Camera Labs

Just joined here and loving reading through picking up some useful tips and advice.
Just a few quick questions I have a Sony A450 with Sony 18-55mm and 75-300 mm lenses,Tamron 55-200 mm lens and a Jessops 360AFD Digital Flashgun. Just wondering if there is any particular things I need to keep the kit all clean and scratch free.As i am still an novice with DSLR any helpful tips would be very helpful.
Second thing I was wondering about is lenses for portrait photography so far since I got my camera in late august 2010 I have mainly been focusing on marine photography but have since took an interest in portrait photography and i have heard about prime lenses being of better quality than the zoom lenses anyone got any suggestions for a cheap lens for portrait photography. Keeping in mind im still at school and am only 15 a nice cheap lens would be good for me.
Thanks in advance

If you haven't gotten some cleaning kit yet, I'd recommend the following basics as something everyone should have for DSLRs: a decent microfiber or lens cloth, a bulb-type sensor blower, and possibly a sensor brush or wet swabs. Not much more needed than that. Remember when cleaning lens glass, to make sure you don't have any solid particulates on the lens before you start rubbing it down - blow off any minor dust/dirt/etc, then gently wipe a clean cloth across the lens with one side, flip the cloth or use a different patch, then finish rubbing and cleaning as needed. When cleaning dust off the sensor (you'll know when you start seeing little dust spot in blue skies), a bulb blower will often handle 75-80% of the jobs...for those few times you have more stubborn dust, the sensor brush or last resort wet swabs can finish the job. With the camera body, just remember to occasionally wipe it down with a nice microfiber cloth - keep salt off the body, clean of dust occasionally, and be careful with any forms of lotions or moisturizers around the camera, as many of these left on your fingers even in discreet amounts can still result in losing much of the writing on your camera body!

As for portrait lenses, indeed primes are usually best in overall sharpness, and those with a decently fast aperture will be best for DOF control and shallow depth of field effects. One of the better ones you can pick up cheap is the Tamron 90mm F2.8 - a well respected portrait and macro lens that has just about the right focal length for portrait work, good shallow depth of field...and cheap too (usually can be found new for under $200 US, or even down to $100 used.

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Justin Miller
Sony DSLR-A580 / Sony 18-250mm / Minolta 50mm F1.7 / Sigma 30mm F1.4 / Tamron 10-24mm / Tamron 200-500mm / Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro / Minolta 300mm F4 APO
Sony NEX5N / 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 / 55-210mm F4-6.3 / Pentax K adapter / Konica K/AR adapter / bunches o' Konica & Pentax lenses!

Galleries:
http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg

I'd also recommend getting a camera bag ...Personally, I use only Lowepro .

www.lowepro.com

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Sony α77V/VG-C77AM/α350/18-70/70-400 G SSM/NEX-5/18-55 OSS/Lowepro Pro Trekker 600 AW/CompuTrekker AW/Nova 140 AW/Street & Field gear/Toploader Pro 75 AW. And a huge wishlist...

My photos on Flickr...

Thanks for the replys. On the bag front i forgot to add i have a lowepro fastpack 250.Will get the cleaning bits and bobs on my wishlist. Not sure about lenses still. Had a quick look about on the internet and seen the sony 50 mm lens not sure if this would be any good for portraits though but it is only £140 brand new