So I have a $500 giftcard to dell.com and i'm looking for a lens for my Canon Rebel XTi. The most I want to spend is about $1000. The problem is that i'm a noob to photography and want to make sure i'm making the right choice. I want to find an all around, solid lens thats good for outdoors, indoors, bright, low light, sharp and crisp picture, etc. Heres the links to Canon EF lenses and Canon EF-S lenses...

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/c...=1990~0~188933

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/c...=10217~0~55078

Thanks in advance guys!

-Andy

 

Well, baring the low light ability, I would suggest you check out the EF 28-135 unit. It will have a good flexibility for indoors/outdoor shooting and the IS feature will allow you to the flexibility to shoot w/o a tripod if you need. Being that I'm not a Canon guy I don't know much about this lens, but for price and flexibility, it gets my vote.

 

I've had the 28-135mm IS 3.5-5.6 for 7 years now. It's a good all arounds lens. Having IS is great. http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...9&sku=A0151168

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/R...ns-Review.aspx

Make sure you also get filters.

 

I was looking at that lens to start out with...any other opinions?

 

If you can stretch to it (yep, I'm ignoring your guidelines) the 24-70 for a reasonably versatile lens with really great image quality. It's built like a tank, weather sealed and all. And if you go to full frame later, it'll still work since it's not EF-S.

Not as versatile as the wide range zooms, but a really superb lens.

 

Do you have any other lenses to go with your XTi? Or is it just the body?

You might want to consider something like the 17-85 for the wide angle ability to a mild telephoto.
17-85

I think the 28-135 will be a good lens for mild telephoto, but there won't be a very wide angle of view due to the crop on digital.

There is no lens that can do everything and perform well in all situations. Your best bet would be to buy multiple lenses to do everything you are asking.

A pretty good kit to get started with would be something like:
50mm 1.8
17-85
Accessories.. extra battery, bag, polarizer filter/general filters, tripod etc..

This would allow you to cover your low light situations with the 50mm and cover a pretty decent range from wide to telephoto with the 17-85.

 

get 24-70mm F/2.8 L. don;t get crappy lens. you will eventually hate it and wanna sell it. and the reselling value of L lens are always high.

I bought my 16-35 L for $1350 and sold it for 1300 after a few month use

IS is not that useful IMO when the lens is fast enough.

Useful link

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...splay.php?f=33

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/R...s-Reviews.aspx

 

Good advice. I didn't see that one in the list. I have that lens and though it's not the finest lens on the block, it's a good walkaround lens. I have that and the 70-200mm f4/l zoom, and they make a nice pair. Incidentally, you could almost buy both of those for your budget.

But like cny3123 says: what lenses do you already have?

 

the 1st real lens i bought was the 24/70... its the lens that my cousin told me i'd use most... i only have 2 lenses... and 24/70 is definitely my favorite...

i have 2 400d so if anyone is in market for a nice entry level camera hit me up.

oh.. and just so u know.. im not a photographer. never went to school for it nor do i know crap about anything... these camera these days are just that amazing.

enjoy! happy shooting.

-sd

 

I really want to pick up the 24-70 f/2.8L lens. I have the 17-40 f/4 which I do like but I think the 24-70 would be overall more useful.

 

I just have the lens that came with the lens kit. I think its the 18-55

 

You can try 24-105 L IS. I have both 24-105 L and 24-70 L. But 24-70 L is sharper and look nice (Better Bokeh too) so I usually leave the 24-105L home except I can only bring one lens for photo shooting I would take the 24-105.

24-70 >>> 24-105

 

you mean this lens?

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...9&sku=A0400816

thanks again for all your input guys. im a super noob to photography but its something that im starting to get really in to so any advice/information would be helpful

 

Yes, that one. That's a good upgrade from the kit lens that comes with the XTI -- I did exactly that. It's not the 24-70mm L series for image quality, but it's quite versatile, light, and not too expensive. A good upgrade for getting your feet wet(er) before you plough thousands into lenses.

 

I'd say that if you already have the 18-55 kit lens, you should be happy with that for now, use it for wide angle and basic purposes, and get either a more extreme wide angle lens like a 12-24 or something similar to that, or a telephoto lens like a 70-200 or something similar. I would definitely suggest getting something like a 50mm 1.8 regardless because it is good for low light and is a nice sharp little lens for the money. Consider buying an external flash or other accessories as well.

While a nice L lens would be good to own, I think he should be learning how to use his camera before investing in nice glass. Later if you figure out what range you like to use, you should then invest in a nice lens in that range.