Lense for DSLR T3i for mainly new born baby photography and family activities

samba911 · Jan 28, 2013

Hello All,

First I would like to thank all of great advises on dslr t3i. I am very new into the photography so your expert advise will be highly appreciated. I have a great feelings about this camera so far.

I got T3i with basic lens only (whatever it comes with it- don't remember now) and also have cheap tripod as well. As we're having our first baby in the family coming soon, I would like to learn how to shot new born baby with a good lens you would recommend.

I have been looking around and see something called Image Stabilization and Telephoto and all. I went bestbuy and saw telephoto one is selling 199 and the one is called something IS ii telephoto 299. I actually dont know the differences in between those two?

My budget is 200-300 and I would like to have for the followings:

-baby shot -mostly indoor (focusing the baby-making background blurry/dark..- target object should have all details and all
-baby pix taken while playing in the backyard/park or may little landscaping (when he gets little older....)
-family activity mostly indoor nights or some park/picnic and all.
-sometime I may record some baby's moments and all

what would you recommend based on the above situations of me? lense? tips? where to buy? ebay/amazon is a good choice?
Any recommends site/place you recommend where i can learn basic photography using T3i?
anything you would recommend?

Thanks,
Samba

BevD · Jan 28, 2013

I think that a 50mm f/1.4 lens ($300-400) would be great for what you want to do or if your budget can't stretch that far the 50mm f/1.8 would suffice. Being that you are so new to photography you will have a lot to learn about your camera and this is more important than any equipment. If you buy either of these lenses I would suggest that you learn to shoot in aperture priority so you can control your depth of field for blurry backgrounds, etc. These lenses will also let you shoot indoors in lower light than you could with the kit lens.

CanonJim · Jan 28, 2013

The lens which came with your camera is probably an 18-55mm lens, of 'consumer grade' quality, often referred to as a 'kit lens'. It is not the greatest in the world, but it's perfectly good for much of what you want to shoot. On your cropped sensor, or APS-C, camera, it will offer a field of view similar to what about a 30 to 90mm lens would, on a full frame sensor camera. All this means to you is that it may be a LITTLE be a little bit too much of a telephoto for certain scenes indoors. And, it may not let in a lot of light for those closeup shots in the bassinett.

I'm not sure which lenses you saw at BestBuy, but chances are the $299 one was the Canon 55-250mm lens, which is the next one in line after your 18-55mm lens. The 55-250mm is a telephoto lens that you'd take to the kid's soccer games in five or six years, it's not really designed for indoor portraits.

Your budget is the limiting factor here. There are many lenses which would be suitable for the indoor portrait and night shots you have in mind - Sigma, Tokina and Tamron make consumer-grade lenses that match up well with Canon DSLRs. Your 18-55mm kit lens is suitable for that scene, but it's not going to be very promising in low light - for that, you need a lens which has a wider aperture, to let in more light. These lenses are described as 'fast' lenses, because the wide open lens allows a lot of light in, which allows for a fast shutter speed to freeze movement. For example, a lens described as "f/2.8" is 'faster' than a lens described as "f/4" - the lower the number, the bigger the lens aperture opening, which is what you want. Trouble is, fast lenses tend to be more expensive than slower, consumer grade lenses like your 18-55, which has a maximum aperture of f/3.5, I think.

One lens which is highly regarded, especially for it's price, is the Canon 50mm f/1.8 II, sometimes called the "Nifty Fifty". It runs just around a hundred dollars, and although it does not get as wide as your 18-55mm, it has a nice big aperture for low light - f/1.8 is a good bit wider than the f/3.5 your kit lens opens up to. It is much better in low light, regardless of the math involved.

Your other option would be to look for a used, good condition 28mm or 35mm Canon EF lens, which you can find on eBay for under $300 every day of the week. These non-zoom, or "prime" lenses are usually of good quality.

In any case, try to keep the maximum aperture of the lens you get as wide as possible (remembering that that means a SMALLER number - f/1.2 is better than f/2.8 which is better than f/3.5, and so on. If you're comparing two lenses, and all other things being more or less equal, the lower number is better.

TCampbell · Jan 28, 2013

A lens can help you IF it's the right lens for the task at hand and if YOU know how to use it to get the effect you want. Having the right lens will not be very useful if you don't know how to exploit it's properties.

I'd suggest you pick up a copy of Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure": http://amzn.com/0817439390

This will explain several key concepts you'll need to know in order to get the shots you want such as a tack-sharp baby but a blurry background... or how to get shots of an active child without having "motion blur" in the image.

As for lenses... "image stabilization" helps when taking hand-held photos at slow shutter speeds by trying to prevent YOUR movement from blurring the shot. It's not foolproof... it only greatly increases the odds that you'll get a good image. Note that this does nothing for a subject which is moving (e.g. active child). Image stabilization is usually not needed at short "wide angle" through "normal" focal lengths. It's very nice to have in long telephoto focal lengths.

More important attributes are

(a) a lens that can allow a much lower focal ratio. This allows the lens to collect more light while the shutter is open and it's also what allows a narrow focused range (the range of distances at which things will seem to be reasonably well focused) while deliberately causing the background to be blurred.

(b) if you're shooting an active child or anything with a lot of activity, it's nice to have a lens with a fast focusing motor. The low-end consumer lenses usually don't have these fast motors. But consider that if a child is, say, running toward you and take their photo, the camera needs to lock focus and shoot. If the focus motor is slow and the child's distance is changing quickly then by the time a slow motor moves to the focused position, the child will have moved. The motor will constantly be playing 'catch up'. The lenses with the fast motors are quite snappy.

I should also mention that your camera has a focusing mode for situations when the subject distance isn't changing and there is a different mode for use when the subject's distance is changing. You need to learn to switch focusing modes based on your situation. This in in your owners manual or, buy a copy of David Busch's book which explains the features and operations of your camera in more detail than the owner's manual: http://amzn.com/1435460286

Probably the best lens for your situation is one of these:

1) Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Autofocus Lens 2515A003 B&H Photo Video

This is an excellent lens. It's just a tiny bit over your budget (I think it's currently on a promotion for $329. Usually it's closer to $400.) It's a very slight "telephoto" effect when used with your camera.

2) Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM Autofocus Lens for Canon Digital

This is another great lens. It's a Sigma lens (not Canon) but made for use with Canon bodies. It's similar to the lens above BUT it's offers a "normal" angle of view. Normal means that what it sees is roughly what your eye can see as long as you look forward and do not look around with your eye or move your head. Since it's angle of view is approximately the same as the angle of view with your eye, the images seem neither zoomed in nor zoomed out... they seem "normal".

3) Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Autofocus Lens 2514A002 B&H Photo Video

This last lens is the Canon "nifty fifty". Optically it's fine. It's also the most affordable. It has a plastic body which feels "cheap" because it IS cheap. That said, I've never known one to just fall apart (not unless it was dropped). It does NOT have a fast focusing motor (also the focusing motor is noisy). The aperture opening in the lens only has a 5-blade diaphragm. That means out of focus points take on a pentagonal shape rather than a rounded shape. The out-of-focus areas will have a bit of a nervous or jittery look to them (the quality of the out-of-focus area is referred to as "bokeh". This lens has marginal quality bokeh. The Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM version has a much higher quality "bokeh".)

I've linked to the B&H Photo website. They are probably the largest and most popular online camera store in the US. Adorama is also pretty big and popular as is Amazon.com.

I generally don't buy from eBay (sometimes I do... but it's rare as I feel I have the highest risk involved in the sale when I use them.)

paigew · Jan 28, 2013

I have a t3i too. I would say 50 1.4 or sigma 30 1.4

samba911 · Jan 28, 2013

TCampbell said:
A lens can help you IF it's the right lens for the task at hand and if YOU know how to use it to get the effect you want. Having the right lens will not be very useful if you don't know how to exploit it's properties.

I'd suggest you pick up a copy of Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure": http://amzn.com/0817439390

This will explain several key concepts you'll need to know in order to get the shots you want such as a tack-sharp baby but a blurry background... or how to get shots of an active child without having "motion blur" in the image.

As for lenses... "image stabilization" helps when taking hand-held photos at slow shutter speeds by trying to prevent YOUR movement from blurring the shot. It's not foolproof... it only greatly increases the odds that you'll get a good image. Note that this does nothing for a subject which is moving (e.g. active child). Image stabilization is usually not needed at short "wide angle" through "normal" focal lengths. It's very nice to have in long telephoto focal lengths.

More important attributes are

(a) a lens that can allow a much lower focal ratio. This allows the lens to collect more light while the shutter is open and it's also what allows a narrow focused range (the range of distances at which things will seem to be reasonably well focused) while deliberately causing the background to be blurred.

(b) if you're shooting an active child or anything with a lot of activity, it's nice to have a lens with a fast focusing motor. The low-end consumer lenses usually don't have these fast motors. But consider that if a child is, say, running toward you and take their photo, the camera needs to lock focus and shoot. If the focus motor is slow and the child's distance is changing quickly then by the time a slow motor moves to the focused position, the child will have moved. The motor will constantly be playing 'catch up'. The lenses with the fast motors are quite snappy.

I should also mention that your camera has a focusing mode for situations when the subject distance isn't changing and there is a different mode for use when the subject's distance is changing. You need to learn to switch focusing modes based on your situation. This in in your owners manual or, buy a copy of David Busch's book which explains the features and operations of your camera in more detail than the owner's manual: http://amzn.com/1435460286

Probably the best lens for your situation is one of these:

1) Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Autofocus Lens 2515A003 B&H Photo Video

This is an excellent lens. It's just a tiny bit over your budget (I think it's currently on a promotion for $329. Usually it's closer to $400.) It's a very slight "telephoto" effect when used with your camera.

2) Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM Autofocus Lens for Canon Digital

This is another great lens. It's a Sigma lens (not Canon) but made for use with Canon bodies. It's similar to the lens above BUT it's offers a "normal" angle of view. Normal means that what it sees is roughly what your eye can see as long as you look forward and do not look around with your eye or move your head. Since it's angle of view is approximately the same as the angle of view with your eye, the images seem neither zoomed in nor zoomed out... they seem "normal".

3) Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Autofocus Lens 2514A002 B&H Photo Video

This last lens is the Canon "nifty fifty". Optically it's fine. It's also the most affordable. It has a plastic body which feels "cheap" because it IS cheap. That said, I've never known one to just fall apart (not unless it was dropped). It does NOT have a fast focusing motor (also the focusing motor is noisy). The aperture opening in the lens only has a 5-blade diaphragm. That means out of focus points take on a pentagonal shape rather than a rounded shape. The out-of-focus areas will have a bit of a nervous or jittery look to them (the quality of the out-of-focus area is referred to as "bokeh". This lens has marginal quality bokeh. The Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM version has a much higher quality "bokeh".)

I've linked to the B&H Photo website. They are probably the largest and most popular online camera store in the US. Adorama is also pretty big and popular as is Amazon.com.

I generally don't buy from eBay (sometimes I do... but it's rare as I feel I have the highest risk involved in the sale when I use them.)

==============
Thanks so much. I just bought 3) Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Autofocus Lens 2514A002 B&H Photo Video and will be buying the one with telphoto once kid becomes 5-7 yrs . thanks for all your detailed. It's so helpful. wow!!!