Advice on gear for 50D

[Cadnium]

Hi all,

I am chasing some advice for my next gear purchase as I am being given some $ for my bday. I have only been into photography for about 2 months so I am still very much a newbie. My current gear set is:

Canon 50D
Canon 50mm f1.8 II
Canon 15-85mm f3.5-5.6 with UV and Circ Polariser
Tripod, carry bag

We have a newborn baby (1st) and most of my shots have of course been inside of late and I have been struggling a bit with slow shutter speed (poor lighting) and the terrible shadows that come with indoor lighting. I was thinking my next purchase should be a flash, and was looking at going all out and getting the 580EXII.

The other item on my radar is a 70-200mm f2.8 or f4+IS, but I would not be able to afford that just yet and would just have to squirrel the money away for another 6 months or so until that is affordable.

So given the probability of indoor shots in poor lighting, would it be a smart move to get a flash (either 430EXII or 580EXII), or would I be better off improving my skills and putting they money towards the telephoto lens?

Thanks in advance!

[hus]

At first reading your post I thought go with the 70-200 but since newborn and you struggle with low light currently then the logical choice would be to go with the flash.
By the time the little one starts running around and playing weekend sports, that will give you time to save up for the 70-200.

Cheers

[Cadnium]

Thanks for the advice. How do you find the Tamrom 70-200L f2.8? I had looked at it as they are quite a bit cheaper than the Canon equivalent.

[Cadnium]

One last question - is the extra cost, size and weight of the 580EX II really worth it?

I am mainly going to be doing indoor (house) photography. It sounds like most people use 3rd party wireless triggers when they upgrade later on (pocketwizard or yongnuo).

It is more the size and weight I am worried about, which i guess in the long run you just 'get used to'.

[hus]

My only complaint with it is the slow focusing, it really makes sports shooting hard work but images if you nail the focus are great, there some samples from the tamron in the sports thread I posted up http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?t=64472

If you are going to get 3rd party lens then I read the sigma 70-200 f2.8 are much better on the focusing.

Cheers

[hus]

I can't comment much on the flash, I had 380EX which I sold, currently I just got the YN-468, for $$$ reasons I couldn't get the 580EX so I'll see how this flash performs.

[Cadnium]

Thanks for the info - I had heard of the slow focussing before which could be an issued for sports, obviously doesn't matter for portraits etc.

I am leaning towards the 430EX-II at the moment as I can get it locally for a good price, and being new to photography I can work up until I find myself yearning for something bigger (and then go off-camera). The 580EX-II would also be grey-ware which I am not totally comfortable with (I like to support local businesses etc but also don't want to pay a 50% premium to do so!).