ed_yoo

<p>pennies have a 80% failure rate compared to nickels. just yesterday, i flipped 5 pennies. 4 out of 5 landed heads when clearly 2.5 would have been the expected number. such unreliable pieces of equipment. i am sure glad i brought my nickel with me, which i flipped once and it landed tails. 100% success there.<br>

when will the nikon vs canon crap ever end. ;(</p>

Given your budget of $1200 and space constraint it's a bit tough for you to get every focal length and good quality images. I

would look into buying good quality used lenses on ebay/photo.net/craigslist to make your dollar go further. i'd personally opt for

better glass rather than covering every focal length. here's my 2 cents:

$700 XSI + 18-55 IS kit lens. good starting point and then you can add a telephoto zoom or ultra wide.

$500: used canon 70-200/4L non-IS or Tokina 12-24/4.

You'll eventually want to upgrade the kit lens, but it's such a great value... you might as well get it. I own both the 70-200 and

tokina 12-24. I think they are great lenses with high quality optics, and will serve you well as part of a long term investment in

good glass that you will not want to upgrade for a long time.

I'd also recommend one of John Shaw's photo books. He does a great job explaining exposure/metering and how to compose

photos much better than any other book I've read.

I know some folks might groan, but I use the BH-25 with a Gitzo 530 (very small tripod). I've used it with my Tokina 12-24/4 and 20D (total of 1.3 kg) and it worked just fine for my daytime shots of some mountains, streams, and waterfalls while hiking in Colorado. Obviously there are more stable solutions (which I own) but the Gitzo 530 and RRS BH-25 easily fit in my daypack.

Imho, a tripod that you actually bring/use is better than no tripod at all.

I plan on using my 70-200/4 with the same setup when I return to Colorado in a few weeks. The ballhead is not the weakpoint of my setup (it locks down pretty solidly) so I think it depends on what legset you have.