New Canon 80D user - recommended Lens/Accessories

[kshen113]

Hi Macrumors,

I'm picking up a Canon 80D with a 18-135 lens this upcoming weekend, and wanted your recommendations on what accessories/additional lens I should get.

PREFACE: I'm just starting to get into photography, so my expertise level is : well, noob.
The camera will be used to take vlogs with the girl, as well as photos during our outdoor adventures...

I'm thinking of grabbing a gorillapod, tripod, 10-18 wide angle, but not sure if there's anything that can help me with my usecase.

 

[mollyc]

Wow, a 10-18 is super ultra wide. You will likely get mostly a fisheye look out of that. I wouldn't recommend it as a first lens, and I am primarily a wide angle shooter.

I would recommend that you just spend sometime shooting with the kit lens you are getting and see where your preferred focal lengths tend to fall. You will have plenty to learn with just using the camera and that one lens and how the exposure triangle works, etc. Once you get familiar with the camera, then figure out what lenses you might need. I would really encourage you to learn how to shoot manual so you really know how to work the camera, even if your ultimate shooting style puts you in one of the semi-manual areas (like aperture priority/AV or shutter priority/Tv). Knowing how to use manual will help you more than anything else, IMO.

Once you start shooting manual, you will know if you want a lens that has a wider aperture than the kit lens you are getting.

Really, just learn manual, and figure out if you like wide angle or more telephoto, then start looking at more/better lenses.

 

[Fishrrman]

molly wrote:
"Wow, a 10-18 is super ultra wide. You will likely get mostly a fisheye look out of that. I wouldn't recommend it as a first lens, and I am primarily a wide angle shooter."

The 80d is APS-c with a crop factor of 1.6, so the 10-18 is really 16-29 in "35mm terms".

The 10-18 does seem to be a favored lens for v-logging with Canon crop-sensor cameras.

It seems to be getting very good reviews, if one is willing to accept its limitations (4.5 minimum aperture up to 5.6). It's also very reasonably priced.

OP:
Have you also checked the 77d?
It offers something in video mode that the 80d lacks -- electronic image stabilization that actually works fairly well. However, it doesn't have all the compression choices that the 80d has. 77d also has Digic 7 processor (80d has Digic 6).

I've got the 77d (with 18-135 and also 55-250).
Still learning about it.
I find that focusing can be made as accurately (or moreso) by using the touchscreen during live view!

 

[kshen113]

molly wrote:
"Wow, a 10-18 is super ultra wide. You will likely get mostly a fisheye look out of that. I wouldn't recommend it as a first lens, and I am primarily a wide angle shooter."

The 80d is APS-c with a crop factor of 1.6, so the 10-18 is really 16-29 in "35mm terms".

The 10-18 does seem to be a favored lens for v-logging with Canon crop-frames.

It seems to be getting very good reviews, if one is willing to accept its limitations (4.5 minimum aperture up to 5.6). It's also very reasonably priced.

OP:
Have you also checked the 77d?
It offers something in video mode that the 80d lacks -- electronic image stabilization that actually works fairly well. However, it doesn't have all the compression choices that the 80d has. 77d also has Digic 7 processor (80d has Digic 6).

I've got the 77d (with 18-135 and also 55-250).
Still learning about it.
I find that focusing can be made as accurately (or moreso) by using the touchscreen during live view!

I haven't, but thanks for the suggestion - I'm actually getting the 80D as a gift (i know, it's a HUGE gift). I've heard good reviews about the 10-18 since we'll be doing personal vlogs and the camera functionality should be great for her instagram obsession (ha...dont get me started).

From the reviews I read, the 80D seems to be like a great starter camera that is great at doing both photo and video. Is this the case, or did I pick the wrong camera? I'm a noob at manual so I need to be learning that as i go too.

 

[malofx]

I love mine, as for the lens, I have the Tamron 16-300 - 3.5- https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/co...Bvie5rUJQc3xoCO-7w_wcB&is=REG&m=Y&sku=1029404 with this lens you can do wide angle, I strongly believe this is a good lens for someone starting up, because you can go from one extreme (16mm) to the other (300mm) Check out my Instagram to see what kind of photos I've been taking for the past year... www.instagram.com/malofx I hope you find this useful.

 

[kshen113]

Would you guys recommend this mic?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GQDORA4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

 

[TheDrift-]

In terms of photography Bryan Patterson's understanding exposure is a good choice for a basic introduction.

From there some evening or day course to help you along

You have a great camera and cover a good focal length.

I would also suggest looking at a 'fast lens' , one with a wider maximum aperture such as the canon 'nifty fifty' (50mm 1.8) which is pretty inexpensive.

 

[Q-Dog]

That mic can work fine , it depends on what you want it to do. It will be fine for capturing general ambience of things you point it at. If you think it will be able to capture intelligible audio from a person speaking 20 feet away from you in a slightly noisy environment, then no.

There is no one size fits all microphone. I have a closet full of expensive mics. It is extremely rare that any of them get mounted to a camera. Put the microphone as close to the source as possible.

 

[mpfuchs]

It sounds like you're looking at the 10-18 mostly for video, which I can't really comment on.
But if your plan is to use the camera on outdoor adventures like you mentioned above, a wide angle lens is great to capture landscapes. Let's say you're on that mountain top and want to capture the vibe of it, a wide angle lens gives you the best field of view to accomplish that.
And as mentioned above, the 10-18 on a crop sensor is not really that wide.
When I got the 11-22 for my EOS M, I was amazed at how much I could fit in the frame and it was my favorite lens for a long time!

 

[hvfsl]

I would also recommend the EF 50mm 1.8, great for taking pictures of people. That one can only be used for photos as it doesn't have stabilisation though (unless you use a tripod). Can use it to get some really nice blurred background shots.