What lens do you recommend?

sunflower100 · Feb 21, 2012

Hello everyone, I have been testing a canon 18mm to 55mm lens on a Rebel to take pictures of people and fashion photography in various types of environments, but I feel this lens isn't quite the one I need. It's just not sharp enough, the images feel and look creamy fuzzy making certain key details get compromised, and the subject's perspective also changes in the photo. What I mean with perspective change is that with another camera (point and shoot) at the same angle, the person's face looks more proportionate and balanced in the photo than with the camera that has the 18mm to 55mm lens. Of course the point and shoot is fixed, but then I'm thinking I can do the same with the canon camera.
What do you recommend I use?
Should I spend more time with the 18mm to 55mm?

rokvi · Feb 21, 2012

Whats your budget?

MLeeK · Feb 21, 2012

You have some vague hints toward a couple of things:
First a DSLR is not going to show the same sharpness as a point and shoot straight out of the camera. There are quite a few reasons for this, but mainly the small sensor and the post processing that the point and shoot camera does to the image causes you to think that the quality from your DSLR is lacking. Are you shooting in jpeg or raw? And if you are shooting in jpeg what are the picture style settings? Raw images will appear to be VERY soft and fuzzy. Jpegs might... depending on what your settings are.
Are you shooting in manual and do you know how to use aperture to control focus in depth of field? Do you know how to use shutter speed to stop motion and keep things from being blurry?
You hit on soft... I'd like to see some images to determine what kind of soft. There are several issues.

The 18-55 isn't the greatest lens on the market but it's a damn good consumer lens and you should be able to get clean, clear sharp images. Which leads me to believe you need some knowledge in how to use your camera to it's fullest.
You mention distortion. That's wide angle. It distorts things. It's simply the laws of physics at work. You'll find it's much better at the long end of the zoom. At the wide end you will get things like the dogs with the huge nose and bent light poles, etc. Wide angle has it's applications and you have to know when and how to use it just like you have to know when and how to use any other length of lens.

In short, recommending a lens for you isn't going to help a whole lot if your other problems aren't addressed first.