Lens Hoods: protect the front element of your lens, eliminates flare and stray light and can upon dropping absorb a good bit of the impact(hopefully). Lens Hoods.

Circular Polarizer: The only filter I feel one truly needs is a circular polarizer.  In my Circular polarizer post I make that statement that it is the only filter whose effects cannot be recreated in Photoshop / post-processing.  This isn’t entirely true.  The next two filters will keep help keep sections from “blow-out” when the area is so bright that there is no recoverable data.  No amount of post-process will recover data from areas completely blown-out.

Graduated Neutral Density Filters: Imagine a piece of glass, heavily tinted at the top and gradually getting clearer towards the bottom.  If you are going to be doing lots of sunsets/sunrises you may want to look at a Graduated Neutral Density Filters.  Wikipedia has a great write-up but basically they allow you to even out the difference between a bright sky and a dark landscape.

Neutral Density Filters: If you love flowing water photos, like I do, you may want to invest in a Neutral Density filter or two which evenly and cleanly cuts down the amount of light reaching your sensor. It is a little ironic that we spend so much money on cameras with increasingly higher ISO sensitivity and software to remove noise from high ISO images and there are times where you can actually have to much light.  When you want 8-15 second exposures at times other than dawn and dusk or you want a wider aperture under full sun a ND filter can be handy.  You may read this and be thinking that your lens offers f/32 or some other ridiculously small aperture.  At very small apertures your images are going to suffer from diffraction which decreases the image quality.

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Left - Polarizer On | Right - Polarizer Off

Left - Polarizer On | Right - Polarizer Off

What a polarizing filter does:

• Reduces haze
• Removes reflections
• Increases color saturation.  The effect is particularly evident in skies and in foliage.
• Neutral density. The natural loss of 1-2 stops of light, without shifting color, makes a polarizing filter a good ND filter as well.

Notes:

• The effect of polarization (outdoors) is most prominent at a 90-degree angle to the sun.  Make an “L” with your thumb and pointer finger.  Point your thumb at the sun, your pointer is now showing you the direction that the polarization will be most noticeable.
• If you use a  lens <about 28mm (in 35mm film terms) the sky could be unevenly polarized, much darker in one area than another.

What size do you need?

• If you have the Canon Kit Lens (18-55) -HOYA 58CIR 58mm Circular Polarized Filter
• Nikon Kit Lens (18-55) -Hoya 52mm Circular Polarizer and Filter Wallet
• Nikon Kit Lens (18-105) -Tiffen 67mm Circular Polarizer
• All other lenses – Circular Polarizers If you search your lens on Amazon it will show in the Frequently Bought Together section a UV filter that matches your lens diameter, use that to find the correct polarizing filter

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Michael is looking for a new lens setup for his Canon Digital Rebel XSi Wants lenses that are fast and a decent zoom too. Also asked about flash, filters and lens hoods

Michael currently has the Kit lens - on the early models, Rebel and Rebel Xt, the Kit lens was pretty atrocious, slow and quality was just nothing to get excited about. More recently the new version that includes IS, the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS SLR Lens, is fine and suits 90% of the rebel users out there. I feel strongly that it is not worth replacing unless you frequently find yourself in low-light situations where a faster lens would help. If I was going to replace I would take a look at the Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC SLD ELD Aspherical Macro Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras Lens Highlights: fixed f/2.8 Allows great bokeh throughout the entire zoom | Sharp - many photographers compare this lens to the "L" series canon's professional lens that easily cost 2x-3x as much. | Comes with petal style lens hood.

You lose the IS but gain 2 stops which can help with both focusing and capturing w/o having to switch to a higher ISO. Higher ISO equals noisier images.
BUT! I think a much better next purchase would be an external flash like the Canon Speedlite 430EX II Adjustable and comes with a built in diffuser although you may want to buy Sto-Fen OMEW Omni-Bounce Diffuser This is going to give your indoor and even your outdoor pictures a whole new dimension and flexibility. My favorite technique with an external flash is too point it at the ceiling and let it fill the room with light. You subject will be well lit but not suffer from that flash blowout that happens when objects & people are directly lit by the flash.

To add a zoom I suggest the excellent Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras This is a nice lens at a great price.

About lens hoods and filters. Lens hoods should come with every lens and if they don't it is well worth the ~$30 to buy. I have heard multiple stories of lens hoods taking the brunt of damage in a fall and protecting the expensive lens. UV Filters are a toss-up, if you have small kids it may be worth it to slap one on as little fingers like to touch and smudge your glass but otherwise it is just another piece of glass between your lens and the beautiful photo you want to capture. Now specific filters like a B + W 58mm Circular Polarizer is well worth the money for reducing reflections and increasing the color saturation in your photos. 58mm will fit on the kit lens and the zoom listed above.

Please let me know if you have any questions about these lenses, flash, filters or anything else you come across while shopping.

If you are not Michael and you want your own personalized recommendation

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