Canada - Lenses

nukemdukem

nukemdukem

nukemdukem

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Joined
25 Dec 2008
Posts
187
Hi All,

I am going to canada in 1 week and intend to take lots of photos with my new Canon EOS 550D, i have the following lenses:

But i want a good wide angle lense as i will be going to niagra falls, what is a good lense to take, my busget would prob be upto £400. I intend to take 18mp photos to print onto canvas as big as possible (in good quality).

I was thinking of one of these 4:

Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS - £394

Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di II Lens (Canon AF) - £169

Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 USM - £387

Tamron SP 17-50mm f/2.8 VC Di II Lens for Canon - £349

What would be the best? espically for niagra falls and snow?

Thanks
 
I think you should do a TBL and just rent/buy every lens under the planet, this should result in you being covered for everything.

Ehem, on a more serial note...on my Canon 350D which was 8mb I could print upto A2 without any real issue tbh, so 18mp is going to be more than fine for large prints :)

I would go for the Tamron 17-50 - Your going to want fast glass mate...for pretty much any situation really :) - I've used Tamron lenses and they have good optics on them, I wouldn't get the 18-200 lenses as they, for me, are too slow...think of them as a jack of all trades, master of none :)

Look at some reviews of the Tamron 17-50, and see what they say about the optics. Also they do a 23-75 I think which I've used and thats uber sharp :)

HTH.
Jake
 
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+1
haven't used tamron lenses before but that would be good start...

But if I were you, I would just rent one lens. something like 16-35 mk2 :)
 
nukemdukem said:
cool thanks for the advice, where can i rent lenses form, anyone know a good place? thanks
Click to expand...

I've used lensesforhire.com and they were great - good price, offer insurance, good service etc etc.

If your going to rent...treat yourself to some L ;)

Jake
 
nukemdukem said:
maybe this one?

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L II USM?
Click to expand...

Epic lens :cool:

If I were you I would get the 16-35L and the 24-70L.


You can rent both of these for less than £400 (so you are still in pocket) and it will cover you for most situations...the optics on both of these are truely spectacular, and having 'just' a wide angle is pretty limiting as the 24-70 will be far more useable day to day :)

Although the problem with L....once you've used, you don't want anything else, and then photography becomes a very expensive pit

*glares at camera bag*
 
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i think i am going to hire a lense or 2! if i can get 2 good lenses for under £120 i think i will do that.....

has anyone been to niagra falls, i was reading that there is a lot of moisture in the air, will this damage my camera? or lenses?
 
nukemdukem said:
i think i am going to hire a lense or 2! if i can get 2 good lenses for under £120 i think i will do that.....

has anyone been to niagra falls, i was reading that there is a lot of moisture in the air, will this damage my camera? or lenses?
Click to expand...

Should be alright, just don't dunk them in the water ;)

L glass is sealed anyway, and the 550D is designed for upto 'light rain' use.

Basically, you'll be fine unless you take the mick with it :p
 
Your selection of 'wide angle' lenses suggests you are fairly new to the DSLR game. I suggest the following.

Step 1; learn how to take photos. This is much more important than the lens. Composition is critical, technical settings can wait.
Step 2; shoot RAW.

If your photos still aren't good enough take the money route and get the Tamron 17-50mm f2.8.

If you want an actual wide angle lens the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 would be my bet and the Sigma 10-20mm for a cheaper option.
 
You could hire lenses and drop £400 - and I'm sure it would be fun! But personally I'd use the money to invest in a decent lens that you can then keep. Lenses hold their value well, so if you decide you've changed your mind then you can sell and get something different.

The obvious choice for me is to replace the 18-55IS kit lens (which I presume you got with the 550D?) with the Tamron 17-50. This will give you quite a wide angle, but also a lot of flexibility for portraits and low light performance (and it has very good image quality). There are two versions of this lens - one with VC and one without. The one without is cheaper and sharper, so this is an obvious choice to me. These can be had for £200-230 second hand, around £270 brand new (imported from HK) or £300 brand new from the high street.

Perhaps complement the Tamron with a Canon 50mm f/1.8 (around £80 new from online). These are a lot of fun, great for portraits and creative shots as you can get a really shallow depth of field to isolate your subject. It can also be used for landscapes etc, but you'll not have the wide angle of course so you need to be a bit more creative (also fun!).

I think you would appreciate hiring a lens more when you have more experience, and know why you want to hire it. For example, you might want to hire a high quality telephoto lens at some point, say to give sports or wildlife photography a try.
 
hey,
thanks for the tips, i got the camera with the standard kit lense 18-55, but also bought the canon 50mm f1.8 mkII aswell which i think is great.

I just want to take some amazing photos of canada when i go, i looked at hiring the lenses and each one will cost roughly £50, so i think for a 1 week holiday, adding £50-£100 to get some amazing lenses might be worth it....

Then once i ocme back can look into a more permanent solution.
 
Hi All,
I've looked at renting these 2 lenses, and i can only afford to rent one of them for my canada trip, if you were only to have one of these lenses which one would you choose? I will be taking photots of buildings, family photos and hopefully landscape photos of niagra falls...

Also on a different note when i last went on holiday i tried taking photos at night out og the planes window but the ground was always blurred, is it possible to take nightime photos from a plane window?

Thanks all and hope you had a merry xmas :)
 
If you can only hire one of those lenses then for what you're wanting to take photos of I'd go with the 24 - 70 rather than the 16 - 35 as it'll probably not come off your camera! You may find the 16 - 35 a little restrictive. But saying that will you be taking your other lenses with you on the trip as well or just looking to have one on the camera and thats it?
 
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