Hi Denise,


1. Yeah, that's pretty outrageous, 'eh? All of the Canon tripod rings are like that ($150 for the ring that fits the 70-200mm f/4L's and 200mm f/2.8L. I've seen 3rd party equivalents for those others, haven't looked for the Mount Ring D ring, but if they're not there yet, they will be soon. The question is, would you trust $2500-3000 worth of gear to be supported by a $30 aftermarket part?


2. I have the Manfrotto 233B bracket - it's pretty nice and quite flexible in terms of flash positioning (I added aGiottosMH1004 mini ball head to which I mount the flash end of the OC-E3). The 233B does have a female tripod mount on the bottom (a reversible piece, with both 1/4" and 3/8" threads). Personally, I attach a QR plate to the bottom of the bracket so I can easily mount camera+bracket to a tripod.


3. No idea.


4. Yes, you'd need the adapter 67. Since that 'converts' the front to a 58mm diameter, you'd need the 58mm cap. I'm not sure how well it would grip since the adapter doesn't have front threads - but it looks like it has a 'lip' the 58mm lens cap will mount to. If you want to use a UV filter on the lens for protection, you'd use a 67mm filter (non-slim) mounted to the lens, then attach the adapter 67 onto the front threads of the filter.


5. A 3-stop (0.9/8x) ND filter works very well for the EF 85mm f/1.8 for outdoor portrait-type shots (where you want wide aperture for thin DoF). It also works just fine on the other lenses for longer exposures (e.g. blurring moving water). I recommend against getting a 2-stop (0.6/4x) filter - if your goal is to reduce light, you're already down at ISO 100. There's no meaningful difference in IQ/noise between ISO 100 and ISO 200, so if for some reason the 3-stop filter is too much, you can bump the ISO one stop to make up the difference. Personally, I went with all 77mm filters, and step-up rings (58-77, 67-77, 72-77). The 58mm filters are much cheaper than 77mm, so you could probably get a 58mm ND, too - but the step up works fine (precludes the hood), though it looks a little odd!


6. No idea.


Good luck!


--John