60D lens help!

[bfowler83]

Let me start by saying I am very new to photography so I am still learning ALOT of what I need and what things are.

I will soon be buying a Canon 60D and am trying to figure what best to get with it. Our budget is not a lot I can spend about $2000 WITH the camera. Cheapest I have found locally is $999 for the body only.

I do mostly landscape and portrait, but also love macro. My mom has a bunch of lenses from her canon SLR, but I have read a lot of places that they work but their may be issues. I will probably use them from time to time just because well, they are there. But I want to have a start on my own while we can afford it.

My first pick is the Canon EF 50mm F/1.4 USM, and I would also like a Wide Angle Zoom (I think, still very new at this).

Any suggestions would be awesome. Right now with the camera and the 50mm its about 1400, so I have a little more to spend .

[Preeb]

Canon's website shows the T3i with 18-55 kit lens for $849. Body only should be up to $100 less. I'd look around some more if I were you. B&H Photo has it for $649 for the body alone on their website. That would leave you with $1300 to pick up a couple of good lenses, much better than than the kit lenses that you can get in a package deal. Do you really need the 60D?

Depending on how much wide angle you are looking at, for under $1000 you can get the EF 17-40 f4 L, although that isn't the best choice for a crop body. I love my EF-S 17-55 f2.8 IS for that range better ( I had the 17-40 and sold it in favor of the 17-55), but it is right in the $1000 price range. If you want an ultra wide to wide zoom, the EF-S 10-22 is a great choice at around $750 - $800.

[veritasimagery]

I agree with looking at the T3i and using the money saved on glass. Really, the only thing you gain with the 60D is the top LCD and dual dials. The electronics are nearly identical, as well as the flippy screen and wireless flash control. And that being the case, the biggest impact on image quality will be the lenses you use.

[mrteacherdude]

Making decisions about equipment when first starting out in the DSLR world can be tough, especially since purchase decisions can represent substantial amounts of our hard-earned cash and we don't want to make any mistakes with that; been there, still doing that

Sometimes you can learn a lot by looking at people's gear lists here, and then looking at their photos to see what is possible and whether or not it matches your thoughts of what types of photos you currently think you would like to capture. I don't list my gear here, but it is very similar to users such as veritasimagery who posted just prior to me.

I started out with the 18-55mm and 55-250mm kits lenses. They are good general purpose lenses and give you a fantastic range of focal lengths to get started with. Later I added the cheaper version of the 50mm, and it spends a fair amount of time on my camera when I am indoors, the light levels are low, and I want sharp photos. I believe your choice of the 50mm prime is a good for your desire to shoot portraits. Believe it or not, it can also be used for landscapes and is suitable as a general purpose walk-around lens, you just have to use foot zoom to frame things they way you want, and stitch photos together to get wide angle landscapes.

I also have the 85mm f1.8 and I love this lens. It's fast (focusing as well as aperture) and sharp. But with a crop sensor, I need some room to move around as it is a little long for shooting in small spaces. I probably would not recommend this lens for just starting out with as it could potentially lead to a serious amount of frustration when trying to find enough space to shoot anything other than a head or head and shoulders shot.

For landscape, if you really want to be able to go wide angle, a question that many would ask is "how wide to you want to go?" The 18mm end of the 18-55mm is relatively wide, and if you want to go wider than that, you can shoot a series of photos and stitch them together in post processing. Many people (including myself) prefer to do this over purchasing a specific wide angle such as the 10-22mm because the focal length range of the 18-55 is just so versatile and I don't have a lot of funds to just go out and spend a lot on a collection of lenses. While there may be a 10-22mm in my future, I just find that I can get what I really want from what I have at the moment, for now. There was a mention of the 17-55mm f2.8 lens, this is the one that is next on my list of lens purchases; good focal length range and substantial improvement over the kit lens in every way, plus low light capabilities is very attractive. Note that I am still using my kit lens and will continue to use it and frame and mount pictures on my wall that I have taken with that lens.

If you're looking for an in-between quality of lens with good focal length range, then the 15-85mm f3.5-5.6 IS USM might be a good choice. It has greater focal length range, excellent IS, superior optics, and focuses quicker and more accurately than the kit lenses. It is a bit pricey though, and has some distortion at the opposite ends of the zoom range. In general the distortion is easily corrected in PP. Some suggest that the substantial increase in cost over the kit lens is not worth the price. I rented one of these lenses for a trip with my family to Mexico and for the most part never took it off my camera; I was very happy with the results. I shot quite a few photos at 15mm and was a little surprised at just how wide that was, almost too wide in some instances. I was seriously considering purchasing one of these lenses but decided instead to plan my purchases more for long-range goals rather than what I perceived to be immediate wants. In this case, I ended up spending even more money on a longer focal length lens that is suitable for action in low light.

For serious macro work, you will be looking at either dedicated macro lenses, extension tubes, reverse mount lens setups, or magnifying filters. A lot of people just start with extension tubes or the diopter filters, each of which work quite well with kit lenses.

It sounds like you have already read up quite a bit about lenses, but in case you haven't taken advantage of the information available in the forums here, just do a search for "Canon Lenses" or something similar to that, you will get a pretty long list of posts here at DPS. There are also a number of sites out there that evaluate and review lenses, in case you haven't already discovered these, here are two of my favorites to start with:

The-Digital-Picture.com
LensRentals.com

[inkista]

You only get a three-month warranty vs. a 1 year warranty (but then you also know the equipment's actually been inspected and passed by Canon Service) but you could look at a refurbished unit. Canon USA sells the 60D body refurbed for $800, and the 60D 18-135 kit for $1040 on their website (however, those prices don't include sales tax and shipping).

For a starter walkaround, most of the EF-S 18mm-whatever lenses are going to be a nice cheap way to start, but are unlikely to be your final choice for walkaround zoom if you get seriously picky about image quality. They should last, however, for a few years as you learn the camera and about lenses. The EF-S 55-250 IS is a good starter telephoto zoom with the same proviso.

If you really want great image quality and don't plan to go to full-frame, then the EF-S 15-85 f/3.5-5.6 IS USM ($700), or the EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM ($1000, and not to be confused with any of the 18-55 lenses) are probably the top contenders. But. At that price point, you might be looking at the EF 24-70 f/2.8L USM, the EF 24-105 f/4L IS USM, or the EF 17-40 f/4L USM. And you probably need to know just what you want out of a lens before making that decision and dropping that much cash. Having experience with an 18-whatever can help you learn that.

Also, I'm not sure what kind of issues you'd have using your mom's Canon lenses, as long as they're autofocusing EOS mount (i.e., less than 30 years old) and actual Canon lenses. If they're FD/FL manual focus lenses, they won't work, though. If they're EOS-mount, but Sigma/Tamron etc. then there may be some compatibility issues, but they could just as easily work. You won't know until you try them.

The 60D and 600D are both crop body cameras, and they can use both EF and EF-S lenses. The main restriction is that film and full-frame digital bodies (5D) cannot use the newer "for crop" EF-S lenses.

[bfowler83]

Thank you everyone for the information. With the camera I did alot of research on exactly what I wanted and the 60D won out. I know that it and the T3i are pretty much identical but there where just a few things that I liked with the 60D over the T3i. I have spent weeks reviewing and researching what I want. I have currently a Fuji Finepix S200 EXR which was fine for just starting out, but I hit major limitations to what I could do and what I wanted to be able to do. I practice daily and have been reading everything I can get my hands on then trying it out so I could progress in my photography. I just know I need to make the leap into something better, and something that is going to grow with me.


inkista- Thanks for the info on my moms lenses, I haven't really looked at them to much because until recently a new camera was way off into the future, but I got lucky with an awesome hubby how spoils me. We talked some about what lenses she would suggest, she did suggest a 50mm at least. I will def. be looking at her stuff before I buy more than the 50 just to make sure they will work and if they do I will be set on alot because she has 2 suit cases full of gear . (YAY for me)

mrteacherdude- I love all the info, I will def be taking your suggestions in to consideration. With my kids we do alot of family trips and with those something I can just throw on and get good pics as we are out and about is great. I have some general ideas on what I want but knowing what others would use is awesome.


My biggest issue with going to DSLR is learning which lenses are best for me, so thank you all again for the help!

[CarlosJr]

Hi, My name is Carlos Aceves, I read your post and just to inform you that Canon and Nikon cameras are offered at Cosco and Sams Warehouse at a very good deals. Check it out you may be surprised.

Sincerely, Carlos

[digirebelva]

Originally Posted by bfowler83

My biggest issue with going to DSLR is learning which lenses are best for me, so thank you all again for the help!

Unfortunately, a lot of that will be resolved through experience. What you start out with may not be what you wind up with...your shooting experience and real world needs will be what drives the need for certain lens..
Welcome to the wonderful (expensive) world of photography...

[bfowler83]

Originally Posted by digirebelva

Unfortunately, a lot of that will be resolved through experience. What you start out with may not be what you wind up with...your shooting experience and real world needs will be what drives the need for certain lens..
Welcome to the wonderful (expensive) world of photography...

I hear that, I told my husband at least now he will have things to buy me for christmas and birthdays lol. (I have a hard time ever thinking of things I would like)

[inkista]

Originally Posted by bfowler83

... We talked some about what lenses she would suggest, she did suggest a 50mm at least. I will def. be looking at her stuff before I buy more than the 50 just to make sure they will work and if they do I will be set on alot because she has 2 suit cases full of gear . (YAY for me)...

Sweet! I do want to warn you, though, that your mom's expertise might be a tad misleading. Not about the 50. Everybody usually ends up with at least one fast 50. But she's used to how those lenses look on 35mm film. With digital cameras, there's an additional wrinkle, which is that the majority of dSLRs out there are "crop bodies"--that is, the sensor in them is slightly smaller than a frame of 35mm film. The effect of this is to "crop off" the outside edge of what you would have gotten, had you been shooting 35mm film, instead.

The upshot is that while the lens is doing exactly what it did before, the scene coverage (or field of view) is narrower, and it feels like a slightly longer lens. With Canon cameras, we refer to a "crop factor" of 1.6x. That is, a 50mm lens is going to have the same field of view on a 600D that a 50x1.6 => 80mm lens would have on a film camera.

This is great for telephoto lenses--they suddenly seem even longer. But wide angle lenses may not be quite so wide. Which is why all these newer 18-whatever lenses popped up as kit lenses for the crop bodies. What was a wide-to-short-telephoto on film (say, a 28-70), becomes a widish/normal-to-telephoto on digital.