If You Were Me.....???

[jeeperspeepers]

I have a Canon ES 50D. I own two lenses (so far)! I have the 70-300mm and the 28-135mm...I am very new to photography and take pictures of everything I can (lots of deleted shots!)...(old dog.. hard to teach new tricks) I have a tripod(still trying to get comfortable with that) and UV and Circular Polarizer filters for both of the lenses. We are going to Hawaii in June and would like to know.....
If you were me, what would you want as your next lense?

[autofocus]

Being that you have nothing too wide, maybe a wide, or ultra wide lens may be the next right one to buy. Sigma and Tokina make some very nice ones to consider. I personally own a Tokina 11 - 16mm, F/2.8 lens and love it. (but it's not for every shooting opportunity albeit nice to have in your bag) At a fixed F/2.8 it's fast enough to be hand held in some pretty low light shots. Downside - it's a very popular lens, and you may find it hard to get right out of stock. I had to wait ~3 months before B&H got a few in. (but that was last Fall, and maybe availability is better now??) They do make one for your Canon. Good luck with your decision...hope this helps a little

Vince

[inkista]

+1 on the ultrawide or something that's actually wide angle on a crop body like the 50D (i.e., maybe swapping the 28-135 for an EF-S 18-135).

But second choice would be getting a fast prime of some kind for available light shooting. Probably the $100 50/1.8 II, as it sounds like you only have budget for one lens. Having enough maximum aperture to handle indoors without a flash is a good thing.

You may also want to read the complete lens primer on that site. My general advice to newbies is that if you don't know enough about what you want and lenses to have narrowed your choices down you might want to wait until you can.

I'd actually say, consider renting a lens for the trip, rather than buying something on the spur of the moment. What you think you might need for vacation may not be what you actually need to add to the kit.

[jeeperspeepers]

Good advice and excellent reference links... I very much appreciate your suggestions. Thank you!

[GadgetRick]

Hawaii? Wide lens. Enough said.

[AgBeard]

Wide lens - I have the Sigma 10-20mm & am well pleased with it. The 20mm is narrowing the gap towards your 28mm. The Canon 10-22mm would narrow it further but at a premium.

You might also consider ND grad filters to help balance the EV between the sky & land. If you go for the wide lens make sure you get the wide holder & don't use any other filter with it or you might run into vignetting problems.

Above all ENJOY your holiday

[RolandAA]

If it fits the budget I would highly recommend the 17-40L. It is a great wide angle lens and is weather sealed (with the addition of a filter) both of which should be handy in Hawaii. It is the smallest zoom L lens and is easy to carry on the 50D. I'll warn you that L lenses are addicting so follow this path at your own risk

[jeeperspeepers]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! The wide-angle seems to be the one to go with. I will do some research into the 10-20mm and the 17-40L. I am getting so excited about the trip and the opportunity to get some awesome photos! Thank you once again!