I will be getting my first DSLR soon. Naturally, they come with a 18-55mm lens, but I would like to know what's a good additional lens to get with it ~$250. Maybe a 55-250mm? I'm looking to do urban photography, structures, and a few portraits. Additional uses would be my son's little league games.
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Pulling the trigger on an XSi or T1i
- Thread starter Razeus
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I would say get the XSi of the two and put the saved money towards lenses. The 55-250mm gets good reviews for its price and should be a good starting telephoto lens. In addition to that lens you'll most likely want to get a fast prime lens so you can shoot in lower light, a couple good ones would be the 50mm /1.8 ($90), 85mm /1.8 ($350) and the 28mm /2.8 ($180). You would want to find out what focal length you like the best of them though, so you can get the lens you'll use the most.
For the price the 55-250 is a very good lens. I used it on an XTi for a while and I liked it a lot because of the great IS and the good IQ. It has plastic mount though but the price/value ratio is great regardless.
I would get the T1i and the 50mm f/1.8. Then save up for the 55-200mm IS.
I have those 2 lenses and an XSi. Love it, but think the T1i is going to be worth the wait with higher ISO and video can't be a bad thing
I have those 2 lenses and an XSi. Love it, but think the T1i is going to be worth the wait with higher ISO and video can't be a bad thing
The 50mm f/1.8 II is a great lens for the XSi. Its fast, its cheap, its light and much better IQ then the kit lens's, both of which I have. The 55-250 is nice for the price range, but it leaves a LOT to be desired IQ and speed wise. I shoot a lot of sports and f/3.5 @ 55 is so slow, and 5.6 @ 250 is slow.
The big benefit of the T1i seems to be the Digic 4 and the higher ISO. I do wish sometimes that I could go above 1600 ISO.
i'm not saying the 50/1.8 is a bad lens - its performance is very close to the 50/1.4 at a fraction of the cost (i actually returned the 50/1.4 and rebought the 50/1.8). HOWEVER, just because it's cheap and a good lens doesn't mean everyone should buy it. buying a focal length as awkward as 50mm on APS-C as your first and only prime is just foolish.
save for the 35/2 and/or wait for Canon to gather its wits and release an EF-S lens similar to the Nikon 35/1.8.
My first prime was "Nifty" (i.e. the 50mm f/1.8). If I had to do it over, I would get the 35mm f/2. It's a more useful focal length. It's about 2.5 times as expensive, though.
Sorry, but I have to disagree w/ you guys and gals regarding the 50mm f/1.8 II, I agree that it is sharper and better then the kit lens but by all means, it is definitely NOT a fast lens, especially when it comes in low light, low light here represents indoor and not pitch dark or something, without flash, this lens will crawl searching for something to focus on and it takes time to focus which usually mean harder to capture "The Moment", and if you do capture "The Moment" the tendency your camera might focus on the wrong object is there also and to make matter worse, without full time manual focus, it makes it harder to get the part of the image (like a person eyes) to be sharper cause you must switch to manual mode to do that fine tuning which makes this very unsuitable for events where people are moving around and you dont really have the luxury of fine tuning the shot.
By all means, the 50 f/1.8 is not a bad lens considering its price tag but definitely, if you got the extra bucks, go and get the 50 f/1.4 instead, you will be much happier with its performance. (I used the 50 f/1.4 before and now sort of regret not getting it, but cannot do anything about it considering my really tight budget)
By all means, the 50 f/1.8 is not a bad lens considering its price tag but definitely, if you got the extra bucks, go and get the 50 f/1.4 instead, you will be much happier with its performance. (I used the 50 f/1.4 before and now sort of regret not getting it, but cannot do anything about it considering my really tight budget)
I agree with the above - the 1.8 is good for the money though the first time I used the one I bought - it was at a christmas party with slightly dimmed lights - the camera would hunt-hunt-hunt looking for focus. Even at the lower apertures where an amateur like me should have no problems getting focus (and then limiting the light let in the lens) the pictures were blurry. (I was even manually selecting a the center point AF point, and aiming with that) I guess I was a little disappointed. I just hate to use the pop up flash which was my main reason for buying this - trying to avoid using the pop up.
Long story short, its probably still a good value in normal to bright lighting, but in low lighting I (though admittedly not a pro) did not think it was that great. Fortunately I was able to return mine for a full refund (bought it local). I am quickly finding out that I have an expensive taste for high end, high fixed aperture primes lol. The only problem is that whole $$ thing My dream set up is a 5D mkII, with the 1.2L version of the 50mm. That would prob cover 90% of my photos. In the mean time I am planning a 50mm 1.4 version until I can justify my first L series lens.
Long story short, its probably still a good value in normal to bright lighting, but in low lighting I (though admittedly not a pro) did not think it was that great. Fortunately I was able to return mine for a full refund (bought it local). I am quickly finding out that I have an expensive taste for high end, high fixed aperture primes lol. The only problem is that whole $$ thing
My dream set up is a 5D mkII, with the 1.2L version of the 50mm. That would prob cover 90% of my photos. In the mean time I am planning a 50mm 1.4 version until I can justify my first L series lens.wheelhot said:
"fast lens" has to do with max aperture, not focus speed.
as for accuracy, i have a good number of shots with the 50/1.8 wide open, ISO3200, 1/60 or 1/30, and i haven't had any big problems with hunting. i can't speak for moving objects, though, since i've yet to use it to take pictures of people moving around a lot.
and regarding FTM, plenty of (more expensive) lenses don't have it, so you can't really bash the 50/1.8 for that.
Looks like I'm going to go for the XSi and put the extra money towards the 55-250mm lens. The price seems to be dropping now that the X1i is in the wings. When I first checked out the price of the XSi a month ago, it was $800. Yesterday, I added it to my Amazon cart, it was $679. Today I go to add the 55-250mm lenses, and my cart let me now the price of the XSi is not $669. So I'm going to hold until the X1i offically hits the shelf and see how low the XSi goes.
If anyone is looking to sell their XSi for the X1i, then I suggest you do it quickly to maximize your profits.
If anyone is looking to sell their XSi for the X1i, then I suggest you do it quickly to maximize your profits.
You are right and my mistake, should add what means fast for me cause even if the lens max aperture is let say f/1.8 and I got another lens f/2.8, if my f/2.8 focuses much faster and accurate then f/1.8 then in my dictionary that is faster then the f/1.8
Cause it might be a fast lens but what is the point if it can't focus on objects Well I guess you are right, this lens is excellent if you shoot objects cause you can take your time to frame the subject, adjust the sharpness and even switch the lens to manual and do the fine tuning there but in capturing events, it is very disappointing.
Anyway, regarding the FTM, I checked and the 50mm f/1.4 supports FTM and it just up by a range. In fact the 100mm f/2.8 Macro, Canon legendary 70-200 supports FTM and if Im not mistaken, most USM lenses support FTM.