What is a Perfect lens for newbie ?
- Thread starter Soe Wunna
- Start date
pbear1973
New Member
Since you're asking about perfect lenses, my suggestion is to carry on with your current kit lens first to get used to composing and getting the shot first. Later on I'd recommend switching to a prime lens (say around 30-35mm) and zoom with your legs instead. Primes are less complicated, less fragile, less prone to getting dust inside, lighter, usually faster (i.e. larger maximum apertures) and have better image quality. Zooming with your legs also makes you less lazy. 
Shooting with a single focal length has its advantages too because after a while you'll know exactly what the shot will look like when you lift the camera to your eye. So framing the shot becomes faster and more natural.
I started off with my kit 18-105mm. I currently use a 35mm for 95% of my shots on my Nikon, and an 10-24mm lens for architecture. These days though I love my Fuji X100 with fixed 23mm lens for street shots.
Shooting with a single focal length has its advantages too because after a while you'll know exactly what the shot will look like when you lift the camera to your eye. So framing the shot becomes faster and more natural.
I started off with my kit 18-105mm. I currently use a 35mm for 95% of my shots on my Nikon, and an 10-24mm lens for architecture. These days though I love my Fuji X100 with fixed 23mm lens for street shots.
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rhino123
Senior Member
Dear bro/sis,
I'm a newbie for photography world and I would like to get a lens for landscaping and portrait shoot ! Is there any lens suitable for both shooting?? As my budget, I could get a lens only around 1000S$! Waiting your valuable advice!
Perfect lens is your kit lens, whatever that is. Use that well and learn from there. Only then would you realise what you are missing in your kit lens then upgrade or change lens accordingly. None of us here would know which lens would suit you better.
Purance
Member
TS, before you take the plunge, shoot more with your current lens, the performance of the 18-135 is really good. Your lens can defiantly photograph what you have stated, landscapes and portraits as there are people whom take landscapes and portraits with a 600mm lens (don't flame me on the portrait part, if they can shoot an elephant portrait with a 600mm, it doesn't makes us little humans any difficult.)
If you are really looking for sharp images, get a prime, low end primes are as good as high end zooms except without the zoom feature but it will save you more than a thousand dollars. And before purchasing a prime, give yourself a task, cap your lens at various focal length, eg: 35mm, 50mm, etc. use them for a day and see if you are really comfortable with it before making the purchase. I did that for a day which resulted in me purchasing the 28mm which is in my eyes, the perfect lens for my everyday use.
Hope you discover yours soon!
Cheers,
Just my 2 cents.
If you are really looking for sharp images, get a prime, low end primes are as good as high end zooms except without the zoom feature but it will save you more than a thousand dollars. And before purchasing a prime, give yourself a task, cap your lens at various focal length, eg: 35mm, 50mm, etc. use them for a day and see if you are really comfortable with it before making the purchase. I did that for a day which resulted in me purchasing the 28mm which is in my eyes, the perfect lens for my everyday use.
Hope you discover yours soon!
Cheers,
Just my 2 cents.
Purance said:TS, before you take the plunge, shoot more with your current lens, the performance of the 18-135 is really good. Your lens can defiantly photograph what you have stated, landscapes and portraits as there are people whom take landscapes and portraits with a 600mm lens (don't flame me on the portrait part, if they can shoot an elephant portrait with a 600mm, it doesn't makes us little humans any difficult.)
If you are really looking for sharp images, get a prime, low end primes are as good as high end zooms except without the zoom feature but it will save you more than a thousand dollars. And before purchasing a prime, give yourself a task, cap your lens at various focal length, eg: 35mm, 50mm, etc. use them for a day and see if you are really comfortable with it before making the purchase. I did that for a day which resulted in me purchasing the 28mm which is in my eyes, the perfect lens for my everyday use.
Hope you discover yours soon!
Cheers,
Just my 2 cents.
I hope that I may not need f/1.2 or f/1.4 right ?? Cos for landscape n portrait need large DOF (just my opine ,I might be wrong) and thus , 2.8 or 2 will comfort for me ..! Isn't it??
unknown123
Deregistered
actaually the more you zoom and stand back your DOF will be lesser ^^ you try that do... or you buying prime lens like canon 50mm 1.4 sigma 30mm f1.4 85mm f1.8(mm higher DOF smaller but you have you stand further away) the nearer the subject also make DOF smaller too...
sinned79
Senior Member
first - Off your Auto ISO setting, dun let your camera decide what ISO to use. A rough guideline.
ISO 100 - 200 = daytime shoot
ISO 400 - 800 = evening shoot
ISO 1600 = when there is little light.
try not to go beyond 1600, the noise will be bearable for your camera.
u can use software like photoshop, lightroom, noise ninja etc to reduce the noise further.
second - to get creamy bokeh is very simple, use the largest aperture available on your lens. pay note to the distance between your daughter and the flower, if too close, bokeh wun be as creamy. there must be a "X" distance between your subject and background to get the desired bokeh.
third - use a tripod whenever possible (when shutter speed is too slow) when you cannot do a handheld shot to maintain sharpness in your photo.
hope these 3 tips helps.
IMO, you dun need a new lens for now. learn how to make use of your current lens first.
sinned79
Senior Member
Dats when you are shooting ISO 3200 in broad daylight if u refuse to disable auto ISO! lol
and besides, when u are shooting landscape doing long exposure using ND filters, i am sure u wun want your camera to bump up your ISO unnecessarily.
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avsquare
Senior Member
You sure there isnt any sense in manually setting ISO?
call me old school but I'd recommend a 35mm or 50mm prime to start with.
unlike a zoom, the fixed focus will make you very aware of the shooting distance you're stuck with (then you learn to build relationships to other variable e.g. f-stop), then you can build up experience systematically from a firm reference point.
unlike a zoom, the fixed focus will make you very aware of the shooting distance you're stuck with (then you learn to build relationships to other variable e.g. f-stop), then you can build up experience systematically from a firm reference point.
gundamseed84
New Member
My suggestion is to shoot more and be more familiar in the knowledge and techniques in shooting. This will help you to decide more clearly what exactly do you need before you make a purchase.
Otherwise you will end up buying lots of gear hoping that they solve your problem which they might not.
Not in a big hurry to get a new lens right?
Otherwise you will end up buying lots of gear hoping that they solve your problem which they might not.
Not in a big hurry to get a new lens right?
I am by no means a senior just sharing. I was the same as you wondering what lens to buy. Eventually I bought a Tamron 17-50 f/2.8. I never used the kit lens after that. One reason is because the kit lens didn't give me the background blur i craved which was the main reason i upgraded from point and shoot in the 1st place. The photos looked almost exactly like what i got from my PnS cameras but with better dynamic range and low noise :embrass: The Tamron however gave me constant f/2.8 and at 50mm it blurred the background nicely. I think it got me hooked on photography cos i could get creative and focus selectively on different subjects. It spurred me on to learn more. Unfortunately for my wallet it also got me hooked on fast glass 
You say your budget is $1000 - I say get something like the Tamron 17-50mm, or the Sigma version which has gotten very good reviews and is sharper at the centre than the Canon 17-55 f2.8 which costs quite a bit more. This is also a very good focal range for general shooting from landscape to portraits. About as perfect a newbie lens as you can get. Just my 2 cents.
(btw, if you haven't gotten the 50mm f/1.8II already it is a MUST!)
You say your budget is $1000 - I say get something like the Tamron 17-50mm, or the Sigma version which has gotten very good reviews and is sharper at the centre than the Canon 17-55 f2.8 which costs quite a bit more. This is also a very good focal range for general shooting from landscape to portraits. About as perfect a newbie lens as you can get. Just my 2 cents.
(btw, if you haven't gotten the 50mm f/1.8II already it is a MUST!)
Mythmaker
Senior Member
Landscape is a different story lol.
In broad daylight, it will nvr be at ISO 3200. Canon's auto ISO is actually quite smart lol. It only changes when shutter is below focal*1.3 to 1.6 (exact number unsure) for crop bodies. Besides, auto ISO gives u access to the stops in between the ISO values, like 640, 1250 and so on. Not counting Magic Lantern of cos.
I used to be skeptical of auto ISO, then I used exposure plot to analyse all my shots. The ones that are at ISO 1600 and above are actually justified ; my shutter was indeed pretty low.
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