Lens help!

[ABuford]

I have a Canon Rebel XSI and I need help picking lenses for it. I like to take pictures of everything and can't decide what lens is good for me (is there one lens that is good for everything or do i really need 3 or 4 different lens?). I have a EFS 18-55mm that came with the camera but would like something that could capture wildlife and landscapes better. Any help is much appreciated!!

[inkista]

Sadly, no lens does it all. So, yes, you're likely to need at least more lenses, but I'd recommend starting out slow and only worrying about one thing at a time, rather than trying to fully equip yourself all at once. Your 18-55 lens is actually pretty for landscapes.

To prep for selecting a lens, I'd recommend doing the following things:

1) Determine if it's really a lens you need. A lot of newbies get sidetracked into glass, because discussions about lenses are so prevalent, fast, and furious (and 18-55 kit lenses are near-universally condemned in them). This leads you to thinking all you need is a better lens, just as you may have thought all you needed was a dSLR.

If you're having issues with sharpness, it may not be your glass. It could be your handholding technique, your shutter speed, your aperture, not using a tripod or flash, or your mastery of the autofocus system, or how you're postprocessing (or not).

Just as an example, here's a photo I took with the non-IS (early, softer) version of the 18-55 kit lens:



Are you sure it's a new lens that you need? Not a book, lessons, practice, a tripod, or a flash?

2) Read this basic guide to lenses. It'll give you a good idea about what lens features are and what they mean in practical shooting terms.

3) Figure out your budget for a new lens. This is going to be the single biggest determining factor on what lens you end up with.

That said, I think looking for a telephoto zoom for the wildlife might be your next step. If your budget is low, the EF-S 55-250 IS is the complement to your 18-55 kit lens. It's a good consumer-grade lens, but isn't fantastic. If you can afford better, then the EF 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS USM or EF 70-200 f/4L USM might be the lenses you want to consider. If price is no object, then the EF 100-400 f/4-5.6L IS USM, or new EF 70-300 f/4-5/6L IS USM (not to be confused with the non-L 70-300: that one's black, this one's white).

[specialshadow]

I bought a Tamron 70-200mm 2.8 and a 2x (doubler) and love it for portrait work and wildlife photography. It cost me around $800.00 but was well worth the money because of its aperture. I also have a 28-135mm 3.5 to 5.6 that came with my Canon 7D and love it for its image stabilizer. One of my other lenses that I purchased is my Canon 50mm 1.8, which runs about $100.00 depending on where you live. My 17-70mm 2.8 to 4.0 is a decent lens, but I would really recommend something a bit wider unless you are using a full frame camera. I shoot a lot of weddings and these are the lenses I have chosen to cover my range, but like you said, you like to shoot everything, which makes me wish there was an 18-300mm 1.8 lens all in one lens somewhere out there...but I like to dream sometimes Hope this helps.