Quality Lenses

[~Mrs. A2J~]

What are some good lens brands? I've been looking on eBay and there are big price differences between manufacturers so I was wondering which brands are good value for money?

 

[Tiberius]

Canon makes a series of lenses for their EOS cameras that are labeled with an L. The L series Lenses are very good, and also very expensive.

it really depends on what brand of camera you have.

 

[~Mrs. A2J~]

I plan on buying the Canon Rebel XTi so I was looking for lenses compatible with that.

 

[Boss_BlueAngels]

First of all I highly recommend you do NOT buy expensive equipment such as lenses off of E-bay. The first rule of buying photographic equipment is if it sounds too good to be true, it IS.

Canon L glass is certainly the best there is. I't what other lenses are measured to.

Personally, I swear by Sigma lenses. I have the 10-20mm and their 50-500mm. They have incredible quality and add many more options with regard to focal lengths. That "Bigma" 50-500mm takes the place of having to carry at least three other Canon lenses just to cover the same focal lengths.

Buying lenses is a very personal thing and every photographer has different needs and priorities. One of my highest priorities is versatility. Planes change distances incredibly fast and changing lenses is impossible to keep up.

Go check out www.fredmiranda.com and read the reviews of all the lenses there. They compare prices, picture quality, build quality... everything.

Just my $.02

 

[Tiberius]

I plan on buying the Canon Rebel XTi so I was looking for lenses compatible with that.

The Canon L series lenses will work with the Rebel XTi.

Bear in mind that some of the lenses are more expensive than the camera itself.

 

[~Mrs. A2J~]

Yeah, I was kinda looking for something good but cheaper I'm just moving up from a point and shoot to a DSLR so I'm not ready to dump hundreds of dollars into lenses yet. I've found where I can get the XTi body for only $545 so I was looking around at the different lenses to see if I might like something different than the standard kit lens.

 

[Tiberius]

The Canon 50mm f1.8 lens is widely regarded as an excellent lens, and it is pretty inexpensive too. I use one, and I love it. It doesn't zoom, but it opens up nice and wide, so you can use it in dim conditions without using flash, it's great for use in portraits, and it allows you to use a very narrow depth of field, great for portrait photography.

 

[MarkEvan]

The 50 mm prime as tiberius said is a good lens and I know many people that use it, it`s also great in low light situations.

Also not knowing what your budget is I would recomend the Tamron 17-50 it maybe a little more than you were going to spend though at $ 450 (from B&H), but if you were planning on going that far its supposed to be a fantastic lens with a constant aperture of f2.8.

Mark

 

[sfs]

Sigma, Tokina and Tamron all make good lenses for Canon mounts. If you choose carefully, you can get some fine lenses from them -- generally not quite as good as the best from the camera manufacturer, but not that far off, and a lot cheaper.

There are many lens reviews on the web. Besides the Fred Miranda site, you might want to check here, and also google around.

Do you know what kind of lens you're looking for?

 

[~Mrs. A2J~]

I guess first off I would like a good "general" lens. I like to take photos of everything. In the future I would like to take macro shots and also have a zoom lens but no money for that now. Right now the budget would be under $200 for a lens which I know isn't much.

 

[sfs]

I guess first off I would like a good "general" lens. I like to take photos of everything. In the future I would like to take macro shots and also have a zoom lens but no money for that now. Right now the budget would be under $200 for a lens which I know isn't much.

I don't know Canon lenses (I'm a Nikon user), but with that budget your only good choices are likely to be a kit lens or a 50 mm Canon. The kit lens would be decent and give you the flexibility of a mid-range zoom, while the 50 mm would be somewhat sharper and would have a larger aperture, letting you take more existing-light pictures and play with shallow depth of field. The restriction to a single focal length is pretty severe, however, especially if you're used to zooming on a point and shoot -- the more so since the 50 mm field of view on a DSLR is pretty narrow for an all-purpose lens.

 

[cristianna]

Sigma, Tokina and Tamron all make good lenses for Canon mounts. If you choose carefully, you can get some fine lenses from them -- generally not quite as good as the best from the camera manufacturer, but not that far off, and a lot cheaper.

I second this advice.

You say you're upgrading from a point & shoot... would that happen to be a Canon SLR? If so, you can use those lenses with the XTi, but only with manual focus and not autofocus.

FYI: DSLR's have a smaller sensor in comparison to your 35 mm slr's. To calculate the focal length equivalant you need to multiply by 1.6. So your 300mm lens is more or less a 480mm. It's kind of hard to get used to at first, but once you do it's easy.

 

[~Mrs. A2J~]

I'll be upgrading from the Canon Powershot G2.

Boss, are you advising not to buy ANY expensive exquipment off of eBay or just expensive photograpic equipment? I've had no problem buying expensive stuff off eBay but the only experience I have with buying photo equipment is with buying my G2.

Thanks for the review sites. I'll check them out

 

[Sign Of The Fish Burger]

Well obviously I'm gonna push the Cannon lenses (being the Canon family that we are )

When DH got his XTi he got the kit with a lens. It's not bad actually. I actually have a really really great article at work all about Canon lenses... I'll send it to you tomorrow if I remember.

This is what we have right now:
The 18-55 f3.5/5.6 came with the camera

I got DH this for Christmas:
50mm f1.8 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...TF8&coliid=I2OXN75JKSPCJ5&colid=1YSBNNXC1QQNM)

We also have:
A 28-80 f3.5/5.6 USM
and a 75-300 f4.0/5.6 USM

I've decided that from this point forward I'm only going to invest in the canon L series.

This is what I plan on buying with my yearly bonus this year:
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM Telephoto: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...TF8&coliid=I1LWM0DH0OMI40&colid=3F0GB15XTR68L

And

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Standard Zoom Lens: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009R6WT/ref=wl_it_dp/002-9962719-9460054?ie=UTF8&coliid=IU9A[wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth]MIZ57F&colid=3F0GB15XTR68L

That should leave me with a little bit left out of my bonus for a pair of shoes

 

[~Mrs. A2J~]

You must have a very generous boss!

 

[Sign Of The Fish Burger]

Yeah my company is really great with bonuses. Unfortunately I don't really like my job that much

 

[~Mrs. A2J~]

That sucks. My hubby is trapped in a job that he hates. It can be hell.

 

[Sign Of The Fish Burger]

You're right it can be hell. The problem is they pay you just enough to keep you there ugh. Anyway I've been applying elsewhere and I'm going back to school in the fall. Hopefully I will only be doing it for 2 years until I finish my degree.

 

[Boss_BlueAngels]

Ugh, I just got out of a "job from hell" recently. And the thing is it took me 1.5 years to realize that I'm the one getting ripped off... incredibly low pay, HUGE responsibilities, and getting yelled at every other month. My new job pays me 25% more, I have about 1/10 of the responsibility of the previous job, and I have a boss who is totally awesome and, get this, treats me with respect!

Anyway, back to lenses... some day I hope to have a bag full of white lenses.

 

[MarkEvan]

Anyway, back to lenses... some day I hope to have a bag full of white lenses.

AAhhhhhhhh.......white lenses, which would you get?

Mark