Advice on Lens?? For a complete Beginner

DNS77

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Hi

I have just purchased my first SLR, its a Canon 450d and im really excited about using it. Unfortunatley its just an ornament at home on the shelf whilst im doing some research on what type of lens to buy.

I understand that the standard 18-55 doesnt really give you much flexibilty in terms of what you want to shoot. And being new to this and overly enthusiatic i pretty much want to shoot everything.

Being real, i will probably shoot mainly people first, and inanimate objects leading onto landscapes and nature shots...... But if its at all possible i'd like quite a versatile lens to begin with..

Any advice?? :blushing:
 
well budget is regularly very helpful, i lasted about a year with a 15-55mm so not TOO big of a deal unless you make it one, if you have more money then that, try buying a good 18-200mm or so.
 
Wide angle (prime or zoom) are great for landscapes. They seem quite pricey to me compared to the others. e.g. 10-20mm

For people, a 50mm 1.8 would be a good (and inexpensive) way to go.

For "nature shots", presuming wildlife, you'd want a longer zoom such as a 70-200, with image stabilisation and/or a tripod to steady the camera.
 
Get the 50mm f1.8. It's a great lens, I did tons of work with this lens and my clients loved it. Then subsequently upgraded to L lenses which are super awesome. For $75-90 you cannot go wrong with this lens.
 
If you just want to start learning, the kit lens that shipped with the camera is not bad. After you use it for awhile and learn more about photography as well as camera gears, you will know what you need to buy next. Or at least has some ideas.
 
If you just want to start learning, the kit lens that shipped with the camera is not bad. After you use it for awhile and learn more about photography as well as camera gears, you will know what you need to buy next. Or at least has some ideas.
I get the impression the 450d was acquired, body only.

After a point, the versatility of a lens begins to hamper it's performance.

An 18-200 mm zoom lens was mentioned. Because that is a +10x zoom range, many compromises have to be made in it's design, all of them resulting in a decrease in lens performance through barrel or pincushion distortion, soft focus, chromatic aberration, coma, etc.

A more viable alternative, versatile lens, would be a lens in the 18-105 mm range. For making images of people and inantimate objects a 50 mm f/1.8 is a good start and Canon has an inexpensive ($100) example available.
 
iunno if this is dumb or not but i think it'd be good to get a fast(er) standard zoom... such as the sigma 17-70mm f2.8-4.5 (i'm getting one for like $500 after taxes)... it's faster and has a longer range than the kit lens. also it lets you build on it quite effectively... you could get a 11-16mm f2.8 wide angle zoom (tokina makes these) and a nice 70-300mm telephoto zoom. if you don't use wide angle much, tamron makes a 28-75mm f2.8 lens priced around the same as the sigma. its rather sharp compared to the kit lens and way faster.
 
An 18-55 gives you wide to standard zoom. So theres variety there. The quality of the shots, thats where things might get a little iffy; but theres no reason to junk your 18-50 just yet. It can squeeze out some winners if you know how to use it.

If you are set on upgrading, I would look at another wide-to-standard zoom lens from a 3rd party seller like Sigma. People have been raging about this 18-50 F/2.8 that Sigma has come out with and how great of a walkaround lens it is. If you want something to suppliment the 18-50 the 50MM F/1.8 is good and will have you covered in low light situations and get you some lovely sharp shots at F/2 or so.

Or get both if you have 500 or so bucks to spend.
 
I would also recommend the 50mm F/1.8
Then as the everyday lens I would recommend an 18-135 or there abouts, this wont be so sharp at 135mm, but as a carry round I love it, because you rarely miss a "moment" because of lens limitations.
Then if you end up doing alot of landscape work, you could pick up a 17mm-40mm, which I have heard are quite good, for around the $500 mark.

All said and done, on a budget, if you want quality vs price the 50mm F1.8 is a very very good deal.
 
Thanks to every one for replying!! The camera was purchased body only, so you have given me some ideas to research on...thanks a bunch!!
 
Thanlks to everyone that replied, ive got lost of info to do some more research with !!!
 
I also like Tamron lenses. I find they are well built, and for 3rd party lenses, give nice results at half the price of a Canon equivalent.
 
I dont mean to intrude into your thread, but I am also a beginner in photography and have some lens questions as well.

Between a nikon and a canon I have chosen to purchase a canon xsi (not a t1i since I don't need a camcorder to go along with it)

Should I get the XSI bundle with the standard 18-55mm SI Lens? or Should I get just the body and buy 'better' lenses with it? Sooner or later I know the 18-55mm will be no use to me once i get deeper into photography (ie. photo shoots)

My purpose for photography for now would be macro pictures as well as portraits and maybe weddings.

I want lenses that will last me for years to come and that will have purposes to actually use and not toss out once they are no more use to me.

As of right now, I researched and found that the 50mm f/1.4 is better than the 1.8. Is that a good lens for macro shots?

And also the 17 - 55mm f/2.8 seems like really nice lenses as well. Do they serve the same purpose as the 50mm? Should I buy both? or one or the other would suit me for multi purposes?

Anymore useful information would be great. Budget for lenses reach out as far as $1000 (price of the 17-55mm f/2.8)

If I should make my own thread just tell me :] I just didn't want to clog up the forum.
 
I think it is better to start your own thread since the information you need are different.
 

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