Starting a simple lighting setup

I am relocated now to Australia, and this is a very good opportunity for me as I got access to one of the ebay sites at last, www.ebay.com.au.

I've started to build a simple lighting setup using the single Speedlite I already have. These are the items I bought from ebay after a couple of weeks of research:

- RF-602 wireless flash trigger receiver and transmitter

- Two umbrellas through and reflecting with a light stand and a flash bracket.

This is an example for the first results I got. I know I have a long way to go learning lighting techniques. One thing stopping me from doing fast progress is the AA batteries. These wicked little things keep discharging when I am at work and when I get back at the evening, I just find all my batteries not working. So my next purchase will be a slowly discharging batteries and a fast charger, as my current charger is taking 8 hours.

To see photos for the RF-602 and other couple of tests, check my flicker.

Got My DSLR

Finally got my DSLR.

My gears now is Canon EOS 40D, Canon EF 28-135 IS, Canon EF 50 f/1.8, and Canon Speedlite 430EX.

They are still on there way. Meanwhile I am reading the 40D manual to be prepared for setting the custom settings (specially the AF-ON button and the C1, C2, C3 modes).

I also installed the Adobe Lightroom 2.3 and reading some tutorials as I intend to be shooting RAW all the way :)

Canon APS-C Bodies

A professional photographer once said:

"Bodies come and go, but glass lives for ever." :D

The moral, invest in lenses because they will live with you, but you will upgrade the camera body you bought every now and then.

Anyway, this is a list of some APS-C bodies from Canon:

1. EOS 1Ds Mark III: body only [$7000]
   
2. EOS 1D Mark III: body only [$3900]
   
3. EOS 5D Mark II: body only [$3000]
   
4. EOS 50D: body only [$1200], kit 17-85 [$1430], kit 18-200 [$1560] - 15Mp, DIGIC 4, 3'' LCD, live view, maximum no noise ISO 3200, weather proof.
   
5. EOS 40D: body only [$900], kit 17-85 [$1080], kit 70-300 [$1300] - 10Mp, DIGIC III, 3'' LCD, live view, maximum no noise ISO 1600, weather proof.
   
6. EOS 30D: body only [$500] - 8Mp, DIGIC II, 2.5'' LCD, no live view, maximum no noise ISO 1600.
   
7. EOS 450D (Digital Rebel XSi): body only [$580], kit 18-55 [$700], kit 18-200 [$1100]  - 12Mp, DIGIC III, 3'' LCD, live view, maximum no noise ISO 1600.
   
8. EOS 1000D (Digital Rebel XS): body only [n/a], kit 18-55 [$520] - 10Mp, DIGIC III, 2.5'' LCD, live view, maximum no noise ISO 1600.
   
9. EOS 400D (Digital Rebel XTi): body only [$500], kit 18-55 [$600], kit 17-85 [$950] - 10Mp, DIGIC II, 2.5'' LCD, no live view, maximum no noise ISO 800.
   
10. EOS 350D (Digital Rebel XT): body only [$550], kit 18-55 [$600] - 8Mp, DIGIC II, 1.8'' LCD, no live view, maximum no noise ISO 400.
    

1D, 1Ds, and 5D are not APS-C format bodies but they are in the list only for price comparison.

Selecting a lens for a APS-C format Canon body

I've been reading a lot of reviews and forum posts and these are the list of recomended lenses for APS-C format cameras (40D, 50D, 400D, 450D, 1000D, etc...):

1. Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 for ~$400 [eqv. 27-80mm]
2. Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM for ~$325 [eqv. 80mm]
3. Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II for ~$85 [eqv. 80mm]
4. Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM for ~$400 [eqv. 96mm]
   
5. Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II USM for ~$170 [eqv. 29-88mm]
6. Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM for ~$465 [eqv. 27-136mm]
7. Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM for ~$1000 [eqv. 27-88mm]
8. Canon EF-S 18-200 f/3.5-5.6 ~$590 [eqv. 29-320mm]
9. Canon EF-S 50-250mm f/4-5.6 IS ~$250 [eqv. 80-400mm]
10. Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III ~$160 [eqv. 120-480mm]
11. Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM ~$550 [eqv. 112-480mm]
    
12. Canon EF 70-200 f/4L USM ~$600 [eqv. 112-320mm]

About the focal length ranges:

• 27mm or 28mm eqv. is a nice to have wide range, sometimes you can't do without it for large group photos or landscapes with wide angle of view.
  
• 80mm eqv. is very suitable for portraits specially head only ones.
  
• 320mm eqv. only provided by the new introduced Canon lens, is a 10x zoom in that can be used in sports photography.
  

About maximum aperture:

• Constant maximum aperture is a very nice to have feature that can only be found here on the compact package lens the Tamron and the luxury package lens the Canon 17-55. Of course primes (i.e. not zoom lenses with fixed focal length like the Canon 50mm here) have constant maximum aperture openning.
  
• f/2.8 (or even better the f/1.4) is a minimum aperture that you cannot do without for portraits, in order to 3Dize the person of your interest (i.e. make the backgroud blur or not in focus). Otherwize f/3.5 or more will result in deep DOF (depth-of-field) that you will find your person head and the background both in focus which is an effect not welcomed in portraits.
  
• The wider the aperture also, the better results of photographing in these two fields; the low light conditions, and freezing the actions in like sports photography.
  

Lenses Optics:

• As the prices may already suggest, the 17-55 Canon is the most sharp and good quality lens, but this means that it is also the most big and heavy one.
  
• Primes though (the Canon 50mm here) compromises the zoom for the quality, size, and price. So the Canon 50mm (people used to call it the nifty fifty) while not very high priced, is of good sharpness and quality and provides a very needed minimum aperture of f/1.4. The lower price version of the nifty fifty is known to be of good optics too, never overlook this low price length.
  
• The Tamron also is said to be of good quality though it is of compact price, size, and weight. And hence, it is one of the most recomended lens for the APS-C format cameras as a one lens for all uses specially for beginners. Although other teams goes for starting with the nifty fifty. Very few people recomended the kit lenses for beginning (like the Canon 18-55 here).
  

Different Focal Lens Ranges

- My camera (the A570) has focal lens range 35-140mm eqv. and it is said to be 4x zoom.
- Compared to the S3 with 12x zoom with range 36-432mm eqv.
- Mounting the kit lens on the EOS 405D (the kit lens is the EF-S 18-55 mm IS), the equivalent focal lens range will be 28.8-88mm.

Note 1: Eqv. focal lens is the focal lens on a 36mm sensor sized camera (full frame camera like EOS-1Ds) that result in the same photographic angle like the real focal lens. The ratio between the sensor size and the full sensor size is called form factor. For example all Rebel series (300D, 400D, 450D, 1000D) has the form factor of 1.6 (i.e. its sensor size needs to be enlarged by 1.6 to become a full frame (36mm) sensor. Hence when the 18-55 lens is mounted on the 450D, the eqv range will be 18*1.6-55*1.6 which wil be 28.8-88

Note 2: 36mm eqv focal length is the standard photographing angle, focal lens below is consedered wide angles and focal lens above is considered telephoto (or zoomed in). So if you are moving from a P&S camera to dSLR and want to know what lens to give you the same result as your old P&S, don't just calculate the x zoom ratio of the lens (for example the 18-55 lens is a 3x lens). Instead, calculate the widest range to 36mm and the longest range to 36mm (for exampe the 18-55 when mounted on a 450D, will have the longest range of 88. This is equivilant to your P&S zoomed to only 2.4x).

Current & Planned Gears

I started with the Canon A570 IS. I was attracted by the value I got for the price ($150 = 850 EGP).
Also I liked the idea of having all control over the camera. Canon A series are the only non-professional cameras I know that allow Av, Tv, P, and M modes, manual focus, and other manual options.
My plan is to purchase a Canon EOS 450D or may be 1000D, may be by the end of next year; but I am yet very confused about what lenses to have.