I purchased a digital Canon Rebel EOS w/an 18-55 mm lens. I'm ready to buy a new lens...(more)?

Question

I prefer taking candid shots, so I think a longer lens will help me so that I can be further away and people don't auto-react to the lens (also, I have some opportunities to shoot some nature photos). I do have some financial limits - I'm hoping I can get something for $200 or less. Anyone have any ideas of some lenses I can get in this price range for what I want? Please give details on what you like - why you like it, what you don't like about it - what to avoid, what to look for. Please just don't give a one-line answer. I want some detail on what would work for me. Thanks!

What are your thoughts about this auction?

http://cgi.ebay.com/420-1600mm-Lens-for-Canon-EOS-Digital-Rebel-XT-XTi-NEW_W0QQitemZ160093869492QQcategoryZ4687QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item160093869492

Answer 1

I am a Nikon D200 user for a while now,
Firstly I would recom. the Sigma 70-300 APO
http://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/lenses_all_details.asp?id=3303&navigator=3
More at your budget is the non APO version of the same lens
http://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/lenses_all_details.asp?id=3304&navigator=3

I am a big fan of primes since I love the fast speeds on large Apertures. Most of my work is wildlife/bird photography, therefore teles are a must.
I'm not a fan of extenders/tele converters.
The lens that you see on ebay with the extremely large focal length - Avoid those for walk around lenses, you will get no satisfactory results since they are more like a telescope with a fixed slow Aperture f/8 or f/16
The Sigma like I said is great to start with.
Else you can get the Canon of the same configuration.


Happy shooting :)
www.vishalsabharwal.com

Answer 2

Your restraint on price makes this very hard.

All camera lenses can be broken down into three categories and you only can pick two. These are "Quality", "Focal Length" and "Affordable." So you can quickly see that in order to pick "Affordable" as one category you must give up either "Quality" or "Focal Length."

Now there are two 3rd party lens manufacturers: Sigma and Tamron. Both offer lower prices than say Canon or Nikon do, but you sacrifice a little in "Quality." And by quality I mean image quality, how good a photo the lens will take, not necessarily build quality.

You can find the Tamron AF 70-300mm lens online for about $190 (USD) It is a good lens, not great but good. And it would give you the distance from your subject you are looking for.

I also recommend Tamron lenses for Canon cameras over Sigma lenses. Canon cameras have fewer problems with Tamron than they do Sigma. If you had a Nikon camera the story would be the other way around.

And in regards to the auction in question. Bad idea. You could probably build as good as lens with a cardboard tube and plastic cling wrap. Because they would photograph about the same.

Answer 3

Sigma makes a 55-200mm lens: http://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/lenses_all_details.asp?id=3288&navigator=6

I haven't used it, but Sigma lenses are generally pretty good...and this would be the focal length you are looking for with a MSRP of $200.00. Every photographer is different, but I would use the 18-55mm lens 90% of the time to 10% for the longer lens.

Per your additional details: The lens on ebay is a Manual Focus only lens. A 420-1600 lens is a huge zoom focal length (optics generally aren't as good). I'd steer clear of it...even though it says it's new. I think it might be TOO long a lens for you...based upon what you already own.