canon eos 350d - lens help

Blunet600 · Nearly there... Joined: 03 Dec 2005 Karma :

I have just bought myself and Eos 350d and at the moment im a little lsot at how to get the best out of it but im sure in time i will learn the ropes. I only have the 18mm-55mm lens, what other lenses to people recommend for this camera? Nothing too expensive..
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Honda - Power of Dreams - NSR 125R - Hornet 600

doggone · World Chat Champion Joined: 20 May 2004 Karma :

I've been well pleased with a sigma 18-200 on my 300D.
It can't do macro though, and only stops to F4 so limited in low light.
But for a single lens solution pretty good, sharper than kit lens.

The lens is as important as the camera don't make a false economy.
Used lenses are worth looking for - they are hard to wear out - all EF will lenses fit.

_Will_ · World Chat Champion Joined: 16 Jan 2006 Karma :

Best bang for buck, a 50mm 1.8 prime.
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Past -Honda qr50 | 2004 Peugeot Tkr s 50| | 1996 Yamaha XJ600s Diversion|

KLR600 · World Chat Champion Joined: 15 Mar 2005 Karma :

UnknownStuntm... · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Karma :

Blunet600 · Nearly there... Joined: 03 Dec 2005 Karma :

Great cheers guys, i have that in my watch list on ebay, any other lenses worth looking into? Cheers.
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Honda - Power of Dreams - NSR 125R - Hornet 600

Kickstart · The Oracle Joined: 04 Feb 2002 Karma :

Hi

What do you want to photograph?

The 50mm f1.8 is a bargain lens and dirt cheap for what it is. The f1.4 version is even better but getting on for 4 times the price. Biggest problem with the f1.8 is that it is fairly weak and won't take much abuse.

If you want portraits then you might instead consider the 85mm f1.8.

If you are aiming to shoot bikes on track then you need something far longer. At least a 200mm lens, and preferably 300mm with the option of using a 1.4 teleconverter (and that counts out cheap lenses). Bird watching would probably want a far longer lens, but would also mean you could wouldn't be half so worried about auto focus. The Canon basic 75-300 lens isn't great but it does the job (you will get noticeable purple fringing if you shoot something white with a contrasting background.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

Blunet600 · Nearly there... Joined: 03 Dec 2005 Karma :

Ill mainly be taking pictures of bikes, both still and moving. I want to take pictures like these! www.site-photography.co.uk
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Honda - Power of Dreams - NSR 125R - Hornet 600

_Will_ · World Chat Champion Joined: 16 Jan 2006 Karma :

Kickstart · The Oracle Joined: 04 Feb 2002 Karma :

Hi

For pics like the automotive ones there a prime (or several) will be good. Zoom can help when you can't move to get the shot, or want to arrange the shot to exclude / include items you can't move.

With affordable zoom lenses the max aperture is fairly small (and even the expensive ones still lag behind the primes), so the smallest depth of field you can get it quite large. Primes normally have far larger apertures that similar price zoom lenses.

However if shooting something moving at speed a zoom can greatly help as it is unlikely you will be able to get free choice of where to shoot from.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

Digitalize · Nearly there... Joined: 09 Aug 2009 Karma :

I've just bought a 50mm f1.8 and 55-250 IS to complement my stock 18-55 IS with my 450D.

If going for a long zoom, you need the IS, as the cheaper lenses have much slower apertures, so it gets a bit tricky. The zoom is also perfect for sports events, getting you closer to the action, through the fences etc.

To properly know what lens you want, you need to first understand all the terminology, but the 3 i have are pretty much general.

The 50mm has a small DOF, so lets you get some nice 'macro' shots, with a blurred background, the Aperture is only 5 blades, so the bokeh (Blurry circles in the background) is more of a pentagon, but i quite like that.
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1998 CB600F Hornet

Kickstart · The Oracle Joined: 04 Feb 2002 Karma :

Digitalize · Nearly there... Joined: 09 Aug 2009 Karma :

Kickstart · The Oracle Joined: 04 Feb 2002 Karma :

Hi

I started out with a 75-300 which was f5.6 all the way out, and happy enough without IS on it. Have IS on my 100-400, but rarely use the lens and virtually never use the IS on it. I do have a 120-300 f2.8 and will use that with a 1.4 telephoto extender hand held (so as a ~400mm f4).

Even with a fast lens in normal daylight I will often be at f5.6 or slower using ISO 200.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

Digitalize · Nearly there... Joined: 09 Aug 2009 Karma :

Seem to be amazing at Photography and Bikes! I like you more and more... Laughing

I just feel if you can get IS, then why not, its not particularly expensive, paid £175 for my 55-250, supposed to suffer a little distortion through out, but i can afford an L series.

Any reason not to have IS on all the time?
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1998 CB600F Hornet

Kickstart · The Oracle Joined: 04 Feb 2002 Karma :

Hi

Tend to find with the 100-400 that it takes a while to realise you are panning, and until then the IS tries to correct the panning movement.

I would prefer the money for the IS to instead go on a faster lens or just a better quality lens.

That said I do tend to like using slower shutter speeds. For example this photo was taken under the old Dunlop Bridge at Donington (now gone), so the bike was probably doing 150+ at that moment. From memory it was taken with a shutter speed of a 50th of a second (but doing that I had about a 95% failure rate).

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

Digitalize · Nearly there... Joined: 09 Aug 2009 Karma :

Thats fair enough, but the 55-250 has IS, and its kinda hard to find a better lens for £175... The Tamron 70-300 i found the image quality to degrade far too quickly for my liking!

I'd probably rather have a faster lens too, but a similar f2.8 of that lens was £400+

Nice shot too Thumbs Up

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1998 CB600F Hornet

Kickstart · The Oracle Joined: 04 Feb 2002 Karma :

Hi

That shot was taken with a Sigma 70-200 f2.8, but fairly sure at nowhere near f2.8 (was using shutter priority). I paid around £400 for that lens (gone up now) but the Canon versions were available with both an IS and non IS versions. IS added about 50% to the price.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

Blunet600 · Nearly there... Joined: 03 Dec 2005 Karma :

What 1.8 prime lens will fit my camera? they are differnet and some wont fit it apparantly. My camera is a canon eos 350d.
Cheers.
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Honda - Power of Dreams - NSR 125R - Hornet 600

_Will_ · World Chat Champion Joined: 16 Jan 2006 Karma :

Kickstart · The Oracle Joined: 04 Feb 2002 Karma :

Hi

Canon changed their lens mount in the late 1980s. Pretty much anything since then will fit (some old after market lenses won't work as it took Sigma, etc, a while to properly reverse engineer the Canon lens communications).

The current dirt cheap Canon 50mm F1.8 will definitely fit and work.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing