Lens selection for Canon digital Rebel?

[Wulfman]

az, your forget that he is talking about a SLR. he can CHANGE the lens if he wants to / can afford to. it's not like he is stuck with what he gets in the first place, like with the cameras you suggested.

got to love the idea...

mfg
wulfman

[Jon P. Inghram]

The pictures I took in this thread were taken with the EF-S lens and a Digital Rebel. Got some more pictures I'll put up here in a moment so you can see.

Ok:

521 kB, http://members.cox.net/binghram/images/A22.jpg
485 kB, http://members.cox.net/binghram/images/A3-5.jpg

Both are 3072x2048 compressed at "high" (60%) JPEG with Photoshop, no image processing at all. Same scene taken right after one another, one with the apeture closed all the way, the other with it open all the way.

[Hulk]

I am going to buy the camera with the lens kit and USE it. I'll think about additional lenses after I get familiar with the camera.

Thanks for all the great advice.

Mark

[VJ]

t could be interesting to check out the features of the 300D. In order for it not to compete with Canons own 10D, they "crippled" some features (I'm not sure which, I think there is something about the focussing segments and the exposure-modes). Check the review over on http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos300d/ (the forums there also offer a great deal of advice).
edit: this is from the conclusion of that review:
"'Dumbed down' feature set (forced AI Focus, forced Evaluative metering, etc.)"
Just verify that the smaller featureset doesn't lack features you'd need/like.

But apart from that, it appears to be a decent camera. Bear in mind that the lens that is shipped with it only fits the 300D (it protudes deeper in the body, preventing that lens to be used on other cameras); other lenses do fit the 300D (but you already know about the 1.6x crop factor).
Nikon also has made an announcement for a camera in this price range (the D70), but no specs have been released as of yet.


On the zoomlens topic: Az is right on the specs...
The supplied lens is interesting as it has a nice range (esp. for use on the 300D). There are rumours that upcoming Canon DSLR will also be able to use this lens. The reason it only works on the 300D is that the mirror flips up differently, thus taking up less space inside the body.

Jörg

[az]

Wulfman, I know he can change lenses, but there's no way he could get a lens like that for 100 dollars!

VJ, do you mean the 300D has no manual focus?

AZ

[HedsSpaz]

50mm lenses are considered "normal", 35mm is slight wide angle.

You're right there, it's been so long since I've actually thought about the actual details that I've forgotten a lot of it.

But that has nothing to do with "zoom multipliers". Example of a "multiplier" (if I get what you mean) A 10x zoom is a zoom that goes from, say, 38 to 380 (380/38=10), if that's what you mean.

I dunno about this, I have never before heard of anyone refering to a lens zoom capability this way before. A '10x' zoom to my mind means 10x over human vision.

Even if you get the 28-135, get the kit lens for the wide angle.

Gotta disagree here. Get the kit lens if you don't want to get the 28-135 right now. If you are going to get the 28-135 skip the kit and get a prime if you find really need a lens with that wide of an angle.

It is not similar: It lacks the VERY important wide angle

Important says you. (sorry, not trying to pick you az ) Personally, wide angle doesn't mean much to me. I do mostly closeups, lots of nature photography. I have never found anything that I want to photograph that I needed a wider angle than 35. Thats me though. I've seen so many people who think wide angle is the be-all end-all and it's not. If it's important to you, great, but don't assume that it's important to everyone.


Ian

[Hulk]

Originally posted by Jon P. Inghram
The pictures I took in this thread were taken with the EF-S lens and a Digital Rebel. Got some more pictures I'll put up here in a moment so you can see.

Ok:

521 kB, http://members.cox.net/binghram/images/A22.jpg
485 kB, http://members.cox.net/binghram/images/A3-5.jpg

Both are 3072x2048 compressed at "high" (60%) JPEG with Photoshop, no image processing at all. Same scene taken right after one another, one with the apeture closed all the way, the other with it open all the way.

Hard to tell what's up with the lens with those shots because I don't think you used a tripod. There is more blur in the closed down shot so I think the shutter was quite high, resulting in more camera shake. To evaluate something like this and take movement out of the equation you really have to use a tripod. Thanks for taking the time though, if you want to try it again with tripod please upload full res shots so I can really have a look.

I'm still torn about getting the lens kit and I want to order today.

The 28-135mm IS option and a wide angle prime is a good idea.
What prime lens do you think would be a good choice?

Mark

[Hulk]

Also please show exif info!

Thanks,

Mark

[Hulk]

Couldn't hold out any longer, I ordered the camera with the lens kit. I won't be able to check it out until after Christmas as my wife is giving it to me as a gift, but you can bet that I'll do some testing of the lens kit lens and post some high res pics.

Thanks again everybody.

Mark

[az]

Hope you enjoy it

HedsSpaz:

I think we're talking about different things with our "10x" lenses I think what you mean is what's used for Macro lenses (1:1, 1:2 etc.), what I mean is mostly used for pocket cameras. Basically, the more "x" the zoom has, and the more megapixels the sensor, the bigger your genitals

WRT wide angle, have you ever tried to do wide angle shots of something near with a big depth of field? Like this:


(not my pic)

Also, I didn't want to impose my views on this on anybody, and I find wide angle boring most of the time, too, but it CAN be a cool effect, and it can help capture the overwhelming greatness of some landscapes (but it needs a good photographer to not make this boring, and I am one of the worst )

AZ

[HedsSpaz]

az, you've got it exactly right there I think. the 'x' zoom measurement is the standard for digicams. My confusion came from having never heard it used to describe an SLR lens before (I think thats where all of our collective confusion came from actually ).

I definately agree that wide angle can be very cool. Sorry if I came off sounding a little heavy handed with that comment, it's a side effect of reading all the opinionated twits over in the dpreview forums continuously mouthing off like everything that comes out of their mouths is the word of God. I do hope to someday get a fisheye, you can do some crazy cool stuff with those lenses.

I'll post some shots later that I've taken in the past few weeks. I'm still learning everything the 10D can do. I've also had limited time to do anything interesting with it, wrong time of year for the type of photography I really like doing.

Ian

[az]

Hope to see your shots soon

No sweat with the tone, in fact I thought that I was being a bit unfriendly in this entire thread (if I came across that way: it wasn't intentionally ).

If I ever produce one good shot I'll post it here, too But I really don't get out with the camera often enough.

AZ

[VJ]

Originally posted by az
[B]Wulfman, I know he can change lenses, but there's no way he could get a lens like that for 100 dollars!

VJ, do you mean the 300D has no manual focus?

It has manual focus, but one of the focusmodes (AI focus, which if I'm not mistaken has to do with tracking subjects - but again, I'm no Canon user, check the forum/review) is coupled with a certain metering mode. As a result, when using that focusmode, you must use the associated metering.
This "feature" is probabely what some people would not like to have.
Also, I believe it has no spot-metering (but check the review just to make sure).

Jörg

[Hulk]

Hey guys. I just thought I'd let you know that I love the DR. The lens kit is okay, definitely good to have for the wide angle. The worst part about it is the feel. The focus ring is thin and rotates when you focus, not good for polarizing filters. The of course it feels like a $100 lens, which it is. The quality is pretty good once you stop it down to f/7.1 or so. It is a bit soft at the edges, but I'm learning to work with it.

I also had to purchase the "Capture One" software for the DR. Once I checked out how much better I can process RAW images using that camera I was hooked! Now I'll have to get a bigger CF card.

Now I'm looking into purchasing the Tamron 28mm-75mm XR Di lens as my first lens purchase. I'm like the constant f/2.8 aperture feature of that lens...

Thanks again for the help. When I get some shots worth posting I'll post a link.

- Mark

[VJ]

Great!
Have fun with it!

For what its worth, I mainly use a 24-85 (f/2.8-4), in combination with my 1.5x fov multiplier, this gives a nice allround range.
I to prefer the possibilities offered by RAW (I use the Nikon Capture software )

I have bought CF cards from http://www.powerinnumbers.com.au (the Ridata-cards are very good and not very expensive). Az swears by Lexar.

Jörg