Hi I’m totally a newbie to all this , Iv loved and love all kinds of pictures landscapes, portraits , B&W random pictures ppl take just out and about, this year Iv had a canon eos rebel t3i 600D for Christmas and I love it it came with a 75-300mm zoom lens that was great for long shots of my kids on the beach far away but up close was a bit different lol so I bout a 50mm lens found it great except for those little bit long shots , Iv been looking at two lenses and was hoping someone could advise me on the right track or a totally different one I haven’t thought of yet , the canon 28-70mm and also the 35-80mm are the two that maybe right for what I’m looking for but I have read that the 28-70mm is also quit heavy to carry around And help would be great thanks
Welcome to the forum, Willow. The problem you have in asking others on the forum for what they suggest, will be based on their needs and uses and in all practical terms will not know what your personal needs are. What is heavy and what is light to you. My most used lens is the 24 to 105. my lens is older and come off a canon f1000 film camera with a EOS mount. I also regularly use a Tamron 28 to 200 mm, off a old film camera and a 75 to 300mm. If you are serious about a new lens, take your camera, along to your local camera store and see what they have. A good store will allow to test some of their lenses you may be interested in on your camera. Feel the weight and what the camera lens combo feels like, do you like it and do you feel comfortable using it to taking images. Are the subjects you are shooting easy to find in the view finder etc. You will only find this out by trying the lens on your camera. Your next option is a secondhand lens, I am unfamiliar with what is in your area as I live in Tasmania, a completely different shopping setup but I assume there are secondhand camera stores and Opportunity shops. Again take your camera along and try these lenses out but look carefully to see if the lens is clear, no growth in it no damage or scratches and functions with your camera. Any more questions, we are here to help.
Hi Thank you for you reply but here in wales we can’t try things out I’m afraid unless we have paid for them first , I do t believe we even have a camera shop that only deals in cameras and lenses. I maybe wrong so may give it a google later Thanks again
Hi Willow, and welcome to the forum. Just throwing an idea out there for you. What about picking up a used 18-55mm f3.5-5.6? Small, light, and easy on the pocket. It should work a treat on your t3i. Once you get a feel for the gear that you have, you can then grab another lens if you feel as if you are missing something. Gary
Craig's idea of trying something at the camera store is the best way to go if you can do that... Otherwise, as GDN suggested, I'd recommend picking up a used 18-55mm. Make sure you get one with image stabilization, some of the older ones are w/o. Canon picked 18-55mm as the standard kit lens for APC-C sensors since that range covers the vast majority of pictures by the vast majority of photographers. If you're able to spend a little more money, one of the 18-135mm lenses might also be a good choice, and may be long enough to allow you to leave the 75-300 at home except for trips when you know beforehand that you'll need the extra reach. Or, if you currently think the 50mm is never too long, the EF-S 55-250 might be a good one-lens solution. I don't know what (if anything) you're planning to do with post processing, but if you're not sure what focal lengths you actually need, you can look at the EXIF data in your shots and see what focal length most of your shots are actually taken with. That will let you know where you might want to spend more money on lenses in the future. Roscoe
I also like the idea of the 18-55 as well it is inexpensive will perform alright and is made for your crop body camera. Once you get an idea for what you feel is lacking from your gear then you can start filling out any future lens purchases based on what you need. Also You can always sell the lens with the body if you ever upgrade to a different camera so the purchase is a minimal investment. The 28-70L is a nicer lens and a better investment, it will be heavier than the others because it is well built pro lens. The 35-80 is old and discontinued and i think with your other lenses the 18-55 would be easier to sell used like i mentioned. There is no perfect answer, sharper faster lens get speedy and heavy quickly, especially if you want zooms. Most people have kits where zooms fit where they are willing to sacrifice for a slower or heavier lens as well as primes where they need something they can't get from their zooms. I have primes for portraits, macro, fisheye, and tilt-shift situations. I have a long fast expensive zoom as well as a short quite wide zoom for landscape and walk around. Your kit will slowly reflect your needs a preferences for shooting situations and budget over time.
Thank you sooo much for all your reply’s, at the moment I’m definitely using the 75-300mm more than the new 50mm I bought I live by the sea so a lot of my pictures I like taking are from a distance and zoomed in but with a ummm big background if that makes sense ummm like my last walk there was a fisherman way out on the beach I got a amazing picture of him casting and the whole sea in front of him , I don’t have a editing program on my laptop as I’m a lover of natural pictures and it’s own lighting, but I’m also not against programs if anyone can recommend any gd ones Thanks
Willow, Yay to you for the use of the 75 to 300mm lens. I find I use this lens a lot more than I used too particularly with flower shots, Flowers and other subjects, it can have a very nice shallow depth of field. I find that at 135mm this is good for street shots as you do not have to get so close as to shove your camera in someone's face for a close up shot.This distance is covered nicely in this lens. I recommend two editing programs, first is Fast stone Image Viewer. Second is Gimp. Both these editing programs are free, the real advantage is they have "how too videos on You Tube". The third option is Photoshop, you have to pay for this one and I would say it is the industry standard. Again there is heaps of info and sites dedicated to Photoshop and this can get quiet complex but not impossible to learn. You may gather from these comment You Tube is your friend. One other thought and that is have a go at panoramas to stitch your images together, a simple free program is ICE, Have a look on You Tube on how to use it and the results. You can also use Photoshop and other programs to stitch images together to make a panorama. Also have a look on You Tube about using the 75 to 300mm lens, it may give you some ideas on using the lens, all the best with it, Craig.
I agree with Craig. My got to first editor/viewer has been Faststone Image Viewer for many years. Thats where I view and cull all my shots after copying from camera to PC. Then if it needs some more deeper editing it's straight into Photoshop with just one key press. Nothing could be easier!
Hi Craig, Gosh yes I do live my 75-300 lens I Hardly ever take my 50mm out now and on the odd occasion I do put it on I find I change back to my 75-300mm with in 10-15mins , I haven’t had a chance to buy or look in to another lens that I may like at the moment , I have a few things to be getting on with this month and then some time to get back out there with my camera I can’t wait , thanks for the program ideas I will definitely take a look , I did put gimp on my laptop but I just couldn’t get the hang of it lol maybe it’s worth another shot but again I do like the natural picture with no editing involved Thanks again
Thanks, Willow. Gimp is a bit complex but have a look on you tube and stick with it, after a while it will click , keep trying.Type in what you are trying to achieve and see what you tube comes up with or put the problem up on the forum and see if we as a community can help.
I would almost consider Canon Digital Professional a bit less clunky than gimp, it will allow opening a raw and doing a handful of tweaking before exporting to a tiff/jpg. I find gimp to be a bit of a learning curve. But you defiantly have power there to do editing. If your going a free combo those two can get you a very long way.
i'm a jpeg shooter by choice, like you i prefer not to edit unless i want to so i also the straight from camera image, you could say as a jpegger i edit the image before it is taken any editing i do is done with photoshop 5 on my mac book pro, its plenty good enough for me, even in jpeg i can still pull back quite alot of detail if i need to, ie if i see a bird fly into a tree thats in shadow or silhouette and i have no idea what it was i can take a shot at it and it will give me enough to identify it as for any regular edits its an easy program for me, i do have DPP4 to but i have rarely used it for editing images, i use it to sort my images as it has a nice layout and i do all my main culls on it then send the jpegs to photoshop the resize them for media and adjust any basic items like brightness, vibrancy, etc i do often use it to recover other peoples under exposed images or to remove items they dont want in the image etc
i'm a jpeg shooter by choice, like you i prefer not to edit unless i want to so i also the straight from camera image, you could say as a jpegger i edit the image before it is taken
