low budget. Need help

D

DavidFulde

Active member
Hey All! I am in the market for a new camera and I have my budget in

it's about 1200$ for everything.

I have been researching what to get for awhile and I am thinking of:

T2i
Sigma 18-55
second battery
charger

anything else I need? (I do not currently need audio equipment as I can rent that out at any time for free at my school, along with tripods and lights. so I'm mainly looking for lens suggestions)
 
another battery or two or three (Optika sells them cheap on Amazon) and memory cards (16GB SDHC class 6). 4GB is about 12 minutes of video recording at 1920x1080 full HD.
 
the memory cards are not really included in the budget as I already have them ;)

also, what battery am I looking for? E8? or E5?
 
Randall_Oelerich said:
I just got a T2i couple of weeks ago, I think I have about 8 batteries. No juice on a shoot and I am screwed. My three short films I have planned for the T2i over the next few months are all outdoors, so no AC. No battery, everybody goes home, not a good thing.

LP-E8 by Optika, 2000mAh, $13 on amazon.
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I feel you. However, you might want to consider one of those A/C adapters that plugs into your car. It might come in handy in a pinch.
 
cap10kirk said:
I feel you. However, you might want to consider one of those A/C adapters that plugs into your car. It might come in handy in a pinch.
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Definitely. I had an AC car charger with my T1i that I just sold on ebay. I need to get one now to work with my T2i so I could at least recharge batteries if I get low on juice during a shoot. I am up here in northern MN and days can get chilly this autumn, or anytime of the year (wearing a jacket and LS shirt today, turned heat on in car; just two days ago it was a sweltering 90 temp and 95% humidity, go figure), and colder weather means the batteries run for a shorter time. I need to buy a couple of more batteries also for my smallHD DP1x external LCD monitor that I just got, came with two batteries but I surely need two more.
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Just bought two of those lol, if you buy two, they knock off the shipping and tax, so it's pretty much two for the price of one. Exactly $18 for 1 with shipping and tax, exactly 25$ for two of them as tax and shipping = 0$. Best deal I think I've heard of.
 
So, I should get:
T2i
sigma 18-55
extra battery (I cannot get the ones that were linked because they do not ship to Canada)
charger
canon 50mm 1.8

that's sort of maxing out my budget... what should I exchange? if anything? for something else?
 
If power is that important to you, and your camera for that matter, I would recommend purchasing Canon batteries. I don't know if its different for the T2i but I purchased two less expensive aftermarket batteries that claimed to be compatible with the 7D from Amazon, we put one in my camera, I was lucky it failed in less than an hour, the other we put in the second 7D it overheated and expanded in the camera and we nearly ruined the camera trying to get it out. I was almost stuck between buying a new 7D or loosing a friend.

Good batteries are cheap insurance, cheap batteries are just cheap batteries. I know there will be a lot of people who claim to use cheap aftermarket batteries but its not their camera and if your on a tight budget can you afford to screw up your camera. If there's a problem with a Canon battery in a Canon camera you might have some luck with warranty etc., if its an aftermarket battery that fries your camera your just SOL.
 
ChuckS said:
If power is that important to you, and your camera for that matter, I would recommend purchasing Canon batteries. I don't know if its different for the T2i but I purchased two less expensive aftermarket batteries that claimed to be compatible with the 7D from Amazon, we put one in my camera, I was lucky it failed in less than an hour, the other we put in the second 7D it overheated and expanded in the camera and we nearly ruined the camera trying to get it out. I was almost stuck between buying a new 7D or loosing a friend.

Good batteries are cheap insurance, cheap batteries are just cheap batteries. I know there will be a lot of people who claim to use cheap aftermarket batteries but its not their camera and if your on a tight budget can you afford to screw up your camera. If there's a problem with a Canon battery in a Canon camera you might have some luck with warranty etc., if its an aftermarket battery that fries your camera your just SOL.
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What brand of cheap batteries did you use that gave you trouble? I usually go by reviews off Amazon, if there are a tone of reviews and a battery is getting golden reviews I go with it. I have not had issues with Opteka. But I can see where one has to be careful. Canon brand is just way too expensive for me when hey it is not exactly rocket science to put some chemical in a case of plastic; I have to believe if the Chinese or whoever can build most of what the world buys they can surely build camera batteries. But like all material goods, there are going to be shady manufacturers, so as I said I look to reviews on Amazon to separate the good from the bad.
 
Hmmm that scares me!....may just send them back now, sounds like some scary stuff. But isn't Opteka supposed to be a pretty good brand? They make tons of various stuff for cameras, they seem to be well known, with good reviews. Really scares me though! But yeah, they even make lenses, underwater equipment, all those wide angle toys you slap onto camcorders, ect ect. I'd say they aren't far off from being like Sunpak.

Did your camera give any warning of overheating before the batteries messed up?
 
Snapper123 it certainly isn't my intention to scare anyone, my point is that in the overall scheme of things OEM batteries work and are cheap insurance.

The camera didn't overheat, the battery did. Once it did the battery case puffed up a bit and was very difficult to remove from the camera. I don't know why it did this but we never had any trouble with that camera before or since using "stock" batteries.

Randall I don't think the issues is whether the Chinese [or anyone else] can manufacture these batteries, I think its more about Quality Assurance or Control. A lot of electronics, most electronic components are made in China but with OEM parts its the developer, in this case Canon, who is responsible for the quality of the product.

If you buy a cheap lens hopefully the worst thing that happens is that your imagery looks bad, but it won't hurt the camera and as you get better and make more money you can buy better lenses. If you purchase some sort of aftermarket accessory that can hurt the camera and it fails your out of work until you can afford to either get it fixed or replaced. At least if you have a Canon battery and there's a problem you have a much higher probability of getting it repaired. If an aftermarket battery fails or causes a problem, they'll probably give you a new battery.

On the 7D one way you could tell was the power meter didn't work and you couldn't see how much power was left, you also could charge the aftermarket battery in the Canon charger or vis-a-versa.

We didn't post a review, we just considered ourselves lucky.
 
I've been doing a bit more research. should I possibly not get a T2i and get something like the GH1 (and hack it to the GH13)?
 
DavidFulde said:
I've been doing a bit more research. should I possibly not get a T2i and get something like the GH1 (and hack it to the GH13)?
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only you can make that decision.

considerations:

1) no fast ultra-wide lens options for the gh1 (that i know of, or affordable)
2) better image quality out of the gh1 with the hack
3) the gh1 you purchase might be un-hackable
 
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