What lenses should I use for my Canon EOS Rebel T2i? 50mm? 55-250? 65-250?

[laruam22]

Ok. I'm a newbie and I just bought a used Canon EOS Rebel T2i to mostly take on vacations and other little outings. It came with a 18-55mm. After doing some searching on Reddit, I saw the 50mm f/1.8 recommended, so I ordered that too. My cousin is selling 55-250 lens for $70, and a 65-250 for $80. Now, I have no clue what I'm doing, and don't know if I should buy one of those from him? Keep the 50mm? Return it? I'll be mostly taking pics of scenery, buildings, things like animals in zoos, etc...

 

[Dave442]

I say just hold on a while. Learn with what you have now. Go ahead and keep the 50mm.

I don't know the difference between the two other lenses your cousin has for sale, but you don't need both of them as they cover basically the same focal length. Three lenses is good for covering most things and you are only going to have one lens on the camera at a time.

 

[Derrel]

A 50/1.8 is a nice lens to own. The 55-250-class zoom lenses are light in weight, and are handy when traveling or outdoors and when keeping wight down is a big concern. I think at f/8, the image quality of most 55-200 or 55-250, and 70-300 lenses is actually fairly comparable to much more expensive lens also stopped down to f/8. I'm not super up on all the various Canon lenses in that general price/focal length class; there are plenty of on-line review sites that have good information on specific models and how they performa and what their limitations or weaknesses actually are. My advice is normally for people to buy used lenses if possible, with some type of return option guaranteed by the seller.