Eric,

I am getting ready to order my T2i.

I have a few accessory questions:

- You mentioned a $350 F/1.4 lens, are you referring to Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM?

- Should I get a Eye-Fi card at 8gig or buy a standard 32gig?

- Which ND filters did you buy?

Thanks!
Dave

Been writing an article on this very topic the last couple of days...

Ferget the eye-fi card: it's a gimmick. I can't even figure out how it's useful. How often are you planning to be near enough to a computer to offload your photos? And, in a professional studio, you've already got your trusty hard connection to a computer anyhow. And, in the field, how hard is it to just pop a 16GB card out, pop another one in and upload the first card to your netbook as you go? That's the P2 workflow and it's definitely very professionally workable.

I don't own any ND filters. Don't listen to me, because I'm no photog, but the shutter is usually enough to get what I want. I do own a clear filter (often on, but not always - reflections at night, esp.). I also have a Tiffen warm circular polarizer that is often on during the day and does stop things down a bit. These are both 58mm, to fit the stock 15-55mm lens, which is a bargain at $100 and highly recommended in the kit. 15mm is quite wide, really. Oh, and a 52-58mm step ring adapter, because I also want to use my filters on my...

50mm f/1.8, which, at $90, is a bargain and a half. Now, honestly, I'd rather have the f/1.4, which is something like 40% brighter albeit 250% more expensive. You don't need both lenses. For DoF stuff, I think you'll find f/1.8 is plenty shallow, making focusing plenty tricky, but 40% brighter... me wantee. Not that the f/1.8 is dark: kick the ISO up and you can easily get a brighter view in the camera than you can see with your eyes at 1/30-1/24 shutter. And the camera is AMAZINGLY quiet, even at 800 ISO and higher.

Thanks!

The email notification for your reply came in when I was watching this video: www.vimeo.com/9999670 which also talks about the two prime lens. Looks like the 1.8 will work fine and I can spend more money on a good zoom lens - but which one... more studying to do.

Yea, zooms are tougher. More glass, more complex... a lot more expensive. I don't think you'll find a decent +200mm zoom which will cost less than the camera body itself, which is painful. Check out Sigma and Tamron too (besides Canon). Seems like you really pay a price in terms of quality and, uh, price if you go with a superzoom (that is, one that goes from wide to telephoto) as opposed to just a regular zoom (70-200mm).

When you got the 7D did you get the kit lens that came along with it?

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

This zoom for $350 might be a good choice for me while I use the prime lens for low light.

I guess I will need to study more about the Sigma and Tamron lens you are talking about.

March 18th: One week 'til it ships.

I am not seeing available on Amazon, is the 18th the right date?

T2i + lens kit is available today via Ritz Camera. Says 3-4 day processing, whatever that means. If you don't already have a lens, the 15-55 kit lens is great, with the 15mm end being wide enough for most indoor situations, even small rooms (full body from 4m).

D. Eric Franks wrote:
the 15mm end being wide enough for most indoor situations, even small rooms (full body from 4m).

whoah!!!
that's wide!
I need me some of that for my nikon setup!
juicy, juicy!

I can confirm, the T2i KIT is shipping. Body-only is still not available.

My local store has only the kit, i am still waiting for the body only.

You already have some lenses? The 18-55mm is a decent lens for $100, in my opinion, especially at the wide end.

I thought we decided that the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
was the lens for me to start with, that is why I am waiting for body only.

Should I go with the kit lens instead?

Oh, sorry, I meant the $100 f/1.8 in ADDITION to the kit lens. You will definitely not want to use the f/1.8 for everything (mostly it's not very wide, but it's also finicky to focus...which is the whole point of the lens). The 18mm end of the kit lens is surprisingly wide and very useful indoors and the ~3x zoom is something you'll use a lot too.

What is the data transfer rate when doing video between the camera and the SD card?

I mean, should I be concerned about getting a 30MBps (extremely fast card) or would a standard 15MBps card do fine?

I am pretty sure you want Class 6 or better rating on the card.

I've got the bosses permission to plunk down the cash for this and am just waiting!! Trying to get all my ducks in a row.

I'm still waiting to buy it when Amazon has it in stock.

Yea, the memory card speeds are desperately in need of standardization and revision. I used a 32GB 133x CF card for the 7D, where "133x" presumably still means "133x the base CD-ROM speed". I can't even remember the data rate from a 1x CD anymore. I had 2 16GB Class 6 SDHC cards already and they seem to work fine in the T2i. How fast are they in terms of data rate or as a CD multiplier? I dunno, I already had them, so I didn't look up the stats. I do know the cameras shoot +40Mbps, maybe as high as 45Mbps?

I think I remember on Philip Blooms site that anything class 6 or better will work.

The two cards I am looking to buy are:
Eye-Fi Pro X2 8 GB SDHC Class 6
Transcend 32GB SDHC Memory Card & USB Card Reader Class 6

I am going to use the Eye-Fi mostly for pictures because of the geo tagging feature which I want.

Here is the equipment I am going to buy once the T2i is available on amazon - any thoughts?

I finally got mine!

Sweet! And an unboxing video too!

Lets get back to memory cards,

I think I am ready to go ahead and get this as well now (before the camera arrives). OK, so the range I have seen (compatible and better)is class 6 and class 10. Just for curiosity, are there higher speed cards in the SDHC format? I did a little searching but didn't find anything higher than the class 10, if anyone knows of any post a link please, I would like to check it out.

Observation:
Dave I see in your video that the LCD looks like it has a thirds graph right there on the screen. Am I imagining this or what? If so, I have often wondered why this wasn't more prevalent in gear, especially gear specifically designed for video, ehhh!!

The class 6 cards I have work fine for me on the t2i.

Yes, you can turn the grid on and off if you like. Make it easier for framing.