When I picked up my hobby of photography, I had to start my collection of equipment from scratch. Starting with the Digital Rebel (EOS 300D) and its basic kit lens, I have added a portrait lens (50mm) and the zoom lens(70-200mm) and a high quality wide angle (17-40mm) to complete the initial set. Along the way, I have additional pieces like a tripod, flashgun with a diffuser and a collection of filters that fit my kit lens.

If you are a serious photographer and want to indulge your hobby or profession with the very best of equipment, it is not difficult to spend thousands of dollars doing so. With the compact point and shoot cameras, the initial purchase is pretty much it for the camera equipment part but if you are like me, using a DSLR like the Canon Digital Rebel or the Nikon D40, you will find that your camera equipment purchases never stop at the original camera body and standard lens. If you are into wildlife photography, then you have to get a telephoto lens; closeups of flowers, a macro lens; portraits will require a high quality fast prime lens and so on. The thing is though that these lens, especially the higher quality ones, are a substantial investment. For example, the 17-40 F4L lens that I purchased for my landscape photography costed well over $700 which is more than the cost of the Canon Digital Rebel camera body I have. You could go with a cheaper lens; a comparable lens of the same zoom range and maximum aperture will go for half of the Canon price but the difference in the quality in the […]