Photography Backpack

It really depends on what you will be doing with it. And how much shit you will want to carry on any given day. Me, i have a nikon d2x and a nikon d90. I carry my 90 almost everywhere i go. But its not always in my Dakine pack. Sometimes i use a lowepro shoulder bag or sometimes my summer pack (tamrack 5744) Depends on the situation i am using it in. Say im skiing, its almost always my dakine bag, because i like to carry at least carry a lot of shit. like two extra lens and a SB 600 flash. For some reason if i just use my small shoulder pack to go up one or two runs with i am almost always left sayin shit i shoulda brough my 70-200 out, or damn wish i had a flash.

That being said, get two packs, one for skiing were you want something thats waterproof and can hold a lot of shit and one small one like a shoulder holster for everyday use.

Even if its your first DSLR and ou only have the camera body and kit lens, you will end up with more shit than you can imagine in about a year and you dont want to have to keep dropping money on that kind of shit when you can put it into a new lens instead.

I have the Daine and i took a huge huge spill about two weeks ago, it was bad. I was shooting my boys dropping huge on the north face of alyeska and somehow i tumbled myself hard. I had my d90, my 70-200 F2.8 lens, my 18-105 kit lens, and my 50 f1.4 lens. Also had my sb600 flash and tripod. Not one thing was messed up and i tumbled about 100 yards at least.

Oh yeah one more thing, keep an extra battery inside your jacket for cold days.
Sorry i typed a lot, im really into photography and there doesnt seem to be much about it on this site.
Steve

oh no, mad karma for you for actually typing out a response.
and im looking for another lens after the basic 18-55 kit lens, any suggestions?

Lowe Pro

Dude, i dont know what camera brand you have but the most popular and sharpest lens out of the box is definatly a 50mm f1.4 or f1.8. You can get tthose for like 150-300 bucks, so for the money they are bad ass. Since they are so fast you really get good pics when you shooting continuous. Other wise definatly get a telephoto, like a 70-300. If your only going to be shooting moving objets or in real bright light, get the cheaper model without the VR or IS. You dont need it to shoot moving objects (such as skiers) With te 50 f1.8 and a decent flash (even in the dayliht) You can get pro grade pics. What kind of camera did you get?

I have a lowe pro fastpack 250, it's really nice!

canon 30d.
really excited.
but im looking at dumping the kit lens and going with a wide angle or a fish eye, a telephoto (probably a 70-300 or a 28-200) and a 50 f1.4.
and i really know nothing about flashes, but i need one of those and a light, portable tripod.

This really is a tough one.

I already seem to have far too many backpacks and camera bags so when I'm out on the mountain I use the following:

Lowepro topload zoom 75AW w/ a tall lens case on the side that holds either my Canon 70-200 f4 L IS USM or my Canon 17-40 f4 L USM to go on my 40D body.

I take off the shoulder strap and toss this in my Dakine Heli pro 20L backpack and it fits perfectly it is secured on my back for skiing because of the two hefty chest and waist straps.

Hope this helps

I've got a lowepro mini trekkar classic and in it is
1 bronica with lens attached and prism (it's big)
a 150mm for that
the hood for the 80mm on the bronica
canon 1nhs with a 50mm attached
a 28-90
stuff.
If you plan on getting more stuff then get something like that.

For you lenses, a 50mm is definitely going to be the sharpest you would want to get. Those 18-200mm lenses aren't that good most likely and are usually soft. If you insist on zoom then look at one of the usm ones. Fisheye would be a bad decision as your only lens, and i would say long lens comps look better anyway. If you want, pick up a 50mm f/1.8 a 28mm f/2.8, and either a 135mm f/2.8 or the 100 f/2. Or a 50mm f/1.8 and like a 28-105 usm or whatever that is.

how do you like the 17-40?

ive been looking at that one as well.

I got it when I purchased my 40D.

It's a quality lens and I am happy with it, however since it's a lens that you would be using 'most of the time' as a walkaround, I wish it was a bit faster (f2.8).

I am more impressed with the image quality out of the 70-200 f4 L IS USM than I am the 17-40.

I will say the colour from the 17-40 is very good but edge sharpness is not the best.  I think its would be a more valuable lens on a full frame sensor.

Hope this helps.

There's a 28-70 f/2.8L, but that would only be a good walk around on full frame.

do you think that would be fast enough to shoot skiing though?

It's 2.8, they don't really make any zooms faster than that, and you don't really need 2.8 to shoot skiing anyway, unless you feel the need to use like 1/8000 for shutter.

i guess thats true.
but you wouldnt advise a wide range lens like a 18-200?

for skiing they are hit or miss. It really depends on the Lighting avail. It will work great, on a perfectly sunny day, but you might get a slight vignetting, at least i do so i have to bump up the exposure comp to +1. getting the 50 1.8 you will be able to shoot in much more conditions. Like on a night time shoot of your bro's down at the bank parking lot. Where avail light is kinda crappy. besides that they are like 150 bucks so if its a total fail, your not out 1000 bucks. (and they make swesome portrait lenses!)

I believe the flash is very very important, even on sunny days.

Awesome camera though! Enjoy the hell outta that thing!!

oh yeah i am already.
now you said your using the sb 600 flash, which if im not mistaken is a nikon flash?
what is a comparable flash that wouldnt look totally stupid on my canon camera? haha

+karma helped me out too

A comparable Canon flash would be the 430EX II.

I picked it up between the holidays and have 0 regrets.

It can be had on sale for about $249 Canadian or around $289 regular.

Thanks to both you guys, this seems to be working out perfectly.

i have about 500 bucks left to buy what i need (an extra battery, couple memory cards, lens and possibly a tripod) and it looks like ill be just about perfect getting stuff on sale and ebay and what not.

so heres what it looks like ill be shooting.

camera: canon 30d.
lenses: 17-55mm kit and the 50mm f1.4
flash: canon 430ex II.
cards: 2 8gb cf cards.

and i think you guys talked me into going with the Dakine sequence, just in case i get a little more crap to stuff in there. haha

Fo sho.

hahaha.
thats was almost like a 3000 dollar crash...

A cautionary tail about buying memory cards off ebay, there are quite a few fakes out there. I have a couple small end computer shops that have kingston 8gb 133x for 45.99 so that where i pick mine up, because i know ebay can be kind of iffy. If you want to do off camera flash unlike some nikons you will have to have some sort of a transponder/recieve combo, which is a bit of a pain.

yeah, ive heard of a ton of those too.

like people receiving pictures of 16gb cards?