Spec me a general purpose lens

Funky-Melon

Funky-Melon

Funky-Melon

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Hi all,

Thinking of getting a 'walk around' lens to avoid taking all of my lenses out with me every time I go somewhere. I have a 60D and it still produces some pretty nice shots, so I think I'm going to stick with it for now (was researching mirrorless but too expensive for me at the moment). Would much rather grab the camera with one lens that's usable most of the time for just general shooting.

List of current gear:
Canon EF 70-200mm
Canon EF-S 10-18mm
Canon EF 40mm
Canon EF-S 18-55
Canon EF 100mm macro


Budget - £500ish

So far I've found:
- Tamron 18-200 mm DiII VC, though on a crop it's not going to be too wide
- Canon EF-S 18-135 mm
- Canon EF-S 17-85mm though this has got very mixed reviews

I shoot mostly landscape with a fair bit of just general 'out and about' stuff on weekends so anything that's reasonably wide with a fair bit of reach would be ideal.


At £500 I know there will be compromises, sharpness is the main thing I'm after though as the rest you can mostly fix in post processing.

Thanks
Funky

EDIT - Happy to sell some of the current lenses to fund a better one if need be.
 
Well, that turned out well...

I was chatting to my Dad earlier on asking what lenses he has, he has a 100D and started out in photography about 2 years ago, he also has among a few of his other lenses (unknown to me) a 15-85mm that he picked up second hand a while back which he said I could have....As he's just today picked up a Sony A7 III with 28-70mm kit lens.

I'm not going to say no to a free lens, he's obviously smitten with his new toy, very grateful :D

Will report back when I pick it up :)

On a side note, what's a sensible upgrade from a 60D these days? The 70D looked like a pretty minor bump in specs compared to the 60D and the 80D seems very expensive for what it is? If it's that much better I could sell the 60D and my 600D with one of my kit lenses and it'll make the upgrade a little less painful.
 
MichaelAwkward said:
Personally I don't think it'd be worth upgrading your 60D until you know specifically why.
Click to expand...

2 reasons really, I'd like more focus points, the 9 I have on the 60D are a bit limiting sometimes, things have moved on quite a bit in that area.

Secondly for better low light performance, I know full frame is the way to go on that, I'm not sure if any crop sensor will be much better. I borrowed a 6D from a friend at work and that really impressed me, was expensive at the time now.

Third reason is it's just nice to have a new camera, even when you know you don't need one :D
 
Interesting you mention that.

I borrowed a friends 6D a year or so back and was amazed at the image quality and how well it handled high ISO levels. I would have thought the 80D would have been an upgrade in everything except image quality? It's still pretty untouchable when it comes to ISO levels.

I popped over to my parents yesterday and picked up the 15-85 - Looks very nice on the camera. I'm off from work this week so will be heading down to the Jurassic coast tomorrow to have a play with it and see how good it is.

I also had a play on my Dads A7 III while I was there, loved the image quality, very impressive, not a fan of the rest of it though. I'm sure it's just getting used to it but nothing for me comes close to the layout of a DSLR for quickly changing ISO/aperature/shutter speed while looking through the viewfinder. The Sony just felt unbalanced and a pain to hold with the Sony 24-240mm lens on it, big heavy lens and a tiny grip on the camera - Couldn't use it for a long period of time.

I struggle to see the point in mirrorless overall, you still need a bag, you still need lenses and it doesn't save much on weight....Maybe I'm missing the point?
 
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