New Camera Lens

[Sezy]

I would like to get a second lens for my Canon 350D. Currently I have the 55mm that came with the camera. I have had a friend suggest am 85mm as a good alrounder but thought that I would get a 2nd, 3rd and 4th opinion.

I am off traveling over christmas so will have lots of time to try it out.

Also where would be the best place to get the best price.

Cheers and Thanks

[poocow]

You could try ebay for a lens

[Gayle.]

What sort of photography do you want to do, and how much do you want to spend? There are heaps of good lenses, they range in price from $150 up tp many thousands of dollars, but they are all suitable for different purposes.

An 85mm lens is excellent for portraits and quite handly for some still lifes, but not much good for landscapes or group shots.

[Kirislin]

I think you'd be better off asking this in the photography section. There's some really clever people in there who know their stuff.

[Ripley]

Hi Sezy - I had the same kit lens too when I had the 350D (I sold it with my 350D to buy a 30D). After research and chatting to another DOLer who has the lens I was considering, and finding out it was within the price range, I bought the Sigma 17-70mm as my general purpose lens. It's faster than the kit lens and good for general travelling about. For a travel lens, I'd highly recommend it. I took all my landscape shots overseas with that lens recently. It's a sturdier build too, you will notice the difference in quality.

With Christmas approaching, you could do what I did last year perhaps and ask your OH to buy it for you for Christmas? I think OH paid around $450 for it.

Here are some shots taken with the Sigma 17-70mm recently (all on the Isle of Mull, Scotland, as it's the only photo group I've sorted through so far) of different things so you can see how wide it goes. I found the colour far richer than the kit lens and the sharpness so much better too.

(Hand holding all shots)

For building shots

@ f/13

@ 17mm

For animals shots

This is as wide as it goes - at 17mm. I'd love a wider lens but this will do.

ETA: I did have a polariser affixed to the lens for the first 2 shots above to intensify the sky but the bottom 2 shots, no polariser attached.

Edited November 27, 2008 by Ripley

[ruthless]

I would like to get a second lens for my Canon 350D. Currently I have the 55mm that came with the camera. I have had a friend suggest am 85mm as a good alrounder but thought that I would get a 2nd, 3rd and 4th opinion.

I am off traveling over christmas so will have lots of time to try it out.

Also where would be the best place to get the best price.

Cheers and Thanks

I like my 17-85mm as an all rounder. If you want an ultra wide angle for landscapes/cityscapes there's the 10-22mm. If you go to Flickr you can look at pics taken with both lenses ...

17-85

10-22

I've also been told that this is a good place to buy lenses – http://www.d-d-photographics.com/ – I haven't used them yet though.

I have the first lens, you can drop over and try it on your camera sometime if you want