So I picked up the T3i last night - what a smokin' deal.. i paid more for my s40 back in the day.
Any tips on lenses, filters? since I'll be using a tripod for most shots, I assume used non-IS lenses are a good way to go?
I've got a t3i as well, great starting out camera.
IMO, for lenses, it all depends on what you want to do.... there is no one lens or lenses that are correct, the camera and the lens are creative tools and in creativity there is no right and wrong. Just to illustrate, I've read that Martin Scorssese hates long lenses while Akria Kurosawa sometimes used only long lenses for entire films.
Sorry, just realised do didn't ask specifically what focal length you should go with, just general advice - chances are you already know A LOT more than me!! (wouldn't be hard!)
Anyway, Depends if you want them for: Just video? Just for stills? Or Both (like me)? And then it depends on what your level of skill taking stills is, EG: I want my lenses to use my lenses for both Still and Video at the moment, and as my skill level is still quite low I want to stay away from Manual only lenses because I love/need the auto focus for stills (and video for composing before recording), plus I'm on a budget (Uni student).
I have a photographer friend who only uses older manual and he does fine, but I couldn't fathom doing that!
You really should go out and get yourself a Canon EF 50mm f1.8 II aka the "Nifty Fifty" - cheap and absolutely amazing for the price... Highly regarded and recommended lens. IMO it's a bit awkard on a crop sensor like our t3i (basically making it like a 85mm, great for portraits etc), I hardly use it anymore to be honest since I got my Tamron 17 - 50mm non VC (Non IS)
The wide end of the scale I've heard great things about the Tokina 11-16mm.
You could have a decent zoom range covered with something like:
Tokina 11 - 16mm
Tamron 17 - 50mm
*something for the 50mm - 150mm range*
Or you could get a handful of primes instead (or as well), like a 20mm equiv, 40 or 50mm equiv and an 85 or 100mm equiv.
But you can't go wrong with a 50mm equivalent as a general starting out "all rounder" type of lens, on our crop sensor this would roughly be a 30mm lens which equates to 48mm. In my research the Sigma 30mm f1.4 is the best bang for buck in this range (Remember I need auto focus), this will probably be my next lens although I do find the 40mm focal lenght to be somewhat more pleasing to me (this would be a 25mm lens on the t3i) so I'm tossing up something around 24mm instead.
That said, if you don't mind manual focus, what PaulGrifith said about the Samyangs etc, you really can't go wrong there, heard GREAT things about their lenses, they don't make a crap load of them but what they do make I've heard is amazing:
* Samyang 8mm f/3.5 Fisheye (for APS-C / DX sensors)
* Samyang 14mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC Aspherical
* Samyang AE 14mm f/2.8 IF ED AS UMC Aspherical
* 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC (Announced in August 2011 for release in late 2011 or early 2012)[2]
* Samyang 35mm f/1.4 AS UMC
* Samyang 85mm f/1.4 IF Aspherical
* Samyang AE 85mm f/1.4 IF Aspherical
I don't believe the 24mm 1.4 is out yet but I expect it to be amazing when it does land and maybe by then my skill will have improved!
Or you can get old Nikon/Nikkor manual lenses and get adapter rings to fit them onto your t3i, they can be had really quite cheap and have great optics (assuming they're in good nick still), I've got a great video about that somewhere, if you're interested I can post it up for you.
