Lenses for Canon Rebel T1i

[Boudeccea]

I am VERY new to the Canon Rebel T1i. I've always had point & shoots prior. I have the 18mm-55mm standard lens on there now but need something that can capture images farther away. I'm rather confused as to whether I need a zoom or a telephoto. I need something that is less than $600 that it fairly easy to use since I am still learning. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

[Cardiiiii]

70-300 is usm.

[inkista]

Would recommend reading this basic guide to lenses. It explains all the main features and types of lenses and describes them in practical shooting terms. But the short version of zoom vs. telephoto:

Unlike in the P&S world, in the dSLR world, "zoom" just means that a lens has a variable focal length range.

The magnification/power "getting close in" bit of a lens is described by its focal length. The three basic terms you'll hear that categorize a lens by its focal length (from short to long) are "wide angle", "normal", and "telephoto".

You can think of "wide angle" as "zooming out", and telephoto as "zooming in".

Your 18-55 kit lens is a wide-to-normal zoom on a crop body. What you're looking for is (probably) a telephoto zoom. You could also get a telephoto prime--this would be a lens with a high magnifying power, but that can't change its focal length. You have to run around a lot more to get the framing you want with a prime lens. But primes tend to be smaller, cheaper, are sometimes sharper, and have wider maximum apertures than their zoom counterparts.

As the previous poster mentioned, the EF 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 IS USM is a good lens with a lot more reach than the kit lens. However, for around the same cost, there is also the much larger/white/pro EF 70-200 f/4L USM, which has less reach but better image quality. And there's the much-cheaper (~$250) EF-S 55-250 IS, which is a partner to the 18-55 kit lens. The quality is good, but not fantastic, but it's low cost and a great "training wheels" lens. If you want very low budget, the Sigma 70-300 APO is probably a better bet than the Canon EF 75-300 III in terms of bang-for-the-buck, but the other Canon choices are going to be nicer.

The problem with buying lenses for most folks starting out is that it's kind of a chicken-and-the-egg thing: to know what lens you want you need experience with lenses. That's why I'd advocate going for the 55-250--it'll give you the experience you need to figure out if you want to pay extra for IS, USM, f/2.8, f/4, or whatever on a telephoto zoom.

And there's one other completely different lens I'd also recommend as part of a beginners' set: that's the $100 EF 50mm f/1.8 II. With the 18-55 and 55-250, you'll have wide-to-telephoto covered, but your maximum apertures are f/3.5-5.6. This is not the aperture range of the lens (like the focal length designation). This is the widest the lens can be opened at the ends of the zoom range.

The 18-55, when set to 55mm, can only open as wide as f/5.6. This is pretty "slow", in terms of the shutter speeds you can get. In bright sunshine, this isn't a problem. But trying to shoot indoors without a flash, the shutter speeds you're likely to get, even at higher iso settings, are going to be slow enough to register motion blur--either from subject movement or camera shake. The 50/1.8 can open more than three stops wider. Three tops means eight times the amount of light (2*2*2): having f/2 vs. f/5.6, is like using iso 800 vs. iso 100 in terms of light gathering.

Again, I'd recommend working your way through that basic guide to lenses. It'll help hack a path through the info-forest for ya.

[snert]

I was in the same situation where I wasn't sure which lens to buy.
I also had the 18-55mm kit lens on my Canon 50D. And I wanted to look at a 70-200 f2.8 lens. But as it's so expensive and I'm still new at this, I chose to go for a 55-250mm lens. As Inkista mentioned, it's a cheap lens which continues (focal length-wise) where the kit lens stops.
This way I can look at my pictures, find out which focal length I use the most, and maybe go for a prime around that range (which will probably be 85 or 100mm)

I'm happy with my choice, cause I didn't have to spend too much money on a lens which a nice focal range, and it also has IS, while I can continue to learn more about photography, and find out which lens will fit me most for a future purchase.