New zoom lens for 350d

Bramsafc · 28 Aug 2008 at 11:45

As in title looking for a new lens for a present for the wifes birthday £300/350 is there anything worth buying in that price range....

she just has the bog standard lens that came with the camera and is buying one to replace that herself so i have decided to get her one for for longer range shots......also what would be a good replacement for 18-55 that came with the camera

Cheers

monkeyspank · 28 Aug 2008 at 12:56

I got a 70-300mm f4-5.6 IS for about £280 I think but that was with the recent cashback deal. Love it

other choices were the 70-200 F4 L, but I wanted the extra reach and IS over the L glass quality.

as for replacement for the kit lens, I'm happy with my sigma 24-70mm F2.8 macro. Or the 18-55 IS looks good

Vertigo · 29 Aug 2008 at 08:00

70-200 F4L - end of

As for replacing the kit lens, either look at getting the newer IS version of the kit lens or perhaps something like the Sigma 17-70, which I have.

Paul11 · 29 Aug 2008 at 08:47

Vertigo1 said:
70-200 F4L - end of
.

is there a big difference with the IS version and the Non IS ?

a1ex2001 · 29 Aug 2008 at 14:58

Paulus said:
is there a big difference with the IS version and the Non IS ?

yes if your doing handheld work no if your not, if you can afford the IS I would always get it. The non IS is a perfectly good lens and people have got by with stabilisation for years I just think having it especially the newer versions gives you a lot of leeway for shutter speed and also makes it a bit more forgiving of bad holding technique.

Personally I have an ancient canon 70-210F4 but thats because I'm tight.

Bramsafc · 29 Aug 2008 at 15:10

cheers for the repliesseeing as i know nothing about cameras or lenses can someone explain what sort of magnification you get with say a 70-200 or a 70-300.....cos i know all the compacts have x6 zoom if you know what i mean

Kol · 29 Aug 2008 at 15:16

I had the 70-200 F4 L and it was a great lens.

Inquisitor · 29 Aug 2008 at 15:33

Bramsafc said:
cheers for the repliesseeing as i know nothing about cameras or lenses can someone explain what sort of magnification you get with say a 70-200 or a 70-300.....cos i know all the compacts have x6 zoom if you know what i mean

200mm is roughly equivalent to what you'd get on a 10x compact I think. Your average compact would be very roughly equivalent to 20-100mm in DSLR terms I'd imagine.

For reference, on a DSLR, 18mm is generally a medium wide-angle and 200mm is a medium telephoto.

Also, 'zoom' just means a lens that has a variable focal length; what you want is a telephoto.