lens question when buying a T2i

[nursemandalyn]

I'm still learning, have been using an older base model Canon EOS for about 2 years. I'm buying a new T2i in the next week or so. I want to get a 50mm prime lens, and then a zoom, although not sure what yet.

Question is, would it make more sense for me to skip the kit lens and just get the prime up front? The pricing I'm seeing right now comes out about the same if I buy just the body and add the prime, as it does to buy the camera with the kit lens.

What zoom lens would you recommend when I do buy one. I have a 70-300 1.4-5.8 that I use on my older camera. But it doesn't have IS on it, so I want a new one. (bought it before I knew anything about the cameras)

I shoot a lot of my toddler, just random things with her playing, as well as fooling around with portraits and stuff. Which I know the prime will be good for that. Then just stuff when we go on vacations and what not. Sightseeing, stuff like that. Like I said, I'm just learning, and playing around. I do know how to shoot manual, just not great at it, haha.

Any advice is helpful. Thanks!

[gturner]

50mm is great lens to shoot kids with, especially with window light and indoors.

The IS on the 300 isnt critical in my opinion, if you are shooting moving subjects like kids scooting about. Get a good walkaround -15-85mm for example.

[gturner]

50mm is great lens to shoot kids with, especially with window light and indoors.

The IS on the 300 isnt critical in my opinion, if you are shooting moving subjects like kids scooting about. Get a good walkaround -15-85mm for example.

[mrteacherdude]

The 17-55 mm lens that comes with the Rebel series cameras is a pretty decent IS lens with a useful focal length range for general purpose photography. I have an older model Rebel with kit lens and have taken thousands of photos that I am quite happy with. This lens tends to be on my camera when I know I will want a wide angle, I am outdoors, or I know I will likely want to compose my photos quickly without having to use foot zoom to adjust my distance to my subject.

I also have the plastic fantastic 50mm prime which I added to my collection a couple of months after I bought the camera with kit lenses; a very nice lens for crisp photos and working in low light. I definitely saw the need for the prime for shooting indoors at family functions and such. I love this lens even though everything about it screams cheap; clunky autofocus that hunts in low light, plastic body mount, no IS, strong tendency to leave strange UFO-like green or orange flare on photos if I'm not paying attention to where the light is coming from, etc. When everything gets dialed in correctly with this lens though, the photos are beautiful. But it requires some patience (for me anyway). I tend to use this lens indoors when light levels are low, and when I know I will have the room and patience to compose my shots with foot zoom. Oh - I like this one at night too for those times when I want moonlit shots of the mountains but don't want to leave my shutter open a really long time. I also tend to leave it on my camera for days or weeks at a time to force myself to grow as a photographer.

You sound like you already know the value of the prime for what you would like to do with it. I do think you would also appreciate a good walk-around zoom lens for the vacation and sightseeing you mentioned. That's where the kit lens could come into play should you buy the body/lens package, which is an economical way to go if you are concerned about investing a lot of money at this time. The (inexpensive) 50mm prime only adds about 100 bucks to the camera with kit lens combo, so if you aren't adverse to the thought of shelling out a little more money, why not go with both?

If you want a higher quality zoom lens with very useful focal length range for a crop sensor, then the one that gturner mentioned (15-85mm) is a pretty nice mid-grade lens. I rented one of these for a trip to Mexico and was quite pleased with its performance. The only time it came off my camera was when I wanted my longer focal length lens for trying to get pictures of birds, iquanas, butterflies, crocodiles, etc. The 15-85mm was noticeably better than the 17-55mm kit lens; greater focal length range, better IQ, better autofocus drive, and I think the IS is better too. Brand new these lenses are about $700 (or more) though, and used about $550 (the place I rented it from has a bunch of used lenses on sale right now). I was thinking about buying a copy of this lens but opted instead to spend twice as much on a very different lens in the interest of shooting indoor sports. If I had the money for both though, I would buy the 15-85 too.

You originally asked for advice. I don't know if there is any actual advice in here, just some of my personal experience in doing some of the same things you are suggesting you are interested in doing. Hopefully there is something useful here for you

[inkista]

Originally Posted by mrteacherdude

The 17-55 mm lens that comes with the Rebel series...

Err. 18-55. The EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM is a completely different beast, costs about $1000, and is essentially the crop body L lens.

Originally Posted by nursemandalyn

I'm still learning, have been using an older base model Canon EOS for about 2 years. I'm buying a new T2i in the next week or so. I want to get a 50mm prime lens, and then a zoom, although not sure what yet.

Question is, would it make more sense for me to skip the kit lens and just get the prime up front?

I got two questions for ya: what's the lens you've been using on the (presumably film) EOS, and how much landscape or wide angle shooting were you planning on doing?

50mm is a great focal length, and still exhibits normal magnification, but on a crop-body digital dSLR, it will have the effective field of view of an 80mm lens or thereabouts, and will no longer be "normal" in that sense: the 1.6x crop factor may make it a bit longer/tighter than you want, if you're used to 50mm on a film body.

The 18-55 is slow and a bit soft, but covers wide-to-normal on a crop really well, and is kind of the perfect vacation snapshot lens of the persons-in-front-of-place type. It's also stabilized, so it can be used with slower shutter speeds. Whether or not you want that vs. a 50mm prime is really going to depend on what you plan on shooting the most.

What zoom lens would you recommend when I do buy one. I have a 70-300 1.4-5.8 that I use on my older camera. But it doesn't have IS on it, so I want a new one. (bought it before I knew anything about the cameras)

EF 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS USM (the non-L black one) or EF 70-200 f/4L USM if you have a $600 budget. If you only have a $250 budget, maybe the EF-S 55-250 f/4.5-5.6 IS. If the sky's the limit, then the EF 70-300 f/4-5.6L IS USM (the white L one) or the EF 100-400 f/4-5.6L IS USM.

Oh. Wait.

I shoot a lot of my toddler,

Replace above no-limit choices with 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM Mark II. Possibly EF 70-200 f/4L IS USM in a pinch with a flash.

Personally, I'd say get the kit, and then add a 50/1.8 II. An extra $100 really isn't that much to be forking out when we're talking about lenses, and you're getting the kit lens at a discount in the kit. Kitted (at B&H), it adds only about $70 to the price of the body alone. And if you try to purchase it separately, new, it's $170.

If you buy the kit+50, the (B&H) prices are: $647 + $120 = $767
If you buy the body + 50, then add the 18-55: $ $579+ 120 +170 = $869

You're saving $100 by getting the kit vs. going body-only. Assuming you actually want the 18-55 kit lens and prefer to purchase things new. Many will tell you it's crap and to spend your money on something better, but imho, that really only works if you already know what lens you want. For $70 in a kit, though, for me, the kit lens was well worth what it taught me about which lens I really did finally want to get as my walkaround zoom, not to mention lessons on how IS does not equal a larger max. aperture, and stopping down for sharpness and DoF.

The 18-55 is not crap. It's limited, and consumer-grade. But you can still take pretty pictures with it, and it's the cheapest lens you're going to find that actually goes wide on a crop.

[mrteacherdude]

Originally Posted by inkista

Err. 18-55. The EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM is a completely different beast, costs about $1000, and is essentially the crop body L lens.

OOPS! You're right, my bad. The 17-55 is the lens I WANT to have

I still stand by my original thought about the kit lens though (18-55), it's a good one to start with.

[inkista]

Dude, it's the lens we all want to have.

[mrteacherdude]

Originally Posted by inkista

Dude, it's the lens we all want to have.

Roger has a couple of them for sale right now...

[nursemandalyn]

Sorry it took me a bit to get back. Thank you for all the suggestions. My husband talked me into getting the T3i, with the black Friday deals they are not much more. Even though I'm just learning, I know that they have the option to fire the remote flash, so the difference is definitely worth it to me. So I'm going to go ahead and buy one with the kit lens, and they have some deals for the zoom lenses. I'm researching now with what you guys suggested and what the sales right now are.

But I would be happy with just the kit for now, as I do plan on definitely picking up at prime in the next couple weeks. The zoom is something I can hold off on if I want. Just have to see if the ones that they are grouping for a discount with the camera are worth buying now.

Thanks again. This site has helped me learn so much! Love it