Sold my DSLR a couple of years ago and now I want to jump back in. The new body will be a Canon 70d. No swaying from that. Where I'm asking for advice is with the lenses. I can buy a body only for $835 or I can get a kit with the 18-135 for $1100. I'm trying to think about the long term, so will the 18-135 or 18-55 be worth having in a year? Or am I better off going body only and then start adding lenses? Funds will be limited so I won't be buying a bunch of lenses at once. I'll be using this for video and photography. If I had to put a percentage to it - 60% photography and 40% video. If you recommend the body only... What would be the lenses on your wishlist? (In the order you'd buy them)
I have the 70D, that's what I use as my main camera. If you can, look at the 80D. It offers a few things that would be nice on my 70D for video, namely HD @ 60 fps for a bit of slow-mo and a headphone out jack for audio monitoring. I was thinking of upgrading for those, but elected to spend the $$$ on a second camera body (Sony a6300). I got the kit with the 18-135mm. Is a great all purpose lens and covers the anything I need to in bow range. You can also use a digital 3x zoom if need be. Last year I picked up a 50mm 1.8 STM. Great for low light, but not as quiet as the 18-135 and the 50mm is to narrow for in tree interviews. This year I picked up the Sigma 18-35 1.8 Art lens. It's a great piece of glass. It's speed alone will make using the 70d until last shooting light possible on most nights. If not, using it on my a6300 will most definitely do the trick. You're going to want a shotgun mic. I use and like the Rode VideoMic Pro. It has a great adjustable preamp (-10db, 0db, +20db) which is nice. I can pump up the signal with the mic and turn down the DSLR preamp, which are pretty much horrible no matter what DSLR you have. Tomorrow I take delivery on a Zoom H1 audio recorder that I will use not only to record audio seperate, but also send it to my camera and have a headphone jack. 3 birds, one stone. Extra batteries are a must. I got a kit that included a the battery grip, but I don't like using it. Haven't had good luck with the AA option and the dual LP-E6 batteries are nice but not worth the extra bulk and pain of having the grip. If you are interested, you can power the camera off an external battery. I went with the setup in this video - Increase Your DSLR Camera Battery Life To 9 Hours! // Chris Winter - YouTube I added a 6' extension cable and I have it run from the battery in my pack, along my camera arm (athletic taped securely) and into the dummy battery on my fluid head. I have 2 of those XT-Power 10,000mAh batteries and that's gotten me through all day sits in the cold (I do tend to keep the camera on in standby so it's ready to go at a moments notice and I don't have to worry about the click of the mirror flipping up).
So for lenses, here's what I have: Canon 18-135mm STM (main lens, is on the camera most of the time when in the stand) Canon 50mm STM (good lowlight lens, cheap, but limited as a fixed 50mm. Probably won't see much action this year since I have the Sigma) Sigma 18-35 Art (sharp, quiet, fast, one of the best lenses you can get for DSLR video. It'll be on my Sony body as a b-roll/2nd angle, until dark when I'll throw it back on the 70D for the last 30-45 minutes of hunting light) My wish list for lenses- Sigma 50-500mm HSM (mostly for wildlife photography, but would be good for glassing and some telephoto video work) Sigma 50-100mm Art (would make for a great companion to the 18-35mm. I could have one on each body and never really need to swap lenses for a hunt) As you can see, I've become a big fan of the Sigma lenses. They've been producing some great glass and a very reasonable price, especially when compared to Canon. A couple Canon lenses that would be nice are the 70-200mm and the 100-400mm.
I'm heading out to Colorado to film Todd on an elk hunt next month. I'll be brining the 18-135, 18-35 and borrowing my dad's Canon 100-400mm. That will cover me in any range that I'll need
I have a T6i with the 18-135 and it's a great lens, you'll appreciate the extra reach when in the tree for sure. And like what Fitz said it'll cover anything you need in bow range. The only other lens to consider (in the future) is a 70-200 telephoto when you need even more reach. If you have to choose just 1 for now I'd definitely say the 18-135.
Fitz has already thrown out some great info, and helped me out along the way. I love my 70D, and just recently picked up a Sigma EX 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS. I like it a lot for the close up photos, but I think my next lens will Be a Sigma 18-250. But it will be a while, lol.
