Digital Cameras

camera accessories kit

I Need Extra Lenses and Accessories for my Rebel Xsi, i have the kit lens and nothing else, any suggestions?

I’m 16, i just bought a canon eos 450d (rebel xsi) a month ago and i’ve taken about 500 pictures a day, i mean i am glued to it, i have found a passion for photography inside of me, now my question is, i’ve done alot of research and i’ve read the the 50mm prime lens is definitely a good one to get.

The EF 50mm f1.4 USM lens is a good choice – IF you want to do a lot of available light (non-flash) photography. Its worth the price difference compared to the 50mm f1.8 due to its build quality alone.

Here are the accessories I recommend:

1) A Haze/UV filter to protect the front element of any lens you own.

2) A Circular Polarizer. Its used to darken a blue sky and to remove glare/reflections from glass, water, sand and painted metal – but not polished metal. It also enhances colors.

3) A microfiber lens cloth to keep your filters clean. The less contact you have with the front element of your lens the better.

4) A good tripod. When shooting landscapes a tripod is all but mandatory.

Do not waste your money on cheap, no-name filters. Always buy quality. Heliopan, Hoya, B+W, Tiffen, Singh-Ray. I still use a Tiffen circular polarizer I bought 37 years ago.

Buy the best tripod you can afford. Gittos, Benro, Slik, Manfrotto, Gitzo, Velbon are all good choices. A quality tripod uses cast parts where they are needed. Cheap, department store tripods use stamped parts where cast parts should be used. Choose either a 3-way fluid tilt/pan head or a good ballhead.

Now for an “Edwin Editorial”:

You have, in my opinion, fallen into what I call the “machine gunner mentality” in your approach to photography. Be honest now and think about all the pictures you’ve taken. How many of them are stored on your hard drive? How many have been deleted? Lets allow for some “youthful enthusiasm” and scale back the number of pictures you’ve taken to 300 a day. Over 30 days that’s 9,000 pictures. That, in my opinion, is not photography – its just taking snapshots. Of course, snapshots have their place. Family gatherings. Friends. Street fairs.

Now look objectively at the pictures you’ve taken. How many of them will be deleted because of poor composition or poor lighting or poor exposure or blur from subject movement? If you take 300 lousy pictures and have no idea why they’re lousy, what have you learned? Other than how to take 300 lousy pictures.

“Pictures are not taken, they are made.” Ansel Adams. Memorize this quote. “Pictures are not taken, they are made.”

Serious photography, however, is another matter. It requires thinking and thinking requires time. Just shooting and shooting and shooting, as you’ve been doing, doesn’t allow you time to think. You need to learn to think about the picture you want to make and how to make it. I encourage developing the “sniper mentality” – one exposure, one good picture. This means ignoring the impulse to just press the shutter release when a scene catches your attention.

“Pictures are not taken, they are made.”

Instead, take time to look at the scene and really see it. Standing. Kneeling. Sitting. Lying flat on your belly. Move a few feet to the left. Move a few feet to the right. Get closer. Back up. Compose using landscape orientation (horizontal). Compose using portrait orientation (vertical). Think about what f-stop to use. Do you want a lot of Depth of Field (DOF) or very little? Will a slow shutter speed be sufficient or is there subject movement that you don’t want blurred, requiring a faster shutter speed? That flower might look pretty in the sunlight but suppose you take time to get behind it and make your photograph with the light shining through the petals? When you shoot a landscape, is the horizon level? It should be.

How do you get more Depth of Field? How do you get a faster shutter speed? These are questions a photographer must know the answers to.

While you’re doing all that, you also need to pay attention to your background. Is there a dead tree branch that will be a distraction? Powerlines? Litter in the foreground? A blah, colorless sky? A leaf that is in full sunlight and will be over-exposed compared to the subject? A bright colored object that even out of focus will still distract from your subject. All of these require changing your composition to eliminate these distractions.

I know this all sounds complicated. It is, at first. As you apply these techniques they will soon become almost instinctive and you’ll be doing them without actually thinking about them.

“Pictures are not taken, they are made.”

Here are some sites that will really help you.

http://www.digital-photography-school.com You can sign up for an e-newsletter as well as classes.

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html Understanding Depth of Field (DOF) is important for good photography.

http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=TipsAndTechsAct Canon’s Digital Learning Center will help you get the most from your camera.

Here are some books worth reading:

“Understanding Exposure” & “Understanding Shutter Speed”, both by Bryan Peterson.

“The Art of Digital Photography” by Joseph Meehan

Types Of digital camera Accessories

Recently, the use of digital cameras has increased a lot. Not only because they are easy to carry around but also because that they are easier to use and easier to handle and come with a lot more features than the older film based cameras. The rising use of digital cameras has led to a higher production and sales of digital camera accessories. All of these digital camera accessories are made precisely understanding the needs of the customers at the hour. The main focus is laid on the flash and the zoom ability of the camera. Additional flash guns and similar accessories are of a great help for perfect and bright pictures.

Accessories are also developed in concern with the battery of the camera. Prolonged battery life ensures a great expedition of photography without much fear of the charge in the camera. Memory cards and other storage devices with large expandable memory ensures room for all the snaps and does not need one to constantly delete pictures to make room for new ones. The LCD screens in digital cameras may be very hard to use in the bright sunlight and to help with this, sun shield screens are available in stores to see that there is a good and clear view of the LCD screen. Digital Camera repair kits and stands are also a few accessories that may be very essential to digital camera users. All these accessories aim at bringing out the ultimate joy of photography. For more details visit our site.

Zacuto 60 Second Baseplate Kit Tripod Handheld Install