Best Starter Lens Options

[MeeshyMeeshy]

Hey guys,

I'm new to this forum, and fairly new to the DSLR world. To give you some of my back story, I am a graphic designer who likes to dabble in all kinds of art, and have always enjoyed photography. Over the years I've used countless point-and-shoots, a Holga camera, and finally have experimented quite a bit with iPhoneography. I finally got my first DSLR (Canon EOS Rebel T3 with 18-55mm lens and 75-300 zoom lens) in September and have been reading up on all kinds of things to add to my camera bag. The only dilemma is, it can be a bit overwhelming when there are so many options.

So my question is, what are some of the best all around lenses to get on a budget? I've seen the 50mm f1.8 lens pop up quite a bit, and only for about $100 which is a price point that makes me very happy! I would love to hear any recommendations for beginner add-ons. I find that I mainly shoot landscape and architecture scenes, but am not limited to just those subject matters.

I am also wondering if anyone else has the 75-300mm zoom lens and how they feel about it. I've played around with it a bit but it's not my favorite. Any comments on what it is best used for?

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[Tee]

The 50mm 1.8 is arguably the first lens bought post kit lens.

 

[shadowlands]

Agreed!!! 50mm f1.8!!!
Sure, you can't zoom. But outside of that, you can do everything else... low-light, background blurring & ultra sharp...

 

[KmH]

Though the Canon 50 mm f/1.8 has a nice price point, it has bottom of the barrel build quality, tends to break into 2 large non-repairable pieces if dropped, and has some image quality issues.

The notable IQ issues are:
1. Soft (not sharp) focus when used within the 2 widest stops of lens aperture, though from f/3.5 on focus sharpness is pretty good, until diffraction effects start affecting focus sharpness at small lens apertures.
2. The Canon 50 f/1.8 only has 5 aperture blades. Plus the blades are straight and have sharp edges. All those low price point attributes make out-of-focus (OOF) areas in the background have a jittery, nervous, unpleasant look to them (low quality bokeh. Bokeh is not adjustable).

 

[JaronRH]

Not to be rude but what exactly are you trying to accomplish? Buying lenses for the sake of buying lenses just results in extra lenses laying around! I always recommend that a lens - or any other piece of photographic equipment - is purchased for one of two reasons:
1) To address a specific limitation in what you currently have.
2) A specific area you want to improve or move into.
(keep in mind that this could be better addressed through a new body or other gear, such as a flash too! Doesn't have to be a lens).

For example, last fall I did a photo shoot with some friends who's young kids where running around like crazy (no control really). To make matters worse, I had a limited AF system (older 11-point system) and was using my 85 1.4 "foot-zoom" lens. Both the camera and the lens worked exceptionally well in other cases but not here! So, I decided to save up for and upgrade both my lens and body: body for a 51-point AF to provide better tracking and a 70-200 2.8 to keep up with kids. The upgrade thus addressed a specific need and therefore has been an extremely useful purchase.

So in your case, what do you hope to improve? Low-light? Portrait? Macro? Portability? Landscape? If you could tell us that and give us your budget, I'm sure we could point you in the right direction!

 

[fjrabon]

50mm isn't particularly good for landscape and architectural. For that you probably want focal lengths between 10 and 35mm.

I sorta never got the point of the Canon 50mm f/1.8. It's simply not good enough at f/1.8 to really be worth using until you get to about f/4. And if you're limited to f/4, what's the point in paying $100 for a lens with only one focal length? The reason to buy primes is for their abilities at low f stops and sharpness. The 50mm f/1.8 isn't really all that good at either of those. And yeah, it has a major known issue of breaking into two pieces, as multiple regular posters on here have reported. This isn't like it happens if you toss it across a room. I've seen it happen to somebody when they were quickly walking with the camera on a strap around there neck, because the camera just happened to bounce a little funny off their stomach​