£300 to spend

[Lee Chapman]

Hello...

I'll be picking up my new XL1S on Wednesday and will have £300 to spend on accessories, not much I know - but it's better than nothing!

What should take priority? I'm guessing a decent UV filter and a couple of batteries... would that be about right? Also, can anyone advise me what brands I should be looking for as I really don't want to spend more than I have to but I do want the stuff I buy to work!

Thanks,
Lee

[Rob Lohman]

Have you ever worked with this camera or any such a "professional"
camera? If not I would wait with buying accessories.

However most people seem to first want to get a good tripod
which 300 pounds is probably the minimum price (but twice that
amount would probably be better).

Batteries depends on what kind of shooting you are going to
use it for. Some people are using a cheap version for this from
Lenmar for example.

So what are you going to do with this camera?

[Lee Chapman]

Hi and thanks for your response.
My previous camera was the Panasonic DX110b, a great little 3 chip camera that blew my socks off about 5 years ago ( gosh, have I really had it THAT long?! ) ... so, no - I've never used a 'professional' camera. Been in front of a few, but that's a different story. I guess I have a fairly steep learning curve ahead of me ( I pick up the camera tomorrow ).

I recently bought a used Manfrotto tripod - it says 074 on the side. It came with a Manfrotto head that appears to be quite old put still seems to work really well ( the head is a #029 ) .. have I made a mistake??! It is all I can afford right now as the cam is costing £2000.

I'm intending to buy a UV filter and a hard case.

The main reason for buying the camera is help start a business, or at least to expand the one I currently have. Actors showreels, corporate stuff and, uh oh, wedding videos. Eventually, I'd really like to shoot my own TV pilots for the comedy stuff my partner and I write.

I've looked everywhere for cheap batteries here in the UK and they seem next to impossible to find. Are Lenmar batteries available over here?

One final thing, after being really, REALLY excited about getting the camera the good people over at 2-Pop have really put a dampner on things; almost everyone seems to hate the XL1S. Bad this, terrible that. Wish I'd never gone over there.

Cheers

Lee

[Rob Lohman]

The XL1S is a great camera, depending ofcourse what you want
to use it for. There is a reason you see it popping up all over the
place in movies and whatnot.

I can't comment on your tripod, I don't know what's good there
or not. You may want to post a new thread in our Support Your
Local Camera forum to ask if the tripod + head you've got is good
enough for the XL1S.

Why are you going to get an UV filter?

Although that hard case might be nice, it's also going to be
expensive. A lot of people (myself included) simply got a case
from a local hardware store (for putting tools etc. in) and but
some kind of foam in it for all the gear to go in (you quickly end
up with extra stuff that might not even fit a conventional case).

Such cases are usually below $100 instead of $500 or $1000 etc.,
but require some extra work yourself. I have a hard plastic one
with wheels under it for easy rolling around and can even use it
to sit on or stand on etc.

I have no idea who might sell lenmar in the UK, I assume you
have some sites overthere that can help you locate certain brands
and stores etc.

One way is to go to www.google.co.uk and then let it
search on Lenmar INSIDE THE UK, although be careful of some
shops etc.

In the end I would first learn this massive new camera (for you)
and then continue with your accessoiry hunt so to speak.

[Dennis Liu]

UV Filter? I was under the impression that this was like, the No. 1 thing to get with any camera?

Is there a better base filter I should get instead of the UV?

Dennis

[Rob Lohman]

Well, views on that are mixed. Some people are not going to
shoot without such an UV filter "protection" in front of their naked
lens, others don't want to degrade the image with an additional
piece of glass that might introduce all sort of optical problems
(like light bouncing inbetween coatings etc.)

In the end, the lens already has a very strong coating to prevent
much problems and usually protection is not needed, except if
you are really going into rough spots where trouble might go
towards your lens.

It's a personal thing, if you do get a UV filter then I would go for
a good quality one (I believe Tiffen is a good brand to go with).

[Dennis Liu]

Ahh ok. I had just ordered a Tiffen UV Filter a couple of days ago, heh.

Cheers,
Dennis