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Canon Lenses - Reality Check
Well, me being new to the DSLR world I need to get some decent starter lenses.
Ryan recommended the Kit lens (since he wants to sell his ) and 50mm F1.8 but is there anything else worth looking at?
I've really had my eye on the 17-85mm IS and 28-135mm IS, but I don't really have that kind of money yet to be throwing on lenses, unless they are used.
Any help is appreciated
Oh, and I've got the XT...not that it matters too much
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The choice of your lens totally depends on what you plan on shooting.
What do like shooting?
Macro, landscape, portrait, sports etc...
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I tend to shoot more Landscape and Sports more than anything.
So I guess something wide and fast would be optimal to start off with.
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I would think that if you're shooting sports, longer would be your better option.
Wider for landscape.
You don't need a f/2.8 lens for landscape.
They're usually better quality, but it really isn't needed.
You'd be better off having faster glass for your sports stuff since lighting isn't always optimal.
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If you want to shoot land scape and sport you're kinda looking for two different lenses...
A good wide angle and a fast longer zoom...
On APS-C sized DSLR bodies 17 or 18mm isn't really that wide due to the crop factor.
But it makes telephoto easier!
I don't have a Canon, so I don't know their lens range at all, but if your looking to get pretty good lenses for good prices look at sigma, they are the only one of the three third party lens people that have an ultrasonic focus motor (called HSM like the the Canon USM or Nikon AFS), this is almost essential for tracking fast moving sports action.
Tokina have a very well regarded wide angle too, the 12-24mm.
Oh and look at mail order, local prices are crazy...
B&H is a good start, not the cheapest of the online places but reputable.
So in short, wide angle like the 12-24 tok, 10-20sigma, then a 50f1.8, and a 70/80-200f2.8 should be a good start ;-)
Cheers
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You won't find fast if you're looking for 'starter'.
You CAN get ok results with the kit lens, but....it's not fast.
It's also not the sharpest lens in the bag so to speak.
pick up the 50 1.8, it's one of the best buys out there.
@ 1.8 it's fast and you'll quickly learn that it's a pretty narrow dof and can be tricky to work with.
The kit lens might be a good place to start o ut, but i'll warn you that it's prone to CA and it tends to be soft thoughout the focal range, and even when stopped down needs quite a bit of smart sharpen or usm in post.
The kit lens will get you started landscape wise, the 50 is a good starter for portraits, but really for sports neither of those will have the reach you'll need for sports.
I guess it depends on the sports you're covering, but the 50mm won't quite give you enough reach in most cases anyway.
Neither will the kit lens.
You might be tempted to pick up a 75-300, as the 300 gives you a fair amount of reach, but be warned- it's SOFT SOFT SOFT, and the ca is enough to induce vommiting.
It's also not fast enough to use indoors in any type of low light situation.
It needs plenty of light, it's slow.
On top of all that, the resale value is next to nothing, i think i let mine go for 60 bucks when i decided enough was enough.
I would reccomend checking out the buy and sell section at some photography boards, there's usually a lot of decent used stuff flying around.
Good luck, and be ready for a bit of a learning curve.
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Quote: : you won't find fast if you're looking for 'starter'.
You CAN get ok results with the kit lens, but....it's not fast.
It's also not the sharpest lens in the bag so to speak.
pick up the 50 1.8, it's one of the best buys out there.
@ 1.8 it's fast and you'll quickly learn that it's a pretty narrow dof and can be tricky to work with.
The kit lens might be a good place to start o ut, but i'll warn you that it's prone to CA and it tends to be soft thoughout the focal range, and even when stopped down needs quite a bit of smart sharpen or usm in post.
The kit lens will get you started landscape wise, the 50 is a good starter for portraits, but really for sports neither of those will have the reach you'll need for sports.
I guess it depends on the sports you're covering, but the 50mm won't quite give you enough reach in most cases anyway.
Neither will the kit lens.
You might be tempted to pick up a 75-300, as the 300 gives you a fair amount of reach, but be warned- it's SOFT SOFT SOFT, and the ca is enough to induce vommiting.
It's also not fast enough to use indoors in any type of low light situation.
It needs plenty of light, it's slow.
On top of all that, the resale value is next to nothing, i think i let mine go for 60 bucks when i decided enough was enough.
I would reccomend checking out the buy and sell section at some photography boards, there's usually a lot of decent used stuff flying around.
Good luck, and be ready for a bit of a learning curve.
Thanks for the input.
I've used the Canon Rebel XTi for the past 3 months with the Kit lens doing real estate photography.
Can't say I was too impressed with it, but like you said it's a good place to start.
I'm not a complete noob when it comes to this, but I still have a lot to learn thats for sure.
I can't say how much sports photography I'll actually be doing, but I think a telephoto will be something I pick up later on.
I'm really not too sure yet.
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Lol a couple posts as i was typing dave is right, like i said the landscape type focal lenghts won't be of much use to you for sports.
as for essemsomethings comment about sigma....i tried a couple sigma lenses and ended up not keeping neither of them.
I thought i'd shave a few bucks and go third party, big mistake.
There is one exception to that rule, and apparently it's the Tamron 28-75 2.8...i've seen some really great stuff come from that lens, and is the only 3rd party i'd consider picking up.
AS for online retailers BH is amazingly good.
I don't know where he was shopping at that might be a cheaper alternative, but unless it's coming from the trunk of a car in an alley i dont think for most things you're going to find cheaper.
Vistek.ca and henrys.com are good cdn sources, but are generally a lot more expensive.
make sure you check costco for storage media..they're usually cheap, allthough future shop has had some good boxing day sales.
Don't get the cheapo generic compact flash, i'd say at least the sandisk ultra II line if you intend to shoot sports.
another thing you'll want is a GOOD tripod.
People that buy a 1000 camera and drop another 1000 on glass for it and then want to support it with a 30 dollar walmart tripod amuse the hell out of me.
You'll need the stability for peace of mind, and to produce good work while shooting landscape.
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Quote: : If you want to shoot land scape and sport you're kinda looking for two different lenses...
A good wide angle and a fast longer zoom...
On APS-C sized DSLR bodies 17 or 18mm isn't really that wide due to the crop factor.
But it makes telephoto easier!
I don't have a Canon, so I don't know their lens range at all, but if your looking to get pretty good lenses for good prices look at sigma, they are the only one of the three third party lens people that have an ultrasonic focus motor (called HSM like the the Canon USM or Nikon AFS), this is almost essential for tracking fast moving sports action.
Tokina have a very well regarded wide angle too, the 12-24mm.
Oh and look at mail order, local prices are crazy...
B&H is a good start, not the cheapest of the online places but reputable.
So in short, wide angle like the 12-24 tok, 10-20sigma, then a 50f1.8, and a 70/80-200f2.8 should be a good start ;-)
Cheers I've heard mixed reviews on the third party lenses, but I'll have to do more research on them.
Although I did hear sigma has some decent ones.
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Quote: : lol a couple posts as i was typing dave is right, like i said the landscape type focal lenghts won't be of much use to you for sports.
as for essemsomethings comment about sigma....i tried a couple sigma lenses and ended up not keeping neither of them.
I thought i'd shave a few bucks and go third party, big mistake.
There is one exception to that rule, and apparently it's the Tamron 28-75 2.8...i've seen some really great stuff come from that lens, and is the only 3rd party i'd consider picking up.
AS for online retailers BH is amazingly good.
I don't know where he was shopping at that might be a cheaper alternative, but unless it's coming from the trunk of a car in an alley i dont think for most things you're going to find cheaper.
Vistek.ca and henrys.com are good cdn sources, but are generally a lot more expensive.
make sure you check costco for storage media..they're usually cheap, allthough future shop has had some good boxing day sales.
Don't get the cheapo generic compact flash, i'd say at least the sandisk ultra II line if you intend to shoot sports.
another thing you'll want is a GOOD tripod.
People that buy a 1000 camera and drop another 1000 on glass for it and then want to support it with a 30 dollar walmart tripod amuse the hell out of me.
You'll need the stability for peace of mind, and to produce good work while shooting landscape.
Yeah I actually picked up the 2GIG CF Ultra 2 from future shop for 59 today
I've mainly been looking on ebay and fredmiranda.com for deals.
Ryan showed me BH and it looks pretty good.
Tripod is definetly next on the agenda after a lens.
Can't say I have a lot of money to spend, but enough to get me something that iwill last and isn't a POS.
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I have the 17-85 IS on mine most of the time.
It's suited me well for a walk around lens and the IS helped a lot for large venue outdoor concerts.
I find it short for most sports.
I've used it to shoot some off road racing.
I cropped pretty heavily for a few prints, others were just fine thanks to where I was standing.
There appears to be dust on the inside elements it now, probably a after effect of the horrid conditions I shot the truck racing in.
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Quote: : I have the 17-85 IS on mine most of the time.
It's suited me well for a walk around lens and the IS helped a lot for large venue outdoor concerts.
I find it short for most sports.
I've used it to shoot some off road racing.
I cropped pretty heavily for a few prints, others were just fine thanks to where I was standing.
There appears to be dust on the inside elements it now, probably a after effect of the horrid conditions I shot the truck racing in.
Where did you get yours and for how much?
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Carsand Mosher. I opted for the 30D w/17-85 instead of the kit lens.
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Quote: : Carsand Mosher.
I opted for the 30D w/17-85 instead of the kit lens.
Oh
I can get a 17-85mm IS or 28-135mm IS off a guy for about 450CDN...seem reasonable?
Also found the 28-75mm Tamron for $285...hmm
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Quote: : Oh
I can get a 17-85mm IS or 28-135mm IS off a guy for about 450CDN...seem reasonable?
Also found the 28-75mm Tamron for $285...hmm I would check prices at www.carsand.com www.bhphoto.com www.vistek.ca and www.henrys.com and assuming the used glass is in near new condition, I would make the decision after that.
$450 for the 17-85 IS sounds reasonable to me.
Not sure on the 28-135 IS and I don't have experience with third party glass.
For what it's worth, I use the wide end of the 17mm lens a lot.
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Quote: : I would check prices at www.carsand.com www.bhphoto.com www.vistek.ca and www.henrys.com and assuming the used glass is in near new condition, I would make the decision after that.
$450 for the 17-85 IS sounds reasonable to me.
Not sure on the 28-135 IS and I don't have experience with third party glass.
For what it's worth, I use the wide end of the 17mm lens a lot.
Yeah I think I'd really get a lot of use out of the 17-85, espeicially wide end 17mm.
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Quote: : lol a couple posts as i was typing dave is right, like i said the landscape type focal lenghts won't be of much use to you for sports.
as for essemsomethings comment about sigma....i tried a couple sigma lenses and ended up not keeping neither of them.
I thought i'd shave a few bucks and go third party, big mistake.
There is one exception to that rule, and apparently it's the Tamron 28-75 2.8...i've seen some really great stuff come from that lens, and is the only 3rd party i'd consider picking up.
AS for online retailers BH is amazingly good.
I don't know where he was shopping at that might be a cheaper alternative, but unless it's coming from the trunk of a car in an alley i dont think for most things you're going to find cheaper.
Vistek.ca and henrys.com are good cdn sources, but are generally a lot more expensive.
make sure you check costco for storage media..they're usually cheap, allthough future shop has had some good boxing day sales.
Don't get the cheapo generic compact flash, i'd say at least the sandisk ultra II line if you intend to shoot sports.
another thing you'll want is a GOOD tripod.
People that buy a 1000 camera and drop another 1000 on glass for it and then want to support it with a 30 dollar walmart tripod amuse the hell out of me.
You'll need the stability for peace of mind, and to produce good work while shooting landscape.
Hi
FWIW I have bought basically all my stuff from B&H, there are other cheaper online people (eg www.sigma4less.com, and bunch of the infamous dodgy "brooklyn camera shops", although a mate that lives in NY bought a camera from one of them no probs)
With the 3rd party lenses you have to do your research, there are a lot of lemons!!
Mind you Nikon and Canon have made junk too, the 55-200 nikon spings to mind.
The cheap 3rd party stuff is junk, but lenses like the Sigma 10-20, all the sigma macros, the sigma 100-300f4, sigma 120-300f2.8 (not a "cheap" lens!!) the tokina 12-24 and others are pretty highly regarded, if you do your reading you can find out pretty quickly which are good and which aren't.
Personaly I have not had an issue with sigma lenses and I own a few of them now, all their "pro" EX lenses.
I have never had any tamron lenses but the ones I have seen "feel" junky to me...
But each to their own!!
A good site to check for lens reviews is www.photozone.de (not in german) he does most of his stuff on canon bodies.
I agree with the tripod comment
Regarding compact flash speeds, whether or not you would benefit form a super fast card is realy heavily dependant on what and how you shoot.
If you use continuous shooting modes in RAW and hold the shutter down for lots of images at a time then you will see a difference, if you frame a shot carefully take a couple shots or three and shoot JPG then not much difference...
What does make a difference is how fast you can read a full card to your computer, and RELIABILITY, thats the real issue.
Do you trust your photos to junk CF cards?
Can you afford (or want) to lose a whole card of photos cos the card shat it self??
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Quote: : Hi
FWIW I have bought basically all my stuff from B&H, there are other cheaper online people (eg www.sigma4less.com, and bunch of the infamous dodgy "brooklyn camera shops", although a mate that lives in NY bought a camera from one of them no probs)
With the 3rd party lenses you have to do your research, there are a lot of lemons!!
Mind you Nikon and Canon have made junk too, the 55-200 nikon spings to mind.
The cheap 3rd party stuff is junk, but lenses like the Sigma 10-20, all the sigma macros, the sigma 100-300f4, sigma 120-300f2.8 (not a "cheap" lens!!) the tokina 12-24 and others are pretty highly regarded, if you do your reading you can find out pretty quickly which are good and which aren't.
Personaly I have not had an issue with sigma lenses and I own a few of them now, all their "pro" EX lenses.
I have never had any tamron lenses but the ones I have seen "feel" junky to me...
But each to their own!!
A good site to check for lens reviews is www.photozone.de (not in german) he does most of his stuff on canon bodies.
I agree with the tripod comment
Regarding compact flash speeds, whether or not you would benefit form a super fast card is realy heavily dependant on what and how you shoot.
If you use continuous shooting modes in RAW and hold the shutter down for lots of images at a time then you will see a difference, if you frame a shot carefully take a couple shots or three and shoot JPG then not much difference...
What does make a difference is how fast you can read a full card to your computer, and RELIABILITY, thats the real issue.
Do you trust your photos to junk CF cards?
Can you afford (or want) to lose a whole card of photos cos the card shat it self??
Well as I said above I already bought the Sandisk 2GB Ultra II today at Futureshop
I've been lookin at a few manfrotto tripods/heads, probably going to pick one of them up.
As far as lenses, seems most people on other forums will recommend the same that you guys have here.
Now i just need to spend some more money
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I saw above that you mentioned the Tamron 28-75.
I can't stress enough how much I love this damn lens!
If you have a chance to grab one go for it.
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Quote: : I saw above that you mentioned the Tamron 28-75.
I can't stress enough how much I love this damn lens!
If you have a chance to grab one go for it.
Yeah I read reviews about it, and the Canon 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM II as well.
The canon got Really good reviews for an all around walking lens at a consumer price.
Opinions on the canon?
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