I called them up first thing when I woke up and they already emailed me my UPS shipping label to return it. I also re-ordered the same tripod so I have minimal downtime, since they threw in free 2-day shipping for me. So far, so good. I may cancel my order w/ NewEgg onn the 7D… I heard Ray’s Supply or some places of that nature has the 7D in stock and they’re local. Nick S. (AMD IS BEST) just picked up a &d from BH today when he was in NYC. I is jealous.
:thumbup Good gear to get! I’ve got each of those with the exception of the 50mm. I have a Canon 50mm f/1.8 that I rarely use, my 85 f/1.2L is a focal length I use more if I am in that range. I just ordered a Canon 35 f/1.4L thats coming tomorrow for an upcoming project and to use for general shooting with a shorter focal length and larger aperture.
I’ve been seeing the benefits of using primes over zooms lately and have been contemplating selling my 70-200 f/2.8L IS and 100-400L and replacing the 70-200 with a 200L (since I have an 85L and 135L) and picking up a 400 f/5.6L to replace the 100-400L…but maybe down the road I will do that.
I think you will really like the 70-200 when you do use it, its a great lens and performs awesome in low light. The 100-400L loves light, the more you give it the happier it is.
I would wait before ordering another lens until you see what focal length you use more or would use more, no sense in buying a lens you will never use. Do you have a 17-40 f/4L or 16-35 f/2.8L to use as a general purpose “walk around” lens? If not you could look into one of those as well.
I’m not huge on prime lenses because most of the shooting I do is at a race track, so I am constantly zooming in/out. Plus say something awesome happened but was out of the prime’s range, I don’t wanna risk losing a potentially amazing shot because I was putting a different lens on lol. I have a few non-L lenses as well: 28-135mm IS EF, 10-22 EF-S, 18-55 EF-S, and 70-300 IS EF (going to be selling that very soon though, since I have better lenses now with the same ranges). I was told I may want to look into the 24-105mm f/4L IS or the 24-70 f/2.8L.
For screw in, threaded filters I have had good luck with Heliopan, B+W, and Singh-Ray. The majority of my filters are Heliopan, the B+W and Singh-Ray filters I have are more specialty filters that I dont use all the time. A filter is only as good as the glass its made from, so don’t skimp.
The one filter that is a usable filter to have is a circular polarizer (CP). It will enhance greens and blues when rotated on the lens and be most usable when the filter is angled 90* to the sun. It also cuts glare and reflections from windows and body panels on vehicles nicely too. My main CP filters are Kasemann glass, which have sealed glass so the filter wont delaminate from moisture change and extreme temerature change. A filter may never delaminate but its nice to know its a better quality filter.
A UV or Protection filter is just a clear glass filter you can put on the lens that will keep the front element from getting contaminated or scrathced. Its not a bad idea to have, a $100 filter is easier and cheaper to replace than a front element on a $1K+ lens.
A Nuetral Density (ND) filter is something else you could look into if you want to increase your exposure time. I use a 3-stop ND filter for my moving water shots stacked on top of a CP filter to reduce glare and reflections on the water, and the ND filter allows less light to enter the lens so a longer shutter speed is needed than without it, the end result is blurred water with a properly exposed image. There are lots of other uses for ND filters too.
I ordered two Canon 77mm UV filters (I just use them for protection) and then a 77mm CP from BW. I have a cheaper SunPak CP filter on my 28-135, and so far so good now that I know how to use it properly.
What made you go with a 7D instead of a 5DMarkII or a 1DMarkIII?
I was going to get the 1Ds MarkIII, but I see they came out with the 1D Mark IV already (but that’s still a crop frame), so I figure the 1Ds Mark IV shouldn’t be too far behind. I want that mainly just because of the weather resistance (to an extent) since I will prolly end up shooting when there’s a drizzle out again. I got the 7D for now, because I still wanted a crop frame cam without going overboard (1D). The 7D will make a great backup cam as well.
Thanks for all of your input man!