That said people like to talk about gear. Good gear won't make you a great photographer but on occasion it helps.
For my sins I am a Canonista. Was fairly random which system I ended up in but I'm in now.
Having had a variety of digital compacts from Kodak and Pentax I got myself a Canon EOS 450D
with the kit lens and a Tamron - AF 55-200mm
to add telephoto range. A good starting combination. At the urging of many podcasts and articles I tried out the Canon 50 mm - f/1.4
. It's a great lens for low light and portraits. On the 7D and the 450D it is closer to a 75mm due to the crop factor so not quite as close to what your eye sees but the slight telephoto does add to it's portrait use. For a fair bit less cash the Canon 50 mm f/1.8
is nearly as fast though not as sharp. Every DSLR user should have one of the two in their kit. When I got the 450D I should possibly have skipped the kit lens and got the cheaper 50mm but whilst the kit lens is not great it is handy to have.The 1.6 crop factor of the 450D and the 7D do mean that to go wide you have to go very wide. After reading about I decided on the Canon EF-S 10-22mm
to fill out this end of the range. It's a great lens but the price has jumped up a lot. Sigma
and Tokina's
near equivalents are highly rated but I haven't used them myself.Fond as I am of the 50mm on the crop I have found it a bit long for close work and small gigs where you are very close to the performers. Unless you are spending big money canons offerings are the 35mm f/2
or the 28mm f/2.8
didn't seem too popular and the latter is a bit slow for getting the shallow depth of field the 50mm offers as this is reduced on wider lenses. Reading about led me to the Sigma 30mm f1.4
which I am rather fond of.On a recent visit to Focus on Imaging I upgraded to the Canon EOS 7D
. My basic kit ends with the Canon 580EX II Speedlite Flash
(technically I have the original 580 but you can't buy that anymore. A good option if you can find it second hand though.Current kit list
Canon EOS 7D
Tamron - AF 55-200mm
Canon 50 mm - f/1.4
Canon EF-S 10-22mm
Sigma 30mm f1.4
My basic kit ends with the Canon 580EX II Speedlite Flash
Not everyone wants or needs all these toys. For many people and types of photography and decent camera will do. Panasonic Lumix FS18
