What Lenses & Filters Do You Have?

[MrsD]

BTW none of my pics are ever photoshopped, all I ever do is crop a bit if I need to & resize them.

Not strictly true. There was the time when Ebony was "vanished" from a picture that then ended up in your signature. Poor old thing - it was a bit like those photos that the Russians were so good at, where some member of the politburo was suddenly no longer flavour of the month and next thing you knew they were no longer in photos.

Spot the difference.

:D ;)

Cheers,

DagBoy

shutup or you'll vanish too Spoonboy :cool:

[Staff'n'Toller]

You two crack me up!

Mel.

[Ripley]

Here is a shot I took late this afternoon using the Canon 18-55mm kit lens (I want to upgrade).

My Alexandrine parrot doesn't like the camera in his face but kept still long enough here.

This was taken with natural light through the window and as I was just practising on Manual mode, I haven't altered it in photoshop.

Think I might get that Canon 1.4 50mm I think.

Edited November 1, 2007 by Ripley

[sandyl]

Just bumping this up for a quick question

I might be buying a Pentax dslr in the next few days. [YAY!] I have the choice of either just buying the cam with the 18-55mm lens, or buying it with both the 18-55mm and 18-50mm lens. It costs and extra $110 to get both. I will be taking it to Europe in a few weeks, so not sure which to get?

Thanks

[chezzyr]

Is that a typo or are they really wanting to include TWO lenses of a similar focal length?

eta: I don't know what 'kit' lenses the Pentax comes with

Edited December 4, 2007 by chezzyr

[Ripley]

ashanali is a Pentax fan and could help you with your question.

wagsalot, I notice the birds of prey you photographed have tassells on their feet. Did you take them at a special birds of prey centre? They have these places in the UK where you can book an hour with the facolner and his birds and photograph them and there are no other people around, but you only have the hour to do it. I don't think we have them in Australia?

ETA: I have just purchased a Canon 1.8 50m lens.

Edited December 5, 2007 by Ripley

[wagsalot]

ashanali is a Pentax fan and could help you with your question.

wagsalot, I notice the birds of prey you photographed have tassells on their feet. Did you take them at a special birds of prey centre? They have these places in the UK where you can book an hour with the facolner and his birds and photograph them and there are no other people around, but you only have the hour to do it. I don't think we have them in Australia?

ETA: I have just purchased a Canon 1.8 50m lens.

The photo's are from the bird flight show at Taronga Zoo.

[sandyl]

Is that a typo or are they really wanting to include TWO lenses of a similar focal length?

eta: I don't know what 'kit' lenses the Pentax comes with

Oops Yeh, its a 70-300mm.

Just got back from a camera store, will most likely be getting the Nikon D40, with the 18-55mm lens. The guy at the store said this lens should be ok for what i need it for. We're going to Hong Kong aswell on our trip, so he said I could pick some cheaper ones up from there

[Ripley]

Bumping this.

Ripley, if you don't want to spend too much look at the 50mm Canon EF 1.8. It is under $200 and gets rave reviews, even though it is plastic. I got one recently, it is the first non kit lens I purchased and the step uup in quality is amazing.

Helen, I agree. I paid $115 for this lens just before Christmas but have only had a chance to try it out now.

It's a pretty sharp lens, so much better than the kit one. Here is a photo I took the other day of my parrot with my 350D and the Canon 1.8 50mm attached, hand holding, natural light, no image editing. It's a sharp lens - you can see 3 scratches on his beak from beak sparring with his brother. ;) I should cut the vase out as it spoils the shot(I had the blinds open which are reflected in the vase) , but I was only mucking around to test it and my Alexandrine does love to sit by the window and hide behind the vase. I love this lens. I should use it more but it's fixed so I don't tend to use it that much.

ETA: My dog won't sit still enough for me to post up a shot. My parrot, however, is a perfect model. He's vain!

Edited March 1, 2008 by Ripley

[Gayle.]

I have got a heap of lenses.....way too many in fact.

Sigma 15mm f2.8 fisheye

Canon 17-40mm f4 L

Canon 24mm f2.8

Canon 35mm f2

Canon 50mm f1.4 (my favourite)

Canon 24-85mm USM

Canon 100mm f2 (my other favourite)

Canon 200mm f2.8L

And my husbands Canon 70-200 f4L

I have polarisers for the lenses up to 50mm, just cheap ones and I use them when appropriate. Also have neutral density filters....4x and 8x, and graduated neutral density filters 2x and 4x.

Edited March 1, 2008 by GayleK

[Gayle.]

Helen, I agree. I paid $115 for this lens just before Christmas but have only had a chance to try it out now.

That was the lens that spoilt zooms for me. None of them ever matched up to the sharpness and colour of this lens. Mine lasted as long as the warranty and then stopped auto focussing so when I won some money in a photo competition, I bought the 50mm f1.4. It is absolutely superb!

I do have 2 zoom lenses now, and use the 17-40mm quite a lot....it's a nice, sharp lens that renders good colour and contrast, and although the 24-85mm USM lens is quite nice, I tend to by pass that one for a prime. My 14yo daughter uses that one on her 10D.

[helen]

Someone has just lent me a lens to test, a Canon 85mm, sells for about $500 and is apparently as good as the 50mm which has not come off my camera since I purchased it. I will take some photos using it in the next few days of the pups, if it is as good as I have been told I will be buying one, the prime lenses have spoilt the zooms for me.

Edited March 2, 2008 by helen

[Gayle.]

Helen I've heard nothing but good about the 85mm f1.8. Let me see your results and tell me what you think of it. The 100mm f2 is from the same series and is supposed to be very similar, and it's one of my faves. I just spent some quality time in the backyard with the puppy, camera and 100mm f2 lens. The results are pleasing!

[kja]

ooo! The 85 1.8 is so dreamy! You'll love it :rolleyes:

One day I'll add it to my line up, but right now it wouldn't get enough use so it's on the back burner. But it's one of those lenses that make you fall in love pretty quickly!

I've got both primes and zooms and both types get workouts - just depends on what I'm shooting.

[rubiton]

I use Skylight filters - for outdoor sports photos they are aparently better than the UV filters but only a little.

If you buy cheap lens don't worry about filters BUT if you can't afford to replace the lens (and remember some of us have paid over $2000 for lenses) your best defence against scratches are filters. They do not make a huge amount of difference to the 'picture quality' - maybe they do something for artsy in studio images but who here is only taking photos inside a spotless studio? If you outside with the lens look after it and get a filter Skylight or UV.

[helen]

I have put the lens to the test and am very happy with it, very sharp and good detail. Will try some action shots over the next few days when the weather cools down a bit - here are a few of the photos, taken on apeture priority

f2.5

f1.8

f4.0

f3.5

f3.5

f2.5

[ShesaLikeableBiBear]

Investment, hopefully

Recently purchased Canon 24-70mm and IS USM 100-400mm.

[rubiton]

Hope you are taking photos for profit buying the 100-400mm. Expensive lens but wow produces fantastic images (but then I bought it for the photography business its a bit pricy for personal pics).

[kja]

Helen - looks like you and the 85 are getting along fabulously! Gorgeous shots

Congrats on the new lenses Hesa...very nice, both of them. I have the 100-400 but it's been sitting forlornly on my shelf since I bought it...just haven't had much time to work with it over the past couple of months. Beautiful results, though! I think it's a good way to drop $1400

[ruthless]

Wow Helen, those pics are beautiful

Is that the purpose of that lens? Portraits? Is there anywhere I can go to read a list of which lens is best for which end use? I bought my 70-300 for portraits [and some dog sports] but I'm thinking maybe the 85 would've been better a better choice. Pooh. Time to start saving again!