Good Walkabout lens

davealister · Jul 11, 2012

[h=1]I have a canon rebel xs withthe kit lens 18-55 IS

I'm looking for a good walk about lens.
Does anyone have any suggestions

My price range is about $350 max

I've considered these...
also I don't know much about crop factor

Sigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 II DC OS HSM Lens[/h]
[h=1]Tamron AF 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di II LD Aspherical (IF) Macro Zoom Lens[/h][h=1]Sigma 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 DG IF Macro Aspherical Lens for Canon SLR Cameras[/h]

tirediron · Jul 11, 2012

I think you'll find those all relatively similar, image-quality wise. All super-zoom lenses are compromises, giving a large zoom range but losing some image and build-quality in the process. If you just want something for web-quality snapshots, they'll be fine. Crop factor simply means that on any DX/APS-C camera body a lens will have the field of view of one 1.5x it's focal length on a full-frame camera. Therefore, your 18-55 gives you the same field of view on your camera that a 27-80 would on a full-frame/film body.

TheBiles · Jul 11, 2012

Trying to fit everything into one lens only will lead to disappointment (unless you're not really looking for anything great). Do you really need to go from 24mm (equivalent) to 300mm (equivalent) for just walking around? What do you like to shoot? Are you more of a nature person? Street photography? Moving subjects? There are a ton of situations where you can just "walk around" that require different focal lengths.

bratkinson · Jul 13, 2012

I'm very partial to the Canon EF-S 18-135 f3.5-5.6 IS myself, as this was what I started with when I moved from point and shoot to DSLR (Canon 30D). I found the results were very satisfactory, but indoors, a flash is required for all but the most well-lit situations. Outdoors, the zoom range allowed very quick compose & shoot capabilities, even from a moving train! I found this especially useful in downtown Chicago, last summer. Although I don't do close-up work, I did get a nice shot of a flower from about 2 feet away, zoomed in, and like the results.

As for crop factor, using an EF-S lens on a crop body such as your Rebel, there is no crop occurring. The lens is designed for crop bodies, so you get the full angle of view produced by the 18-135.

pgriz · Jul 13, 2012

bratkinson said:
<snip>
As for crop factor, using an EF-S lens on a crop body such as your Rebel, there is no crop occurring. The lens is designed for crop bodies, so you get the full angle of view produced by the 18-135.

Ummm, no. It is true that the EF-S lens is designed to be used with crop bodies such as the Rebel, but its angle of views at 18-135 are still the same as an EF lens with the same 18-135 focal length. And the focal lengths are always compared to the 35mm equivalent, so the 18-135mm on a Rebel, will show the same angle of view as 28.8mm-216mm (18-135 times crop factor of 1.6) would show on a full frame, 35mm equivalent.

to the OP: what a good walk-around lens is for you really depends on what you tend to shoot AND how you usually view the results. If you're into nature shooting, that's usually in the medium to upper telephoto range (135-300mm). If you're into landscape, that tends to be closer to the wider angle side (12-24mm). If you're into people shots, then that's closer to 50-135mm. If you're into interior shots or nightlife, then a lens with a large maximum aperture (f/1.4-1.8) is probably what you should be looking for. And as mentioned earlier, the wider the range of the zoom, the less is the image quality. However, image quality is relative. If you're not going to be printing larger than 5x6, or showing larger than (say) 1200 x 800, then the resolution you will be getting with higher-quality lenses will be wasted. If you tend to crop your photos to extract the "best" framing, then you do care about resolution.

In my case, I have a Rebel T1i, and started with a kit lens. Relatively quickly, I upgraded several times, and ended up with a 24-105mm L-series lens. For MY purposes, it was the best compromise of image quality, weight, range and price. And yes, there are always compromises. You just have to decide what is important for you.