Good things about the Canon EF 28-135

[CharlesFBI]

Hi,

this is my first post here, just joined the forum! Yay

That said, I'm a beginner and have been trying to learn a lot on my own recently. I've had my camera, the Canon EOS 1000D/Rebel XS for maybe a little over 6 months, and haven't really gotten into photography until just a couple weeks ago.

I managed to find a used Canon EF 28-135 IS USM lens recently for about 140 dollars (I live in Finland, it was about 100 euros). From what I found I thought it was a good walk around lens, as that's what I wanted, a lens that I could keep on all the time and not have to change lenses. I was on a quite tight budget and didn't want to use the 420 dollars on a 55-250 lens a co-worker who's a good photographer suggested. I wanted a cheaper lens to start out with and see if my interest in photography will stick.

Now that I've used the lens a bit and read more about it, I realize it might not be the perfect walk around lens since I have a 1000D with a 1.6x crop factor. And there are some other issues. BUT:

I now want to forget about the shortcomings and focus on what I can do and what the good things about this lense are. I bought a ND + ND grad filter and a polarizer too. Now, I'm GOING to get some great pictures with this lens! I'd appreciate it though if I could get some tips on what this lens is good for and what things I shouldn't even really consider (things that REALLY can't be done with it). Thanks !

 

[Montana]

I have that lens, but rarely use it. I prefer either wider focal length, or my other lenses that have the same range covered. Its not a "bad" lens, in fact I think it has decent color and contrast really. The only real limiting factor of that lens is its max aperture that will force you into higher ISO's indoors and be somewhat limiting in artsy farsty shallow depth of field shots. Have a blast, this is a fun hobby!

 

[CharlesFBI]

Thank you for the reply!

I'd like to stress at this point though, that I'd like to hear more about what's good about the lens than what's not, since I'm not selling it anytime soon, and can't really afford to buy a new one either. I've seen a lot already about what other lenses are better but they're not an option now. Sorry if I was too vague.

 

[bigtwinky]

To flip around what was already said, its a good outdoor lens. You still need to be somewhat close to your subject to fill the frame from a distance as the zoom is still somewhat short (although less so on a crop camera).

You already pointed out that its a lower end lens, so you won't be doing amazing low light photography (unless you have a flash) or sports shooting (I tried shooting a Rudgy game with it and found it somewhat limiting)

It can be good for portraits as it gives a nice zoom range for smaller group shoots and half body / head shots.

As a general walk around lens shooting nature, its an ok lens. You would need wider if you want to get into landscapes and cityscapes.