Lens Advice

Jayson Prentice · Dec 28, 2006

I do have another topic on the same lines in another forum, but still looking for a good response on what lenses to get for a good starting kit. I'm not in the big money range being a college student, but have saved up money for the XTi and am looking for most likely a 2 lens arsenal for my photography. I do weather photos and thus am looking at a wide angle lens for the storm structure shots. I also like to do some of the athletics and wildlife photography and thus a telephoto lens is wanted as well. Which of the choices do you think would suit me best?

1) Canon 18-55 Kit Lens & Canon 75-300 f/4-5.6 III AF

2) Tamron AF 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 & Tamron AF 70-300 f/4-5.6 Di (or Tamron 75-300)

3) Sigma 28-70 f/2.8-F DG AF & Sigma APO Macro Super II 70-300 f/4-5.6 (or Sigma AF 70-300 f/4-5.6 Macro DG)[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

Or a combination of some of the above, such as the Canon Kit lens and then one of the Tamron or Sigma zooms. Or is there another lens altogether that you think would work best? Thanks!![/FONT]

Big Mike · Dec 28, 2006

The first option is the only one with a wide angle lens on that camera...and even 18mm isn't really all that wide on that camera.

I would recommend getting the 18-55 kit lens. It's not a spectacular lens...but it's the best one you will find for the $100 that it costs when bought with the camera.

There are several alternatives in that range though. I've done some research on what to upgrade my kit lens with...and the Tamron 17-50 F2.8 looks to be a pretty darn good lens at a decent price. The wide F2.8 aperture is a big advantage over the kit lens. There are also lenses in the range from Sigma and Tamron that are F2.8-5.6...which is still better than the kit lens, but not as good as the constant F2.8 aperture lens.

I've got the Canon 75-300 lens as well. It's nice, for a consumer zoom...but it's a bit too slow (small aperture) unless the light is good. If you can't afford a fast lens though...this would be a good choice. I don't know much about the Sigma or Tamron telephoto zooms...but they are probably worth a look.

ksmattfish · Dec 28, 2006

I've been using a Sigma 18-50 f/2.8, and I love it. I did some test shooting before I got it, and my results showed it did very well up against Canon L glass, but it's half the price (no IS of course).

Alex_B · Dec 28, 2006

i had good experience with the Sigma 24-70 2.8 EX DG

Jayson Prentice · Dec 28, 2006

Well for the telephoto lens I'm fairly narrowed down to either the Canon 75-300 lens, the Tamron 70-300 lens or the Sigma 70-300. All of those fall within my price range and I've seen some good reviews on them, the focus is slow slightly, but in order to fix that I'll have to upgrade to a lens more than $400-500.

The wide angle I'm still up in the air a bit, but I'm narrowing it down slowly. Anybody have experience with the Sigma 18-50 or the Tamron 19-35? Or anybody use Tokina lenses, I know a couple of people have mentioned those and they get some decent reviews for the 19-35. Or just stick with the kit lens at this point?

If you can help me narrow down some of those that would be great, thanks for the help so far...