Lens Hoods & Bags & Stuff

[Spoolio]

Hi guys, I'm after yet more advice as all this SLR stuff is a steep learning curve (well more of a vertical line actually but...).

I've been told that I should get lens hoods for both my lenses to stop flare. The fittings are 73mm (on the 17-85 IS USM) and 65mm (on the 70-300 IS USM). Now, whilst I don't want to spoil the ship etc, it galls me to see that the cheapest I can find the Canon fitments (EW-73B and ET-65B) are £23 & £25 respectively. This does seem flippin expensive for a couple of bits of plastic. I have seen a Marumi version of the ET65B for £15 which is better. Has anybody got any opinions or alternatives?

Also, I got a free bag :thumbsup: with my Eos but it is only a diddy one that will only comfortably hold say a Nikon D60 with a short lens :thumbdown:. Any recommendations for a nice reasonably priced 'sack that'll hold the camera with the 300mm zoom fitted, and that can take other personal stuff as well?

Finally, I have already got a Sandisk Ultra (x66 speed) 4gb CF card off fleabay but have been told a card with a read/write speed of x100 or more would be noticeably better for burst shots. Is this true or am I being fed a line?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

[mole2k]

Finally, I have already got a Sandisk Ultra (x66 speed) 4gb CF card off fleabay but have been told a card with a read/write speed of x100 or more would be noticeably better for burst shots. Is this true or am I being fed a line?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

It does after a point. Basically when the buffer fills up it will then start writing them to the card and take another picture once there is enough space in the buffer again. My 20d will take 7 pictures at 5fps before the buffer fills up and with a sandisk extreme III I can then take about 2fps after that as the camera processes and saves the images. Thats in RAW in jpeg you get a lot more pictures (something like 23 I think before the buffer fills up).

The other stuff I dont really know about, all my lenses have came with the offical canon hoods and i've never broken one so I havnt had to buy them. Lowe pro bags are highly rated but they arnt particularily cheap though. I just use a normal small rucsack and everything fits neatly into that, i've got so much gear it all keeps itself tightly packed. I can just about fit the 20d with battery grip and 300mm upright in the bag.

[glypo]

Something like 80% of the Sandisk cards on eBay are fake, and crap. I've had a fake Sandisk before (from an Amazon Marketplace seller) and it was totally pants. Slow and lost files. So make sure yours is genuine.

As for speeds, heres a link from my bookmarks (you can tell I do my homework):

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/camera_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-9257

That's just specific to the 40D (other cams on other pages for anyone else interested). I have Sandisk Extreme III's, the new 2008 model, 30MB/s (200x). Really quite cheap, and as you can see ranks very well there when you sort the speed in jpeg.

CF speed makes a huge difference in my eyes. Not just for write (clears the buffer quicker, camera won't take photos quicker, and the buffer is around 60 images in jpeg), but it really helps when going through the photos. When you do action photos, and take hundreds, a slow card slows things down.

Also for downloading. A decent Sandisk extreme reader (the USB series, not the crazy priced firewire one) are capable of 20MB/s or 30MB/s depending on the one you choose. It means it takes just seconds to download hundreds of photos. So in my eyes good CF is always important. Just make sure it's genuine.

I got my CF's from www.picstop.co.uk I actually got two 4GB Extreme III 30MB/s for just £17.99 each, a pricing error I think as they are a fair bit more now, and I only ordered a week later. Still, pretty good prices.

p.s. anyone else feel the urge to write sandisc sometimes? Silly American language confusing me.

[mole2k]

I deffinately agree you have to be carefull with the Sandisk's there is a lot of fake ones about, I got one fake one once but got it replaced, I use a 4gb extreme III and a sandisk usb CF reader and its got great transfer rates.

You dont need fast cards, they wont visibly increase shooting speeds unless your taking really long burst shots but they really do help the usability when getting the images off onto the pc.

[CAClark]

I bought one off ebay which is not genuine, but it actually works fine (slow, but fine), so for actiony stuff I have a couple 133X Lexars, and for general I use the bigger fake sandisk.

I wouldn't by cards of ebay again though.

Cheers!