High-end lenses on a Rebel?

Jon0807 · Mar 21, 2008

People tend to change/upgrade bodies but keep their lenses. So if you start off with EF and L lenses you'd have great lenses if/when you decide to upgrade your body. Keep in mind that with full frame cameras you can't use EF-S lenses.

table1349 · Mar 21, 2008

eterrisinCYQX

This has been a long debated subject and will continue to be debated. Here is my take on the whole thing for what it is worth.

Camera bodies: NEED just a few things. Reliable shutter (accurate speeds), Decent reliable sensor (in the old days a flat film plane) Good ISO range, Reliable metering and with the new bodies accurate auto focusing. That is really all they need. The rest of the stuff is just extra. Some of it very useful extra, but extra none the less. Any old time film shooter will understand what I am saying. Does the Rebel series accomplish this? Yes

Lenses: They also need a few things. These are the things that make a lens a keeper: Good build, Great optics. That is it. It pretty much encompasses the needs for a keeper lens.

Good lenses will last you a lifetime of camera bodies if you just take care of them. My 35mm film bodies included an F and several versions of the F2. Yes I was a Nikon shooter in my film days. I was fortunate to be able to get a used Nikkor 50mm f1.2 lens to start with. One of the best ever made IMO. All the glass I bought was good glass of high quality. Being poor at the time, most was used, but in good condition. I still own all of that glass and used it for 30+ years before I switched to Digital. It is still great glass.

The F3 came along as did the F4, F5 etc. The F3 in my opinion was a waste of money. A lot of new fangled stuff that while useful was not needed. And IMO the shutter was not reliable. Not when a batter failure left you with the one and only shutter speed of 1/60th of a second. The F and F2 bodies did what I needed them to do.

If you are serious about photography you will go through camera bodies. If you are serious about photography and start out with cheap, low quality lenses, you will also go through a lot of lenses as well.

You have to decide whether you want to buy the same focal length once at a higher cost now, and probably not as often as you could with cheap glass, or replace focal lengths with progressively better glass at what will be in the long run a higher price.

eterrisinCYQX · Mar 21, 2008

The kit I'm looking at now includes the 17-55mm f4.something Canon lens with IS. I'll get an EF or an L lens probably soon afterwards, and keep going from there.

schuylercat · Mar 22, 2008

It's a new world out there.

I shot an EOS 1N and an A2 backup, each mated to L series glass, and tried to make a go as a motorsports photographer. Got my work published, got to see Indycars for free for six and a half years, and loved it.

Toward the end I ran out of time and money and had to let go...so I sold the 1N. I kept the A2, and used a Rebel (yes, a Rebel. Not a rebel XT...a $90 used 35mm Rebel) as my backup.

The A2 ran 6FPS easy, but besides that the only difference was the Rebel was better at spot metering. I never missed my 1N, except it was massive and easy to hold on to, where the Rebel was a toy.

Not so much anymore, huh? When the bodies just transported film, this was a non-issue except for people who manhandled their cameras (mine have a lot of battle scars on them). Oddly, my little Rebel sustained very little battle damage, maybe bacause it bounced off things, it was so light...

The xsi is what, 12MP? My 40D is 10.1. The web site states both cameras use DCF2.0, 14 bit original images with the nod going to the xsi for capture denisty, and it's not looking good for those of wannabe amateurs like me who plunked down a lot of extra Ducats for the 40D in order to get a tougher body with a lots of throughput and a few cute features.