, and fast). A non-zoom, prime lens (relatively cheap, sharp, and fast) is the best purchase a beginner could possibly make in my opinion.

Outside of that, you'll need UV protectors for all your lenses, a fast 2GB memory card, a shoulder bag or backpack, and (if you want to do landscapes or nightshooting) a decent tripod. It might sound terrible, but you want a tripod that weighs in at about 7lbs... a Slik 300DX is a good start. It should be around or under $100, but it will last you YEARS. Mine is on its last breath, but it's been through 6-7 years of hardcore abuse (and could probably fix it if I had a metric hexscrew set).

You may want to think about imaging software as well. Adobe Photoshop, obviously, is the prime choice, but expensive. Though, there are other options out there like the open-source, Gimp, which is free to download.

Oh, and if you are really curious, visit www.dpreview.com. This is, BY FAR, one of the best websites for digital photography info. The forums are a little cloudy about some info, but you can get a lot of hands-on reviews from users of almost any piece of equipment or software out on the market.

Good luck.

Answer 2

The #1 most important thing is good glass. The lens is what determines the way an image will look more than anything else.

As the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. Prepare to spend a lot on good lenses. If you have something good to start with you'll have something good to do post processing and printing with.

The lens selection will greatly depend on what type of photography you want to do.

However, I always recommend one lens, regard of csmers maker - the 50mm f/1.8 or f/1.4. This lens is inexpensive(~$100), versatile and great for indoor ad low light shooting.

Other than that if you want to do portraits, the 50mm will do well, but other longer lengths may be desired(classical portrait lens lengths are considered to be 85mm - 105mm), or if you are doing sports something in a zoom between 70 and 300 with a fast aperture(f/2.8 constant - this can be expensive), or landscapes(something wide through a moderate zoom...fast glass is generally not a huge factor here as you will be shooting outside in daylight and with a tripod.

Determine what you want and look at reviews for lenses that fit your need and purchase accordingly.

Good luck!

Other than lenses...it doesn't hurt to have a hotshoe flash, preferably one that has the ability to bounce the light off a side wall or the ceiling.

Answer 3

Don't spend your money on accessories. Spend it on a good photography class. THEN you will know what accessories to buy and which ones to ignore.

Get the camera and the Canon Series-II 18-55 lens that it is commonly bundled with and maybe a UV filter (58 mm by Hoya) to fit that lens and stop buying stuff until you know what it is and whether you actually need it or not.

It depends on where your interests lie. You might want a good tripod for macro or landscape or portrait work. You might want a more powerful flash to use in a creative lighting system. You might want an ultra-wide zoom or a monstrous telephoto lens to get "just the right shot," once you know what that means to you.

Start basic and grow incrementally.

Answer 4

I've got a 400d myself. It's a great camera that gives you a lot of potential for amazing shots. If you're really wanting to get into photography, here's a list of some things you'll at least want to give serious consideration:

Search for any of these on amazon.com...

* Canon Deluxe Photo Backpack 200EG
* Lens filters (For lens protection & ND filters...)
* Sigma lenses (I.E. Macro, wide angle, telephoto, etc.)
* Canon NB-2LH Battery Pack for Digital Rebel XT/XTi
* Two 2GB compact flash cards
* Manfrotto tripod & monopod

Answer 5

I'm an amature photographer but I'm not good at the technical stuff, but I'll try to help you anyways. And I don't know if you have a digital or film camera, I'm too lazy to look it up. I'm just gonna assume you have a digital.
*tripod is good if you want long exsposure shots, night shots, etc.
*the lens kinda depend on what type of photography you want to do. If you have the money I would suggest getting different kinds to experiment. ("fish eye", long zooms, standard, etc.)
*memory card: i would just stick with the basic. I have a 1gb card and it holds like 278 pictures, but I changed quality of the picture on my camera, so each picture takes up more room.
*camera bag is handy to keep your lens cleaners, extra lens, batteries, etc
*if your paranoid like me, I would suggest a those things that goes around your neck to hold your camera (a strap? sorry can't think of what its called)
*a usb cord (if it doesn't already come with the camera) to transfer your pics.

Thats all I can think of for now. If you have any questions, just ask. Oh and if you don't already have it I would suggest Photoshop also, to edit your pictures.

Answer 6

The first thing that I would buy is a UV filter for the lens. Have it on even before you leave the shop.

Next, cleaning kit, spare battery and spare storage card.

After that, it is a bit of a toss up about what to do next, but think about a carry bag, tripod, flash, lenses.

Answer 7

I agree with the previous answers - don't get bogged down by the 'must have some more hardware to make my pictures great' syndrome - because it doesn't work.All you need in addition to your camera is perhaps a spare set of batteries and some additional memory cards.

Answer 8

start with a grey card and a white piece of paper

with one you set white balance, the other you set exposure


those two items and there use will do more for your images then anything anyone else will suggest

the answer above says editing(not even the correct meaning of the word he means manipulation!) thats what you learn if you cant get good exposure


a

Answer 9

No need to buy anything else.

The most powerful tool for a photographer is editing. Just start shooting lots of photos... hundreds and hundreds. The pros take those hundreds and delete all but one or two.

That is how you get your "Wow!" shots.