I'm hopping I haven't made a huge mistake. I've never owned a dslr or even a decent camera other then gopro's or action camera's. Well I've just brought a Canon EOS Rebel XT 350D camera. I checked said that it was a good first DSLR camera a few years back and it only cost £35.00 so it hasn't broken the bank or anything but I'm wondering if it it was a mistake or not? I've brought an adaptor so it will accept old M42 lens as well. I mainly want it because I've lived in Cumbria for a while and the landscapes and sea around here are amazing and also for some close up macro shots. So any tips or advice would be great
Why would it have been a mistake? You paid a correct price for it, so no problems there. And £35 isn't that much for a little experiment. Yes, it's an older camera but back when it came out it was highly rated, it'll still take excellent pictures. Not terribly high res to today's standards and you'll have to live with a bit of noise in low light, but put a nice lens on there (doesn't have to be expensive either!) and you'll have a great kit for most purposes. Did it come with the kit zoom? If you're looking for fun, cheap, good quality lenses with character, M42 mount is an excellent choice. If you're still looking for a lens: Spoiler The Russian Helios-44 58mm f/2 is an extremely popular and affordable M42 lens right now with very distinct character (google 'Helios 44' and you'll get enough examples). Takumar lenses are excellent overall with ridiculously good build quality. Some less famous brands (in M42) with decent to great quality lenses that often sell for peanuts: Mamiya-Sekor, Pentacon, Ricoh, Vivitar, Sigma, Tokina,,... You could even get a classic M42 Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8. (Pro-tip: some Carl Zeiss-made lenses were sold with only "Aus Jena" on the nameplate [for historical reasons I won't get into], those often sell for lower prices because people don't know it's actually a genuine Zeiss lens) There are genuinely too many great, cheap M42 lenses out there to name. The cheapest focal length in older lens lineups was and still is generally ~50mm. Those are of "portrait length" on your camera, but still versatile enough for general use. Cheap focal lengths on the wide angle and tele side are respectively 28mm and 135mm. Old zooms generally aren't fantastic, but they're ok if you really want one. For working at macro distances your most affordable option is probably to get macro extension tubes. They basically turn your regular lens into a macro lens, and they're a lot of fun to use. On eBay you can get a decent set of Canon EOS tubes from China for like £4 delivered so it's a no-brainer IMO. It's also handy to look out for a cheap tripod. You can sometimes find one for peanuts at a thrift store. It's convenient for getting the highest quality landscape pictures and better shots in low light, and it lets you do some fun slow shutter speed stuff like star trails or misty/silky water effects.
well so far I've brought......wait for it it's a long list lol shoulder strap SHOOT trigger switch remote (for time lapse) Nikon AI Lens To Canon EOS EF Mount Camera Adapter Wireless Remote Control USB Cable Bettery Charger 4GB Industrial CompactFlash CF Memory Card X023 - M42 Mount Soligor 3 Stage Extension Tubes M42 Lens To Canon EF Mount Adapter Soligor 200mm f4.5 Manual Focus Pre set M42 Wide Angle with detachable Macro Lens 58mm I'm also bidding on 7 different lenses By mistake I mean that A: I seem to be buying more and more stuff that I may need and I don't even have the camera yet (is this a constantly on going thing or is it something that happens once and then you have what you need so can stop) and B: Shortly after buying it, someone I know mentioned something about shutter count and not knowing how many times its been used?
Great, you already got some extension tubes. A wireless remote is also really handy. Hehe... I know the feeling. I'm afraid that photography, along with musical instruments, keyboards and tools, is one of those areas where people run a high risk of contracting Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I'm not going to lie, this could lead down a looong rabbit hole... It is pretty fun down here though (except for your wallet). Some advice I would do well to keep in mind myself more often is: pause and think a while about what you really need before pressing that Buy button. Buy only when you actually encounter a limitation and the purchase will remove it. And try your very best not to be seduced by cheap Chinese accessories. I've spent literally hundreds on cheap $1-8 bits and bobs already. Just yesterday I ordered 2 tripod plates and an aluminium SD card case, neither of which I really need. Send help! You're just starting out so you really don't need a full kit from superwide to supertele with filters and macro rails and an astro tracker. Get 1 to max 3 cheap prime lenses and a tripod to start with and then step on the brakes a bit. Experiment, have fun and find out where your preferences lie. Online I often see people wanting to start out ask for a setup that will let them shoot landscapes and indoor and architecture and portraits and travel and macro and astro and insects and birds and low light and motorsports and infrared... etc. But only after a while you'll know what you gravitate towards and what specific gear is useful in that niche. That's where you should invest - if you want to invest more and make photography a real hobby, that is. In principle a basic camera and a zoom or a set of primes is all you need to get a half-decent shot in most situations if you know how to use your gear. Camera shutters are usually rated for >100.000 shutter actuations, even on entry level cameras. Yours is not a pro body so unless it lead an unusually harsh life I wouldn't worry about it.
Okay I've managed to get Canon EF 28-80mm F/3.5-5.6 II Lens - which I think if I'm understanding lens numbers should do for day to day photos, landscapes etc Soligor 200mm f4.5 Manual Focus Pre set M42 - which I should be able to use as a zoom lens again I may be mistaken I haven't dealt with this many numbers since I can't remember when Wide Angle with detachable Macro Lens 58mm - which should let me use one of the lens as a macro lens along with the extension tubes. I've also managed to find a tripod took ages to find one that wasn't for tiny people ( I managed to find ones that's 53" )I'm just short of 6 foot if I used some of them i'd have needed a chiropractor after every time I used it. not sure what elee to get if anything I know I'm going to need different lens but that's going to be a slow process due to the prices, I have however also brought a t2 mount , a Nikon ai mount, to go along with the m42 mount to try and increase the type of lens I can get. I know the 350D apparently has a built in flash that can be used (as long as a lens hood is used due to lens flare) but would I be better off getting a flash gun or something like an led light panel or am I starting to make things more difficult for myself than they need to be? Also Thanks again Pliqu3011 if i could remember how to give you rep I would do but its been a while since I've used the site and the green dots seem to have vanished.
Yep, a good "walk-around" zoom. For the numbers you can find a ton of charts like this if you google "focal lengths" or "focal length chart". To make it complicated, there's one thing you have to keep in mind though: when you put an x mm lens on your specific camera, the perspective you will get is actually that of a lens with x1.6 its focal length. This is because the sensor in your camera is a bit smaller than "full frame", the standard from back in the film days. So if you put, say, a 35mm lens on your camera, the perspective you will get will look like the 50mm (actually 56mm to be precise) in the charts. The 200mm you got will actually look like 320mm. Focal lengths are a mess and life would be a lot simpler if we'd just use degrees, but we don't because everybody in photography has already gotten used to it. This also means your 28-80 won't go super wide, the 45mm equivalent at its wide end does give a very natural perspective though (about the perspective your eyes see). Kit zooms made specifically for cameras like yours are often 18-50 or thereabouts (x1.6 == 28-80). Soligor's not a very famous brand but I've owned some decent lenses from them before. On your camera the 200mm will be a long telephoto. Technically it's a lens with a fixed focal length so not a zoom (but a 'prime'), but I guess colloquially you could say it's very "zoomed in". Your Soligor should also be fun with the extension tubes. It will let you keep a distance while still getting a very close up image. Handy for shooting insects etc. The built-in flash is fine. You don't need to get loads more stuff, really. If it turns out you enjoy making portraits and want more control over the lighting, then you can start to look into getting a decent flash system. For lenses - if you are to get anything - I would personally look at something cheap with a fast aperture (f/2, f/1.8), so you can get some nice depth of field effects ("bokeh") and better performance in low light. The Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8 can be got new for around £40 and is an excellent value for money lens for your system, with autofocus! I don't think I there's a cheaper currently made AF lens on the market.
You are turning out to be a life saver, just to make things easier and because I think the gf was getting annoyed as I kept growling at the pc screen every time I found something else I didn't understand, she's brought me a few books which should be here in a few days as well to make it easier to learn the basics at least I think that's the plan either that or she's going to put them into a pillow case to beat me around the head with. Edit: i've just checked the last lense I'm bidding on ends in 9 nines days so if I haven't won one of those by then I'll just buy one
I've been considering buying this but the 350D has a crop sensor so the 50mm would be an 80mm (50mm*1.6) so would it still be worth getting or should I be looking for a 28mm (which would become a 44mm) or a 35mm (which would become a 56mm) or have I totally confused myself and got hold of the wrong end of the stick? To be fair this is all academic at the moment as Cumbria's having some amazing weather but the bloody charger for the cameras battery hasn't turned up yet and the battery's dead.
You probably won't be able to get a fast (<= /f2) lens at 35mm or 28mm for that cheap a price. Canon's 35/2 in particular is ludicrously expensive, at least Nikon has a cheap-ish 35/1.8. If you're willing to spend more, those focal lengths would probably be a bit more versatile in general, but an 80mm equivalent is still very usable in many situations. In low light you probably won't be shooting landscapes etc. anyway. When I got my first "proper" camera a few years ago I used only an 58mm for like 4, 5 months. EDIT: I see Yongnuo also has a 35/2. Image quality is apparently rather mediocre, and it's a bit more expensive than their 50/1.8. If you think the 50 is too tele for your use though, it might be worth it.
I've got no problem getting the 50mm but all the videos I keep seeing keep hammering on that you have to get a 'nifty 50mm' (which is a stupid name by the way) for everyday use and I just didn't know if it meant get a 50mm and use it at the 80m it would be or get something that would be as close to a 50mm as possible when in use. As I said I've been confusing the hell out of myself watching videos and reading books because until the battery charger turns up I'm not going to be able to learn by practicing
"nifty fifty" is a bit of a buzzword. What they actually mean when they say "get a nifty fifty" is "get a cheap lens with a large aperture" and the cheapest fast lenses have historically always been 50mm's. In the Canon world, "nifty fifty" or "plastic fantastic" always refers to the Canon 50/1.8 (or more recently also its Yongnuo clone), no matter your sensor size and the actual equivalent focal length. I completely get why the term could be confusing, I don't really like it myself either.
No mistake, that's a good little camera with a good sensor, I had one for several years before buying my Pentax. Concerning adapter rings with AF confirm, most of the time their exif is set at 50mm f/1.4 which mean that the built-in light meter will need bracketing if you use something else. Ps: Get more batteries.,
The 350d should do you pretty well. I'm still using my 450d with Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM. I think it is the perfect walking around lens for this level of canon camera. If you want some good value glass you can look at some of the prime lenses.
Yep, I think the worlds out to get me right now. The battery charger and spare battery's FINALLY turned up so I put the cf card adaptor in with the two micro SD cards in and it came up CF error. I tried to format them and it said error 99 so it obviously can't see the micro sd's in the cf card. I've brought 2 8GB CF cards now just waiting until next Tuesday at the latest for them to turn up. For lens I currently have Canon 28-80mm with AF (my walking around lens at the moment) Pentax-K 28-80mm (Macro at 80mm) Hanimex 75-200mm Hanimex 75-300mm 8mm F1.4 IR CCTV Lens 58MM Macro lens (goes onto the canon lens) CCTV 25mm F1.2 (waiting on delivery) adapter's wise I've got C - Eos AI-Eos T2-EF M42-Eos PK-EF C/Y-Eos (waiting delivery) I'm planning on picking up a 50mm when my bank account stops screaming. I've got a tripod, I've got 3 battery's and the battery grip so it can run on AA's if the battery's run out and some graduated ND lens and holder etc so I'm just literally waiting on the cf cards now. I've also brought about 5 books on the camera and taking pictures instead as I'm hoping to do most of the pictures on manual now if I can just find a way to get my brain to understand the iso triangle thing I'll hopefully be golden. Also any more advice would be great as you've all been amazing
The exposure triangle is one of those things that's hard to grasp at first, but once you get it it's really simple and makes all the sense in the world. The easiest way to understand is simply to put your camera in manual and play with the 3 parameters: aperture, shutter speed and ISO. How I would explain it: To properly expose an image you basically need a certain amount of light depending on the environment, often measured in "stops". The different aperture values, shutter speeds and ISO values tend to follow a nice sequence where each step represents one "stop" of difference in light it allows through. Some of the numbers may seem arbitrary, but you'll know them by heart soon enough. Aperture values (you will see these on your manual lenses): f/22___f/16___f/11___f/8___f/5.6___f/4___f/2.8___f/2___f/1.4___(etc.) The f-number measures how far open your aperture is. More open => more light gets in. f/4 lets in "1 stop" more light than f/5.6. Shutter speeds: 1/1000s___1/500s___1/250s___1/125s___1/60s___1/30s___(etc.) It makes sense that the longer you leave your shutter open, the more light falls on the sensor. 1/125 lets in "1 stop" more light than 1/250. ISO: 100___200___400___800___1600___(etc.) The ISO number corresponds to the sensitivity of your sensor. Lower numbers mean it needs more light but will produce a higher quality image. 400 ISO is "1 stop" more sensitive to light than 200 ISO. Using these three parameters you make your equation, resulting in the right amount of light hitting the sensor (your camera's light meter will help you with this!). Knowing about "stops", it makes sense that multiple combinations will let in a same amount of light. f/5.6 | 1/125s | ISO 100 will produce an equally bright image to f/4 |1/250s | ISO 100 or f/11 | 1/125s | ISO 400 Which combination you need depends on 3 separate creative decisions, all weighing against each other (hence the triangle bit). Sometimes you'll have to sacrifice on one to improve another. - Do you want wider depth of field (for a landscape for example)? You'll have to make the aperture smaller. - Do you need to freeze action? You need a fast shutterspeed. - Do you need very clean images? Pick a low ISO. At times where you care only about a single parameter, it's convenient to put your camera in one of the "priority" modes like aperture priority or shutter priority. You pick a single parameter value, say 1/1000s, and the camera will automatically pick a combination with aperture and ISO that'll get the right amout of light for a proper exposure. Don't think you always need to be in Manual mode to take good pictures BTW. A lot of the time one of the priority modes will do fine and be a lot quicker than fiddling with multiple dials. Make sure you research those tiny CCTV lenses, not all of them will project a large enough image circle to cover your sensor, and not all will be able to focus to infinity on your camera.
Yeah, those were originally got because I'm going to be modifying a Chinese action cam to use C mount Lens no specific reason why just thought I'd give it a try after watching a couple of videos. The fact that I was able to get a C-Eos adaptor was just a pleasant surprise and not actually a planned purchase . Also thanks for the triangle Info My head's pounding right now from a headache so I've not been able to read it yet but it looks a lot easier to understand than anything else I've seen on it.
