Source
r/photography•
beanscounter

Help (advice) a novice take his photography to the third world

Shortly I will be undertaking a long term volunteer assignment in East Timor. I have always loved photography but with all the saving/spending I need to do before I leave, the dslr I was hoping for is abit out of my wallets reach.

Having known this, my lovely girlfriend has bought me an old film slr. Having spoken to some of other volunteers over there, I am told there is film available (although its mostly out of date). I am waiting by mail box for some photography books and I have been doing some research/playing around with the camera and have found that lenses is where it's at. The camera is a Canon EOS 500N (or Rebel G for the Americans in the audience) and has a 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 lense.

So I am asking our reddit community, to pursue my interest, what lenses/accessories should/can I get? I am struggling to find information applicable to my old slr. Althought I am a beginner, I hope spend my free time pursueing my interest. However because I will be away for so long, I will be unable to "upgrade" my lenses/accessories so I must get what I will need while it is available to me. I appreciate the help guys!

tl;dr : Going to the thirdworld for quite awhile, want to pursue my ametuer photography skills with my Canon EOS 500N/Rebel G film slr and would like to know what lenses/accessories I should get.

Posted Sep 5, 2010, 8:27 AM UTC

17
One808•

I would recommend a fast prime for portraits and stuff. The EF 50/1.8 should be a good fit. You may want to get an external flash as well.

2
suddenly_spiders•

first question that popped in my mind is: will you find your camera's lithium batteries (2 X CR123A) in Timor East?

You should get a Canon Battery Power Pack BP-8 (to use 4 x AA alkaline or rechargeables)

2
ZeeTerminata•

50mm F1.8 II

430 EX II

85mm F1.8 II

35mm F2

That's all you need to start, my friend. Sell that zoom lens.

2
ctesibius•

There are a couple of things that you might want to bear in mind. Firstly, film will degrade faster in the higher temperatures of East Timor, so I would be wary of using out of date film - also get the film developed quickly after use, as an image will degrade much faster than the unexposed film.

Secondly, film is "slower" than a DSLR, usually only going up to ISO400. This means that the slow lens you have (f/5.6 at 80mm) may be a problem when you are out of the sunlight, requiring inconveniently long exposures. I would suggest getting a tripod to avoid camera shake with these longer exposures, and possibly a remote release (does a cable release fit your camera? look for a screw thread in the shutter button).

One808 suggest getting a 50/1.8 - I agree, as it is a faster lens, it's cheap, and it has roughly the same field of view as your eye.

Another thing to consider is that you can't set the white balance on film, so you have to use coloured filters to try to compensate for artificial lighting. I believe you will need an 82B filter (of the appropriate size to fit your lens) to work under incandescent light: the idea is to take out most of the red. However this will need even longer exposures. An alternative is to get a "tungsten" film such as Kodachrome 64T, but I seriously doubt that this is going to be available - also it's only ISO64.

Negative film will be more tolerant of errors in exposure than will slide film - also the processing lab will tend to correct the white balance if you get prints made rather than scanningl

Finally you may want to estimate the cost of working in film, including processing. Is it really going to be cheaper than getting a second-hand DSLR to fit the lens you already have? I like working in film, but I've never found it to be particularly cheap.

More general points: you might want to get a protective ("UV") filter to go over the front of your lens if it doesn't have one - opinions differ on how useful these are. I understand it is a fairly wet climate: you can get cheap plastic weather protection bags (c. £6/$10) which leave only the front of the lens exposed. Fungus and condensation may be a problem: try to keep your lens dry at all times. Don't put film in hold luggage in a plane - the X-rays they use for hold luggage are stronger than for hand baggage and can cause fogging.

Good luck, and have fun.

2
beanscounterOP•

Thanks for that mate, you have bought up some issues that I had not previously considered. In doing the maths with film/developing and risking film being damaged (x-rays, out of date film and climate conditions etc) it seems that a dslr maybe something to consider.

As mentioned, photography in timor (and elsewhere) is something i want to pursue seriously so I have considering doing what I can now to put together a few more dollars for a dslr. Given my budget can I get something 2nd hand for cheap that will last me/is decent? and are the lenses that have been advised in this thread applicable for the dslr?

thanks again mate

1
ctesibius•

My advice will be a bit limited, as I'm only familiar with the Nikon DSLRs in any detail. Yes, you can definitely get something decent cheaply. You probably don't need anything particularly modern: recent cameras add incrememental improvements, but a five year old DSLR will still give nice results.

Your 28-70mm lens is a kit lens for a 35mm camera. As I understand it, it should fit any Canon DSLR with an EF or EF-S mount. However you will be getting a camera with a sensor only about 2/3 the linear dimensions of 35mm film, so the equivalent kit lens is an 18-55mm. If you use your existing lens, the 28mm wide end will be a bit restrictive (however I use a 24-70mm lens without missing too many shots). You might want to consider ignoring the lens you already have, and going for a kit - body plus 18-55mm standard zoom. There's a lot of them available secondhand from people upgrading, and the incremental cost for the lens is not a lot. If you do that, you're not restricted to Canon, but appreciate that this may not go down well with gf. Personally I would stick with Canon or Nikon as being the most popular brands. While it's unlikely you will find much in the way of spares and repairs out there, your chances are best with these two.

Specific cameras to look at:

  • Nikon D40X, D60 - I wouldn't go for the D3000 from the reviews I've seen, and the D5000 is going to be more expensive.
  • Canon - 350D, 400D, 450D - not the 500D on grounds of price, and the 1000D seems to have ambiguous reviews. Do bear in mind that I don't use Canon DSLRs myself.

Less obviously - consider a high-end Canon compact. I'll be specific to Canon here as 2-3 years back I think they were much better than the competitors. I have a G9 which is a lovely bit of kit. It's now obsolete by two model cycles, so it's cheap. Relative to a DSLR it has higher noise, lower max ISO, and less usable aperture range (at smaller apertures than f/4 it's restricted by diffraction) - however I've got some of my best shots from it because of its portability. I don't use that camera now as I replaced it with a Canon S90 - physically smaller, larger sensor, and an f/2 lens, but with the compromise of using menus for more of the controls, and with no option to add an external flash. That's obsolete by one model cycle, and costs about £300 new on Amazon.

I wouldn't worry too much about which of these you go for: they will all do the job well.

1
JPOG•

Check out some of JoeyL's work. He went to several third world places and took some very beautiful stylized shots using some creative methods. It may not be exactly what you are doing but it is good inspiration and can help with the type of shots you may be after.

http://www.joeyl.com/ His blog also hes detailed information on his journey, what he did, how he did things, what he took, etc. He did this all by the time he was 20 too btw. I think he is about 21 now.

1