Purchasing my first couple of lens- Which one(s) to buy?

[JeremyD]

Am am interested in getting my first couple of lens's , I am new to photography and right now I'm on a budget since their are a few things I wish to purchase.
I was looking into this telephoto lens: Canon EF 75-300 f/4-5.6. It is in my price range (on amazon around 140)
As well for sure to get a 50mm prime lens, I was looking to get this one: canon 50mm f/1.8 II.
And for a last lens I am interested in is a fisheye lens. I need a good fisheye lens however the prices for a decent one are around 300. I was looking into the rokino fisheye lens. If anyone has any tips on what sort of lens's I should purchase that would be great!

If your interested in what I would be using these lens's for are photography and film. I film close up extreme sports (BMX, snowboarding ect) Where I would follow the rider. And I am getting more into portraits and as of now I am really into landscape photography much more.

 

[TCampbell]

Canon's 75-300mm is considered to be mediocre at best. The 70-300mm is much better, but it's also more expensive.

The 50mm f/1.8 is has nice optics and it's a good bargain price, but keep in mind it does NOT have a fast focusing motor. Since you pointed out that you want to do extreme / action sports shots, you'll want to stick to lenses that have fast focusing motors (e.g. look for the lenses with "USM" focusing motors and don't forget to flip your camera's focusing mode into "AI Servo" mode when doing those shots.)

Lenses appropriate for action sports tend to be expensive because they typically not only have fast focusing motors, they also often need lower focal ratios (usually for night sports or indoor sports -- which may not apply to you). That means you can probably save a few bucks by not buying the lenses with the low focal ratios BUT you probably will want the lenses with the fast motors.

As for fish-eye lenses (curvilinear distortion wide angle lenses), you'll want to choose a focal length based on how it fills the frame on your camera.

LensRentals has a good set of sample images here: LensRentals.com - Rent a Sigma 8mm f/3.5 EX DG Fisheye

Notice that on a crop-frame camera, a 4.5mm fish-eye creates a circular image (black frame with a circle in the middle with the classic bubble look). The 10mm fish-eye can give you corner-to-corner coverage (no black edges or corners.)

Roger humorously makes the comparison that "Fisheye shots are kind of like tequila shots – a few are fun but too many just make you sick."

You may just want to rent one of these rather than buying it.

 

[cgipson1]

My advice would be to only buy ONE lens that costs as much as the three lenses you named. That way you will have one quality lens, instead of three NOT quality lenses.