Recommend me a useful piece of kit (£50)

please bear in mind that as with most things - what you pay for is what you get....
a £10 light is going to be junk - & a £30 is only going to be at the maybe useful point...
It is dependant on what use you use it for....
 
I'd say go for the 50mm 1.8 too. I had always used zoom lenses until a few months ago, I didn't really see the point in primes as I already had zooms that covered all of the range I needed. However, I saw a cheap 1.7 50mm prime on ebay and snapped it up. I haven't had another lens on my camera since!
 
st599 said:
You've never lived until you've played with wire wool.
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I believe my parents warned me about you :-/

That sentence is right up there in my creep factor with
"It puts the lotion on its skin"
 
gothgirl said:
I like the idea of that !

Would this work ?
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Not unless you're into macro... Most of the inexpensive units will not have much power. Maybe enough for palm sized critters.

A 5-in-1 is good. It gives you silver/gold/white reflector options (only 1 at a time) for bouncing sunlight/flash back into shadows. It also has a translucent panel for diffusing hard sunlight and a black panel to block/absorb light.

You say you have a flash/wireless/diffuser but you use it on a bracket. A camera mounted bracket? If so, maybe a flash stand and medium sized softbox would be a nice move.

I love the large flashbender for on camera flash (as bounce panel or flag). Usually combined with the stock diffusion dome

But there's not much that's more useful than a great strap you really like...

Other "must haves" IMO are a bulb blower and lens brush (like rocket blower).
 
I'd go with the lotion :)


...or a 50 prime.
Have you looked at Russian 50mm like the Industar or Helios? £10 to £20 for a bit of fun.
 
Manual only :)
Hence the fun bit.
 
If you've never tried, how do you know?
It takes all of a second or so to focus. There's something very satisfying about doing it for your self.
 
I completely agree about the manual focus lenses. All I use on my camera is old legacy glass from Yashica, Minolta and old M42's. Using a MF lens on your camera in aperture priority mode will teach you a ton about the relationship between aperture and shutter speed, the basics of exposure. You can view my NEX folder here on flickr to see what old MF lenses are capable of. Lots of macro and portraits in there to if you like those.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8539414@N07/sets/72157629936411965/

If MF glass just isnt your thing then I second the idea for a fast 50mm lens. The 50/1.8 is a must for any photographer with a Canon EOS camera. Whoever told you that the 50 was unnecessary as you already have the kit lens has no idea what they are talking about. The little Nifty Fifty, or Plastic Fantastic, or what ever you want to call the 1.8 from Canon will blow away anything the kit lens can do for portraits. You owe it to yourself to have quality prime lenses in your kit.
 
f/otographer said:
I completely agree about the manual focus lenses. All I use on my camera is old legacy glass from Yashica, Minolta and old M42's. Using a MF lens on your camera in aperture priority mode will teach you a ton about the relationship between aperture and shutter speed, the basics of exposure. You can view my NEX folder here on flickr to see what old MF lenses are capable of. Lots of macro and portraits in there to if you like those.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8539414@N07/sets/72157629936411965/

If MF glass just isnt your thing then I second the idea for a fast 50mm lens. The 50/1.8 is a must for any photographer with a Canon EOS camera. Whoever told you that the 50 was unnecessary as you already have the kit lens has no idea what they are talking about. The little Nifty Fifty, or Plastic Fantastic, or what ever you want to call the 1.8 from Canon will blow away anything the kit lens can do for portraits. You owe it to yourself to have quality prime lenses in your kit.
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I suppose I'm so used to shooting animals , and always being in TV mode, I'm not used to being able to take the time with manual focus or the shot would be gone
But when I start doing some portraits it would be nice to have a subject that stays still when I ask them to :)

Are there any guides online to using manual focus that are worth reading / watching ?

Also I looked on eBay but couldn't see any of the aforementioned lenses ? Only MF lenses with a converter to fit eps which I didn't like the idea of...
 
kendo1 said:
The lenses are M42 mount (some are M39 mount) so you would need 1 adaptor from M42 to Canon (whatever their mount type is nowadays- I use Nikon :) )

Here's one: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M42-Lens-...=UK_Lenses_Filters_Lenses&hash=item565c3af9e5

Typical Helios in M42: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HELIOS-44...=UK_Lenses_Filters_Lenses&hash=item3cd95393f2
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And this lens for example , would it produce usable (printable) and online quality images ?

Or am I better just trying to get a canon
 
No out of camera correction with the above pic.

I've not looked at Canon prices for 50mm. I tend to look for USSR, Yashica/Contax, Olympus and Nikon lenses.
 
kendo1 said:
No out of camera correction with the above pic.

I've not looked at Canon prices for 50mm. I tend to look for USSR, Yashica/Contax, Olympus and Nikon lenses.
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I'm searching photos on Flickr... Is there a lot of ?bokeh? With that lens ?
 
For the type of photography you are doing I might just recommend you go with the Canon 50/1.8. I dont want to dissuade you from MF lenses, I encourage it every chance I get, but it can be a bit more involving then just popping on a lens made for your camera. Educating oneself as to which older lenses have good quality and then actually learning the technique to use them is a fun and exciting project in and of itself. Remember, the camera and lens are simply tools that help create the photograph. I personally love creating photos using the best of both the old and the new world. Old MF lenses on a modern digital camera is a match made in heaven for me. I find a joy in using quality made metal lenses back from the film era. It helps inspire me in a way that modern plastic AF focus lenses simply dont. Im sure its why a lot of people shoot Leica's even though they are crazy expensive. Everyone has something different that inspires them to create art. But the end result is always a good photograph. To answer your question, yes...these old lenses are fully capable of creating photos every bit as sharp and wonderful as todays plasticky computerized lenses. Remember, almost every great photography from the 20th century was shot on this type of lens. Auto focus didnt really show up until the 80's. People used to shoots sports on these things!

But as I said, using legacy glass is a journey. For a quick gift to yourself that will give you wonderful results with very little learning curve go for the EF 50/1.8. Sharp, nice bokeh, will teach you a lot about using a fast lens with a narrow depth of field.

As for bokeh, its not really a question of which lens brand. You generally get more bokeh with a faster lens depending on if you shoot wide open or close to it and where you put your focus. If you check the link I listed above to my flickr page you will see plenty of bokeh in plenty of shots. I shoot fast lenses wide open most of the time. Under each picture I also list which lens was used so that can give you an idea of what they are capable of.
 
Here's another:

DSC00136sor by kendo1111, on Flickr

If you view the original size you can see what the bokeh does to the twigs above and left of the statue.
I'm sure there are better examples on the Helios user group in Flickr.
 
As f/oto said above, it would be easier going with Canon.

Using old lenses is catching, but not expensive. And great fun!
Nex 6 with Olympus 75-150 (£7)

DSC00385s by kendo1111, on Flickr
 
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Now that's just showing off, f/oto!

Nice.
 
I have a soloution ....



Ready for it ?



Buy both !


Use the canon for work and the MF for play ! ;)
 
Here are some shots from the EOS 50/1.8, back from my Canon days. I ended up selling my Canon gear because of my love for MF lenses. The Sony NEX cameras are just soooooo much better with MF lenses. All of these are either from a Canon 40D or 5D Mk I.

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