Canon EOS SLR system NEWBIE guide.

[GeckoZ]

i am newbie to DSLR... just want to check what type of lens is suitable for me? I love taking scenery, landscape and portrait photos. Occassionally macro and plants (not often so not necessary).

haven bought my cam yet though but thinking of buying body and lens separately.

wide angle lens for scenery/landscape, 50mm to 150mm for portraits and candid.

MACRO LENS ARE EXPENSIVE! they cost more then $1k from what I know.
get a wide angle kit lens and then buy a cheap zoom lens. since u're just a started no point getting good expensive lens, yet.

 

[mynameisgreg]

thanks

 

[netjackalsg]

wide angle lens for scenery/landscape, 50mm to 150mm for portraits and candid.

MACRO LENS ARE EXPENSIVE! they cost more then $1k from what I know.
get a wide angle kit lens and then buy a cheap zoom lens. since u're just a started no point getting good expensive lens, yet.

actually the highly touted canon 100mm f/2.8 is just under 900 after the price hike (that is retail price, you might be able to get is slightly less). I have the tamron 90mm macro lens as well and I bought it brand new for 550.

 

[GeckoZ]

actually the highly touted canon 100mm f/2.8 is just under 900 after the price hike (that is retail price, you might be able to get is slightly less). I have the tamron 90mm macro lens as well and I bought it brand new for 550.

thanks! i didn't really check out 3rd party lenses. maybe i might just get the macro lens too!

 

[localhost]

wide angle lens for scenery/landscape, 50mm to 150mm for portraits and candid.

MACRO LENS ARE EXPENSIVE! they cost more then $1k from what I know.
get a wide angle kit lens and then buy a cheap zoom lens. since u're just a started no point getting good expensive lens, yet.

thanks bro! for wide angle lens, any recommendation that is cheap and affordable for my case?

 

[netjackalsg]

thanks bro! for wide angle lens, any recommendation that is cheap and affordable for my case?

define cheap and affordable for your case.

 

[MetalBird]

Hi everyone,

I've recently bought a 1000D and i'm considering of getting a macro lens for portrait shots which could have a blur background. I've check out on the Canon website and they have several lens to choose from. I need some help from the people here.

Which would be a better choice?

-EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro
-EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
-EF 50mm f/1.8 ll
-EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

Thanks for ur help in advance.

 

[localhost]

define cheap and affordable for your case.

not more then $500? for second hand lens i mean.

 

[netjackalsg]

not more then $500? for second hand lens i mean.

If you are really lucky you MIGHT score a second hand Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macron for that price. Otherwise the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro is around $550 brand new.

 

[netjackalsg]

Hi everyone,

I've recently bought a 1000D and i'm considering of getting a macro lens for portrait shots which could have a blur background. I've check out on the Canon website and they have several lens to choose from. I need some help from the people here.

Which would be a better choice?

-EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro
-EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
-EF 50mm f/1.8 ll
-EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

Thanks for ur help in advance.

ALL the lenses you cited above will be perfect for potrait shots but you said you wanted a MACRO lens for potraits. If that is the case then I guess only the first one listed is capable of macro. The other lenses are not very good for macro purposes (unless you trying to reverse lens method).

 

[GeckoZ]

Umm bros, now it's my turn to post a question. My Canon kit lens suddenly stop auto-focusing. does anyone knows what causes it and what should i do?

 

[localhost]

If you are really lucky you MIGHT score a second hand Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macron for that price. Otherwise the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro is around $550 brand new.

how about wide angle lens? for sceneries & landscape photos?

 

[MetalBird]

ALL the lenses you cited above will be perfect for potrait shots but you said you wanted a MACRO lens for potraits. If that is the case then I guess only the first one listed is capable of macro. The other lenses are not very good for macro purposes (unless you trying to reverse lens method).

Thanks for ur information. Will look into it. Sorry for asking another question. Is the macro lens able to take a half body pic with blury background?

 

[netjackalsg]

how about wide angle lens? for sceneries & landscape photos?

That is a tougher question to answer since there are so many good wide angle lenses. There are a handful of macro lenses and the 2 I mentioned above are probably going to be the best in its price/focal range.

You need to ask yourself how wide do you need the lens to be?

 

[netjackalsg]

Thanks for ur information. Will look into it. Sorry for asking another question. Is the macro lens able to take a half body pic with blury background?

The macro lenses I mentioned above are pretty good potrait lenses as well. Some people feel that macro lenses takes images that are too sharp and hence not very suitable for potraits (pimple, wrinkles and all lah). So it really depends on you. I take mostly my kids ... and they usually already have pretty good complexion ... hehe

the tamron and the canon are both f/2.8 maximum aperture. it is pretty wide already so if you set up the shot properly you should get pretty nice bokeh (background blur).

if bokeh shots are what you are really interested in .. you should also take a look at the 50mm f/1.8. At f/1.8 it is pretty hard to take a pic that has everything in focus .. haha. 50mm f/1.8 is usually around $100 and it takes really nice potraits.

 

[localhost]

That is a tougher question to answer since there are so many good wide angle lenses. There are a handful of macro lenses and the 2 I mentioned above are probably going to be the best in its price/focal range.

You need to ask yourself how wide do you need the lens to be?

for a beginner, based on your experience, i should start with?

by the way, for the kit lens i read from alot of the bros, its pretty useless, so should i sell it away or just keep for normal daily shoots?

 

[netjackalsg]

for a beginner, based on your experience, i should start with?

by the way, for the kit lens i read from alot of the bros, its pretty useless, so should i sell it away or just keep for normal daily shoots?

actually i have seen a lot of great shots with the 18-55mm kit lens. I believe that the lens is pretty sharp .. i think the knock on it is that it loses out to some other lenses on color and vibrancy. i might be wrong.

if you r still determined to get another lens. for something under 500 second hand. maybe the tamron 17-50, the canon 17-85 or the sigma 17-70

 

[localhost]

actually i have seen a lot of great shots with the 18-55mm kit lens. I believe that the lens is pretty sharp .. i think the knock on it is that it loses out to some other lenses on color and vibrancy. i might be wrong.

if you r still determined to get another lens. for something under 500 second hand. maybe the tamron 17-50, the canon 17-85 or the sigma 17-70

is this good? EF 24mm f2.8 ? i saw some bros selling ard 300-400+

 

[netjackalsg]

is this good? EF 24mm f2.8 ? i saw some bros selling ard 300-400+

have not used that before I am sorry .. but look for the reviews at http://fredmiranda.com/reviews or even amazon.com

 

[jr3932]

actually i have seen a lot of great shots with the 18-55mm kit lens. I believe that the lens is pretty sharp .. i think the knock on it is that it loses out to some other lenses on color and vibrancy. i might be wrong.

if you r still determined to get another lens. for something under 500 second hand. maybe the tamron 17-50, the canon 17-85 or the sigma 17-70

totally agree with you. i believe there are no bad lens. all you need is practice n more practice to get the fundamentals correct, like composition, exposure, iso, aperture, shutter speed, etc. moreover there are many softwares (some even totally free) that can help you do tonnes of post editing.

anyway, since you have not bought your dslr (referring to localhost) maybe i can suggest to get it 1st and "play" with it.

personally i feel that kit lens are great for beginners.

cheers!