Cameras, Lenses, Lighting, Accessories

We'd all love to have the best equipment for every occasion, however the practicalities of finances mean that it's not always possible.

So here's my question;

1) What's the minimum equipment that you would recommend for photographers just starting out (New and second hand)?  I'm assuming here enough credentials to allow more than a point and shoot compact.

2) What would you add/change as money was saved up?

There will always be compromises so which are worth making, which never and which sometimes?

 After reading about this problem, I had it happen to me a week later.  Apparently, the mirror falls off due to an adhesive failure.  It's a known issue and Canon will fix it for free.

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=PgComSmModDisplayAct&fc...

Seb Rogers posted in his blog the specifications to the new Nikon D3X which he found just this morning in the Nikon Pro magazine that landed on his door step in the UK. According to the article, here at the camera specifications:

Read more details in my Leica S2 blog entry.

Today Canon officially announced the long awaited Canon 5D Mark II, the replacement for the wildly popular Canon 5D.

Canon's "Moon" ad:
http://www.canon.com/moon/en/index.html

Canon's 5D Mark II page:
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=139&modelid=17662#ModelDetailAct

Don Wiss posted a great web page some time ago that I thought would be good to share. It shows you the storefront of so-called discount camera retailers in New York City. Most everyone knows that B&H Photo Video, Adorama, Calumet, Samy's, Berger Brothers, and Hunt's Photo-Video are all very reputable retailers here in the USA. There are also a number of very reputable retailers in Asia, Europe and Australia for our non-US members.

This website shows the names and storefronts of places that are NOT reputable.
Brooklyn Store Fronts: http://donwiss.com/pictures/BrooklynStores/

I was shooting fireworks tonight with my 40D I bought in Mid-February and got the dreaded Err 99. Switched batteries, switched lens, cleaned contacts, etc. Nada!

Now I have argue with Best Buy (I was smart and bought the extended warranty) as I have a HUGE festival to shoot in less than 2 weeks and I really don't want to do so with my four-plus year old back-up body.

Hopefully the Nikon shooters among us saw the announcements from Nikon today:

• Nikon D700 - a D3 FX 12MP sensor in D300 packaging
• Nikon SB-900 Speedlite
• Nikon 45mm & 85mm Tilt-Shift Lenses

My Canon 20D is 3 yrs old, has approximately 40K images taken. Lately it's been front-focusing pretty badly (very noticeable at wide open apertures), and is currently in the shop (along my most-used lens) for an alignment.

The shop said they might not be able to fix it, and some local photog friends have advised me that after 3yrs this camera may be near the end of its life. :(

Some camera makers are starting to include a feature where all of your custom settings can be saved to a file on your storage card and imported to other cameras. I have ordered a new Nikon D300 which supports this feature. What other cameras support this feature? Would you be willing to post a message with a Zipped copy of your custom settings file attached?

..that is the question haha. I am about to plead my case with the hubby about some lighting and was looking into the SU800 and the Pocket Wizard that Walter mentioned. I can probably squeeze 1-2 SB-600's and a commander out of the deal. I have a feeling I already know the answer to this but is the Pocket Wizard a better choice? I saw a few different ones on adorama.com but am unsure of the best bang for the buck or which one is really the best one for the job. What do most of you use? Can anyone shed any opinions or light on the subject? No pun intended lol. :)

I am shopping for a telephoto I can afford, f2.8, obviously. I have tried a friend's Sigma f2.8 50-150mm, which seems to be a neat lens, but on my camera, a Nikon D70s, it seems slow to focus in low-light environments. It was suggested to me on another forum that there could be a different "focus mechanism" in my D70s that makes the camera able to accept the lens, but unable to focus it at speed. Anyone know anything about this? I could use some enlightenment, since everywhere I look, I can't really find anything relevant about this.