UKC

So what’s important to you and what would you recommend?

I’m still mulling an upgrade, swinging towards the 600D
Can’t decide on the 18 to 55 or the 18 to 135 lens (£600ish up to £750ish so quite a price hike for the longer zoom)
Some filters (UV, polarizer, graduated)
Memory card(s) thinking 2 x 16gb sandisk class 10 cards suggested elsewhere on here (about £20 each) and I can use these in my other cameras too.

Now
Do I just buy a spare battery or get a battery grip.
Do I buy canon batteries / grips only or are the alternatives fine?
(eg the canon grip is about £100 where as the copies are about a third that… are they that bad?)
I’m happy to delay spending the extra money if people think you shouldn’t touch the copies with a barge pole
Oh and a case?

Usage is as a DSLR for the mountains / action shots but also as a video camera with the added benefits of pro video camera features like focus, depth of field etc.

In reply to rallymania:

I can't believe that I never bought one years ago, but I love my small camera flash. Its Nikon's smallest flash so I don't know if Canon make one as small, but my recommendation would be to get a flash unit as small and as simple to operate as possible.

In reply to rallymania:


I only ever buy generic camera batteries, usually from 7dayshop and have never had a dud in 10 years.

In reply to rallymania:
Spare battery first, then Sandisk memory cards.Filters for protection.Gorillapod bendy legged tripod,too handy not to have. Quality microfibre cloths, to dust the lens, and wipe the raindrops off the body.
Lenses? personal choice, chosen through trial and error.
I couldnt be bothered with the bulk of a battery grip in the mountains, unless your doing paid work? Simple electronic shutter remote release.

In reply to rallymania:
Got a battery grip from eBay a couple of years ago.

Good value!

Oh and 4 x generic batteries also fine.

In reply to rallymania:

Agree with dek & Lemming. 7 Day shop batteries are great, also good for cheap tripods. Remote control (if the camera has the option) is great for propping up and getting yourself in the shot without running around to a self timer, and good as a remote release.

One of those air blower things to help with cleaning helps, looks like a black & red rocket. Defo get a bag, one youre happy getting stuff in and out of quickly, or a strap/sling that allows you to grab & click & carry easily.

Personally found battery grips clumsy, and cant say Ive ever needed more than two regular batteries in a day, even with lots of flash usage. But then Im a big girl and whinge a lot about how heavy my camera is

In reply to Anni:


http://www.jessops.com/online.store/products/32860/show.html

In reply to The Lemming:

Aye, thats the one, very handy!

In reply to rallymania: wouldn't bother with the grip (do you really need it??) and get the spare battery instead.

Lens cleaning stuff.

Decent camera case.

One of the blowy things for blowing dust off your lenses is quite handy to have at home.

If you're thinking of putting a UV filter on your lens, I would make it a high-quality clear filter instead. I use Nikon and they do clear filters for about 35 quid.

I've heard copy-batteries are good. Btw, a spare battery is one of the best things you can buy - once you've got one you'll be very thankful.

In reply to rallymania: Not really for what you use it for - but a remote. Slow shutter speeds an those group or self "portrait" shots when you look smug

In reply to rallymania:

Missy always has good advice

http://tinyurl.com/6puspce

In reply to rallymania:
A cheap remote from fleabay, the very fellow for the job when it's on a tripod. Mine cost a fiver and works a treat.

In reply to rallymania:

I would be somewhat worried about the 16gig cards.
Be a lot of pictures to lose if the card decides to get corrupted (admittedly not a problem i have had with Sandisks, unlike another brand whose card i binned).

In reply to rallymania:

Apart from a spare card (and spare battery if I am away for a while) I carry a lens cleaning cloth in my pouch and that is it!


Chris

In reply to The Lemming:

What did you get ? I'm after something for my DSLR (too posh for anything inbuilt) and keep failing to find anything that isn't half a house brick with more controls than the space shuttle.

On the old X300 I had something that ran on an AA cell, size of a matchbox, and flashed. It just got on and worked !

I've tried eBay, Google and sundry places but flash units don't get measured by physical dimensions and "small flash" ain't a great search term... I've got a Sony - standard adaptor all ready and waiting...

Y

In reply to rallymania:


An eye for composition and a good grasp of technique, then perhaps accessories as you need them, otherwise you're looking for an excuse to spend money on gear you don't really need (it's all bad for the environment and plays right into the hands of manufacturers and their inbuilt redundancy). As a once member of a photographic society, or long lens club as it was known, i found most amateurs where more concerned with gear than technique.

I still use a g9, pro build quality and f 1:2.8 lens. Sometimes the best camera is the one you have with you and the best shot can be taken discreetly. Just a thought, don't mean to upset a'l the gadget collectors

In reply to rallymania:

I wouldn't be without my Cokin ND grads, love 'em for sea/landscapes although I don't tend to shoot many! Lenspen or similar is also a worthwhile investment. I can highly reccomend Tamrac backpacks.

As for batteries I have 1 Nikon one and the rest of no-namers that outlasts my original Nikon one. I had a grip on my old camera and whilst I love them for studio portrait shooting it's just more bulk when out and about. Bear in mind that most battery grips will still need you to buy the extra batteries to go in them.

Think carefully if you really want a polarising filter; a decent circular polariser will hit the wallet fairly hard, especially if you don't need it. I'f you're worried about your glass then I'd definately say get a screw-in skylight filter to preotect the front element.

If you're going DSLR then I'd shoot raw; which means getting software to edit raw files into jpgs; maybe one of the Canon mob can tell you whether the software comes bundled, I know it doesn't with Nikon bodies. I'm currently using Photoshop Elements and it does pretty much all I need.

Happy snapping!

In reply to rallymania: I use a canon 7D and can really recommend it for both photo- and videography.
The non-canon grips are fine, the non-canon batteries last a lot less so I would invest in the canon one.
Lens-wise I would suggest one with a wider angle like 11-16 tokina, the 10-20 sigma or the 10-24 tamron.
Ah also buy a remote on amazon for a couple of bucks and maybe a timer for timelapse photography for 10 or 20 pounds.

In reply to NobbyClark: I know it's a big debate, but personally I don't shoot RAW anymore, except for the very occasional shot where I think it's warranted. Rest of the time I just shoot JPEG, because basically I can't be bothered arsing around with RAW files when I could be doing something else!