Advice on Lenses

[Debbyo]

Let me start by saying that I admire you all so much, and I'm learning so much from you all, and then confess I have photo-envy of all of you. I'm trying to get as good as you all, but to no avail, yet (but I keep trying). I own a Rebel xti and finally just yesterday took a course in how to operate the camera. Ha! I thought I knew, but every time I picked up the camera I was in the green square mode and just pointed and shot...not great results as you might imagine, but everything else scared me. I took your good advice and bought a decent lens -the Canon EF 50 mm 1.4. I really had no idea what it was but the camera guy was impressed that I asked for it by name...LOL -and lo and behold, some of my pictures turned out OK -definitely better of my grandchildren. Anyways, at this course yesterday, I had my eyes opened to a few things, and even tho I study Scott Kelby's book and Bryan Peterson's Exposure book, its not all making sense to me yet...but the camera guy looked at my lens kit and suggested that I move up to Canon's EF 17-85 IS for wide angle short telephoto & also the Ef 70-300 IS for short telephoto-long telephoto. But then another recommendation came to me thru a video about the camera that I should get a Sigma 18-125 F3.5-5.6 and as a "do it all lens" the Sigma 18-200 3.5 - 6.3 DG -apparently it has won a lot of awards (? -has it?) -anywyas, I am trying to get much better so that when I go back to Europe this fall I don't have to take all my photos with my P & S Lumix...any advice from any of you would be soooooo greatly accepted...

[LauraBean]

I would practice with that wonderful 50mm lens before investing in more lenses. Better lenses are great tools, but they won't magically improve your photos, and the more practice you have, the better a sense you will have as to what you want in a lens. The Canon lenses your camera guy suggested are good lenses. The Sigmas I'm not familiar with, but typically the longer the range the less likely the lens is sharp throughout the range.

[Debbyo]

Thanks Laura, that's great food for thought! LOL

[Debbyo]

A question about using my 50mm 1.4 lens...will I be able to take decent landscape type shots with this lens?

[KerryMac]

Hi Debby!
Before the advent of DSLR and SLR cameras, rangefinders were the norm.
Most of them came with 50 mm lenses standard. Some of the best photos in the world were taken with 50 mm and it's still referred to as a "standard" lens.
You can do anything you want with it!

[sam ellis]

I would say get INTO the whole photography thing before investing. Get to grips with your camera and learn about photography a bit, as you can waste a lot of money simply buying. The 50mm is PERFECT to do this.

The big range zooms are VERY versatile - but I would save for a Canon lense. I have used the sigma and the Tamron lenses in my 20+ years of photography and whilst they are GREAT - if I had a choice I would go the same brand as the camera.

Just my 2c worth.

sam

[tylertooo]

I agree with what everyone else is saying. Learn more about your camera with the 50mm lens (great lens btw), and then I would decide on the new lens after considering what you use the camera for the most. Keep in mind that your xti has a crop factor of 1.6, which means the image is cropped somewhat from someone that has a full frame camera, like in the Canon 5D. All this means is that if you took the same photograph with your camera as I did with my 5D, and we both had the same lens, your photo would be a somewhat cropped version of my photo. I don't know if this is just a canon thing, or if other camera manufacturers do this, but it has to do with the size sensor that canon uses on their different cameras. The only reason I mention this is if you decide your passion is lets say - city scape photography, and you get a wide angle lens, a wide angle lens which is say a 28mm to start, acts like a 44mm lens on your camera, so in that case you maybe would want to get a lower number mm wide angle lens - but that is pretty specialized. IMO that is the only factor that I would be concerned about is wide angle shots, and I guess something to think about with your trip to Europe (lucky you). The lens you mentioned that starts at 17mm would give you a photo much the same as my 28mm lens, which is think is pretty good for basic wide angle shots.

Actually, I really think it's kind of neat because you are essentually using the part of the lens which is typically sharper, as the edge of photos on full frame cameras (which use all the lens focal length) tend to be somewhat mushy.

Now if I totally confused you, you can get a better understanding, with good visual examples at this link - DSLR Magnification . I am with you, I have so much to learn as well, but I am slowing picking up more. My boss has a canon that uses the same multiplier as the xti, so he was the one that explained it to me. I had a hard time understanding it so I did some digging online.

I am always looking for good photography help, and am slowing learning more, and look to all the wonderful people at DD for much needed help with my scrapbooking, where I also need lots of help. I plan on getting the same canon 50mm f1.4 lens in a month or two, but this month my big purchase will be a speedlite, as the 5D does not have a pop-up flash. Isn't it wonderful to have all these toys.

[Debbyo]

Thanks so much for your very in depth answer to my lens question. You have sent me on another search & rescue mission as I am determined to become better at this. I have read thru some older threads and found that all of you fantastic photographers are even suggesting that a new "body" is more advisable than the glass that goes on it...I'm looking into that too, and took notice of your mention of your 5D body. Are you thrilled with the 5D? -or if a person were to trade up, what would you suggest? I'm all ears!

[LauraBean]

The body you have is very good; I wouldn't trade up until I knew exactly why I wanted to. Most advice I've seen around the web and elsewhere is to invest in good lenses. Play with what you have until you find it can't do what you want, then find the tools that will let you do what you want.

[Debbyo]

Great advice Laura, thanks, I really value everything you all tell me...

[tylertooo]

I agree with Laura. Although I love the 5D, your xti is fabulous. I would over time get a few additional lenses down the line, and invest in another canon body in the very distant future. By then there will probably be improvements in all of digital, and you will have a number of lenses you can use on both bodies. The xti is on the lower end of their EOS line, but I have heard nothing but great things about them. I think the build, size, weatherproofing and dpi are the biggest plus for their higher end, but if I owned the xti, I wouldn't buy another body yet - in my opinion anyway. I hope you don't think that what I said about the crop factor is bad, it is just something to be aware of so you can better understand your camera, especially when buying future lenses.

[Debbyo]

No, Joanie -I don't think of it as being bad, just wondered if my xti is so far out of date already that I should be putting another body into the budget. LOL I really appreciate how you took the time to explain that so well, I need all the info I can get to understand this "yet another" new passion of mine...but I seriously don't think my skills are good enough yet to warrant the price tags on the next level... well, yet, anyways!

[audrey77]

Have you thought about taking Katrina's class (Captured Through The Lens) at Get It Scrapped? It was a great-great-GREAT class.... and I shot manual beforehand! I am not sure when she'll offer it again, but you'll get a very solid education on photography and greatly improve your shots. Your xti can take beautiful shots; you just need to learn HOW. :-)

[Debbyo]

I would love to take her class...is it too late to get into it? -if so, will she be doing another one of them?

[audrey77]

Paging Katrina!!!!!