What Accessories are a Must? 30d

Kagan

Folks Santa made an error and put me on the nice list and I got a 30d completely unexpectedly for Christmas. I got it with the 18-55 lens kit. My question is this: What accessories to do I NEED? I know there are millions I will want but what accessories are an absolute must? Maybe give me your top 2 or 3? Thanks for your help and Merry Christmas everyone!

Art Scott

1- Sturdy TRIPOD....I believe one should actually have a tripod that will hold more weight than one thinks his/her system wil ever weigh. My pod will hold 26lbs and is light enuff to backpack, altho not as light as a carbon fiber or basalt (lava) pod

2- A wide to meduim zoom

3- A medium to long zoom

Both the best you can possibly afford

4- lots of medium (2 - 4 gb) memory cards and extra batteries

Richard

Kagan wrote:

Folks Santa made an error and put me on the nice list and I got a 30d completely unexpectedly for Christmas. I got it with the 18-55 lens kit. My question is this: What accessories to do I NEED? I know there are millions I will want but what accessories are an absolute must? Maybe give me your top 2 or 3? Thanks for your help and Merry Christmas everyone!

Congratulations. It's a great camera and I'm sure you will be very happy with it for a long time.

Without knowing what you like to shoot, it is a little difficult to answer your question. I would start by making sure that you have enough flash card memory to hold whatever you will need for a typical day's shooting. Next, if you expect to shoot many hundred pics a day, you would be well advised to get a spare battery. Many people--myself included--have had good luck with third party batteries, which cost a lot less than Canon's. Finally, you will want a bag to carry the camera plus a few extra lenses and assorted junk.

Once you have those basics covered, your choices broaden considerably, and the prices go up a lot. Additional lenses, tripod and head, external flash, processing software and lens filters can all become essential, but you will know it when that happens.

Good luck and enjoy your new toy.

Phyxius

Extra len(es). The nicest (quality) you can get. The lens is a VERY, VERY important part of the camera and quality here will really show up in your pictures.

Bag, if you don't already have one a bag to tote around all your stuff is key. So you can switch lenses, keep track of memory cards/batteries and store fun stuff like car/house keys and spare cash when you go walkabout.

Well, obviously I think you should have memory cards and batteries. Coming from the high drain world of point and shoots you may think you need thousands of batteries, but I know that my battery for the Nikon D50 lasts a LONG time. I've taken around 1000 shots on one charge. Also, since it's Nikon I've had a hard time finding a backup battery. I'm actually getting ready to order an off brand to save money and just to have one. Memory cards...hmmm. I do have a 256 and I do use it, but I tend to stick with the 1gig cards. I can get between 200 and 300 shots on one card. I use the high speed/super high speed/ultra high speed cards. The faster the better for me! I shoot horse shows and faster write times are important and since I'm taking hundreds of shots a day I like to be able to upload them quickly so fast read times are good too.

I rarely use a tripod, so I saved money and went with Quantaray. I have this one it's tall enough for me (I'm 6') and it holds 11pounds. It's 23.2" folded and 3.8pounds. So it's not small and lightweight, but it gets the job done at a fraction of the price. I am probably going to invest in a monopod by next year though.

If you plan to shoot indoors go with a good speedlight, otherwise for the time being you should be okay with the on camera flash.

Congrats on the Christmas gift, can't wait to see some of your new shots!

Scott_Quier

Congratulations. I guess you were good this year!

With the above people responding, I'm more than just a little surprised you haven't yet received this bit of advise about the most important accessory:

A nice, fat wallet!

will come in very handy!!

Seriously, everything mentioned above is great advice. I would add the two following bit:

• Figure out what you most want to shoot.
• Buy glass to meet that need.
• Get well acquainted with that lens before you get the next one.
• Finally, when you buy glass, get the best available. Save your pennies if you must. This is a lesson I learned the hard (and expensive) way :bash. Buy quality - buy it once! Glass will outlive your current camera by years and years. Invest in good glass!

Kagan

Well I have my old bag and also received a new bag for Christmas. Between the two they will get me by for now anyway. I have a very sturdy(ie HEAVY) tripod that I can make do with for quite awhile. I am going to be shooting baseball all spring, anywhere from T-Ball to 5th grade for my kids. I wouldnt dare ask the wife for money for an outrageously priced lens at this time but will work towards something marvelous as I can. I am going to get a 2gig card today as fast as I can get out shopping hehe. I am hoping in the next couple of months to get a moderately priced lens for shooting sports but we will see. Anything else anyone can think of?

ian408

There are some basic things you might want to consider. Things like
something to clean the sensor, a lipstick brush for cleaning the big
bits off of the lens element. A cloth to clean the camera body. A
bag to carry your gear in, a spare battery, a good tripod and head.

There are threads on many of these items. The search feature will
help you find them.

Congratulations and enjoy your new camera!

pathfinder

Kagan,

Whenever someone gets a new DSLR ( or an SLR in film days ) they immediately begin thinking about what new lenses they can get ( I am just as guilty as everyone else here ), but I would suggest that you get a good flash and learn to use it OFF the camera itself.

Learn to use light and to see its effects.

SO I am going to suggest an EOS 430EX WITH an OFF camera ETTL cord. Not exactly cheap, but cheaper by far than most new lenses.

Your kit lens will take a lot of great shots if the lighting is great. The ability to shoot with your flash off of the camera and bounce it off walls or a white bedsheet, will allow you to begin to explore what you can do with lighting. That is the ticket to first class images, which your camera is perfectly capable of creating.

When you have experience with using your flash off camera, you may decide to consider an ST-E2 off camera IR controller as well. You can see the results that are possible with this arrangement here

gus

Ebay ...i picked up 2 big capacity batteries for about $25 a pair & also a remote for the shutter release for about $20.

Justiceiro

gus wrote:

Ebay ...i picked up 2 big capacity batteries for about $25 a pair & also a remote for the shutter release for about $20.

I second that. An extra battery is a must. Also, I heard that staples is selling 1G CF cards for $20; a few of those won't hurt.

Spandex lens caps. Much better than the standards.

Kagan

I have my flash from the former camera, It is a promaster 5550DX. I experimented with it last night with this camera and was immensely pleased for no other reason than I wasnt using it manually as the old camera wasnt Through The Lens. It has bounce capability but I honestly dont know about its capability(if any) off camera. I would have to dig out the box and paperwork on it. I have had it for awhile and hadnt been using it much as it was a pain to get a good shot when trying to manually control the light amounts with the camera I had. Anyway I neglected to mention that I had the flash and now someone can tell me how inadequate is Thank you very much for the input. Im scribbling all of these down then will try to put them in some sort of order.

pathfinder wrote:

Kagan,

Whenever someone gets a new DSLR ( or an SLR in film days ) they immediately begin thinking about what new lenses they can get ( I am just as guilty as everyone else here ), but I would suggest that you get a good flash and learn to use it OFF the camera itself.

Learn to use light and to see its effects.

SO I am going to suggest an EOS 430EX WITH an OFF camera ETTL cord. Not exactly cheap, but cheaper by far than most new lenses.

Your kit lens will take a lot of great shots if the lighting is great. The ability to shoot with your flash off of the camera and bounce it off walls or a white bedsheet, will allow you to begin to explore what you can do with lighting. That is the ticket to first class images, which your camera is perfectly capable of creating.

When you have experience with using your flash off camera, you may decide to consider an ST-E2 off camera IR controller as well. You can see the results that are possible with this arrangement here

pathfinder

The ProMaster should work with the Canon ETTL cord I think. Most ProMasters have a module or adapter that adapts them to Canon ETTL or Nikon control.

Might be worth buying the ETTL off camera cord to give it ( your ProMaster flash ) a try.

If you cannot use it off your camera, read this thread by Gus that discusses a cheap (79 cents) diffuser/reflector for the flash that really can do great things with bounce lighting.

Kagan

pathfinder wrote:

The ProMaster should work with the Canon ETTL cord I think. Most ProMasters have a module or adapter that adapts them to Canon ETTL or Nikon control.

Might be worth buying the ETTL off camera cord to give it ( your ProMaster flash ) a try.

If you cannot use it off your camera, read this thread by Gus that discusses a cheap (79 cents) diffuser/reflector for the flash that really can do great things with bounce lighting.

Thank you for the info Pathfinder, I will definitely look into that. and cheap sounds really good right now!

wxwax

Things that are absolutely indispensible?

A decent size memory card.

Lens cloth/brush and cleaning liquid.




That's about it. You can cheerfully go about your business with just that. Highly recommended? In my order of preference:

• A card reader -- much easier than hooking-up the camera to your computer.
• A second battery -- although I understand the 30D gets great battery life.
• A camera bag -- to protect your camera.
• A sturdy tripod -- but it has to be one that you're willing to tote; an unused tripod is a useless accessory.
• Good photo software -- to make the most of the digital world.
• A flash -- but only if you think you'll use it. Your camera already has one.

After that, we get into lenses. And once you start changing lenses, you'll want to consider sensor cleaning materials.

Jeffro

Has anyone suggested the extra grip? I love mine, it keeps all the controls right where they should be at all times. It also gives the camera a better feel...actually I should say camera's, as I have one on each of mine.

BigAl

Dunno what you want to shoot, but my indispensibles would be:

extra battery;
at least two CF cards;
external storage device (such as PD70x) plus extra batteries for this device;
an external flash that supports E-TTL.

If you want to do wildlife (assuming you'll get a long lens):
a monopod with an appropriate head;
a monopod bucket to stabilise the monopod.

Kagan

Thanks!
I want to thank everyone for the advice they have given me so far. Thus far all I have bought is a good CF card. I dont want to rush out and just throw money around and then find out 2 weeks later I should have gotten something else. Again thank you all. Most of my needs are going to be surrounding my kids at first. I have 2 boys in basketball, and will have all 3 in T-Ball, coach pitch, and little league. Oh and going on a cruise to the Caribbean this summer so I have to consider that as well. I see a lens purchase in my future but not wanting to go too fast and get the wrong item. So again not in any hurry to buy just wanting to get the most bang for my buck. Thanks again for all of your help! Thats why I come here to ask!

billyshobby

I have this C-32 http://roxiss.com/index_files/Page775.html (bought on ebay) on my xti, together with the Canon's hand strap it's so comfortable to hold. Sometime I even remove the neck strap as it'll get in the way when I use portrait mode.
Hope this help.:D

TylerW

Kagan wrote:

I want to thank everyone for the advice they have given me so far. Thus far all I have bought is a good CF card. I dont want to rush out and just throw money around and then find out 2 weeks later I should have gotten something else. Again thank you all. Most of my needs are going to be surrounding my kids at first. I have 2 boys in basketball, and will have all 3 in T-Ball, coach pitch, and little league. Oh and going on a cruise to the Caribbean this summer so I have to consider that as well. I see a lens purchase in my future but not wanting to go too fast and get the wrong item. So again not in any hurry to buy just wanting to get the most bang for my buck. Thanks again for all of your help! Thats why I come here to ask!

If you're interested in shooting your kids then it sounds like pathfinder's suggestion is a good one. You also might invest in the 50mm f/1.8 "fantastic plastic" lens. Its a small investment, and a good way to explore whether you prefer to control your lighting conditions, or work with available light.

Otherwise, get some cards and maybe a battery. And a card reader. And then go take a load of shots, find the limits of your lens, and the rest of your kit, and let that decide what what other gear you need.