Purchasing 7D - please help with lenses!!!!

[weewillo]

Team,

The allocated budget and prices I listed above are to just get me started initially as I want something decent to take os with me (lets face it - anyng will be better than my 5 year old ixus 7.5 mp point and shoot!!!!). So if I did opt for the 5d I would definitely get another lens for it sometime soon.

I didn't even consider the 5d until it was mentioned here - I really can't see myself getting into wildlife or sports photography (not until i have kids and they are old enough to play sport so that's a few years away yet - at least 8) as I mentioned my really interest is taking photos on holidays of arch / buildings / landscapes and probably 'people' shots now that I think of it (eg street stallers selling food). I also love taking photographs of things at night - not so much people but of things lit up, such as harbor bridge or the bright lights of Vegas.

I have not used an slr previousy - but in saying that, I plan to spend 3 hours a night for the next 9 weeks learning how to use it before my trip (to at least get the basics down) / not to mention every moment on the weekends going out and about taking 100's of pics.

I did consider the 60d with all it's set shooting functions and this would help me greatly, however, when I held it in the shops I found it very difficult to operate the rear scrolling pad - my fingers are too big for the inner buttons on it and it was hard to control. Plus with all the time I plan on doing photography I believe I will outgrow this pretty quickly. I had my heart set on the 7d as it has the 3 user settings which I could set up myself (black and white / landscape and something else) but it appears as though the 5d II would be more suited to my needs??????

So if you were me (and wanted to take pics of the above) and had 3k to spend getting started what would you do / option 1 (7d 15-85 / one of the 70-200) or option 3 (5d with 24-105).....I also like the look of the 17-40l for the landscapes / big views at the 17mm!

I really want to buy it this week so I can get started!


So now

[HDNitehawk]

weewillo

From your last post, personally I would go with the 5D II and build from there.

Now some other advice. The 5D II will have those same basic settings, but a large majority of people who get in to digital cameras end up saving there pictures in RAW format, rather than JPEG. RAW takes up more room on the hard drive, but if you are using DPP (which will be free software supplied by Canon) it will allow you to work your pictures and convert them to JPEG or TIFF Files. You can then play with the settings , white balance etc....till you get the picture you want. It also gives you those basic templates, you can just select landscape, portrait or any of the others and it will automatically change it to that style. It does this just like it would in camera without destroying all the basic information stored. If you go JPEG in camera, you have very limited things you can do to it later. With RAW as your skill level grows, you can come back later and play with your files to make them look better and better.

You can go to Canon's website, and you can actually download the owners manual of all the current cameras. They can be very helpful when starting out, and you could do it now to give you a heads up.

If you are buying the camera from a local camera store that is a Canon dealer, they occasionally have beginner and intermediate classes that are sponsored by Canon. You would find those helpful as well. I buy most of my stuff on line, and use B&H quit often. However I have several bodiesI bought from the local shop and even though I pay more, sometimes there is something to say for personal in person service.