Camera Labs

I am going to get the Canon Rebel XTI 400D and it comes with the 18-55mm and/or the 17-85mm IS.
I was looking to pick up a telephoto lens.
I am new to photography and don't know alot about lenses

What is a good all around lens?

Thanks for any and all help.
Nick.

Hi Nick, welcome to the Cameralabs forums - I moved your post here as it'll get a greater response.

Tell us what your budget is and what sort of things you want to take pictures of with a telephoto. For example, if you want it for sports, you'll need one with quick focusing...

Gordon

Thanks

I am going to be taking shot of ladscapes, wiled life, architecture, and panoramic. the camera kit I am getting is $1000 US. and comes with the 15-55mm and a 78-300mm. neither have the image stabilizer, and the 300mm I don't think will be strong enough for the windlife shots.
right now I can spend only about $550 on a lens.

thanks again.

Nick

Hi Nick, I presume you mean the 18-55 and 75-300mm lenses? Sorry to be pedantic, but there are differences in the models if you get a few mm incorrect!

A 75-300mm is already considered to be a telephoto, and remember when you put it on an XTi / 400D, you'll effectively multiply everything by 1.6 times. So I think 300mm will be enough for most wildlife apart from birds or bears! Anything more powerful will begin to cost quite a lot, although you may want to check prices of some Sigma models as they can be quite affordable.

Are you sure the 75-300mm it comes with doesn't have IS? If so then it is an old model. If I were you, I'd consider trying to upgrade your kit - or choose a different one - so that you get a 75-300mm with IS for anti-shake.

Or maybe just buy the basic kit with just the 18-55mm and buy the telephoto zoom separately.

Check our Proicegrabber page for the Canon XTi and you'll see the kit with the 18-55mm comes in from 600 bucks, so with your extra 500 on top, that'd leave you plenty for a great second lens.

Gordon

Hello

I have looked at the basic kit and the cheapest kit (with the 18-55mm) was $900.00 the next step up was with the 17-85mm with the IS and it was $1200. this kit with the two lenses (18-55mm and 75-300mm) I found at a wholesale where house for $1000. sorry it was the 75-300mm. I will go back and see if it had the IS, but I don't think it did. at the store I was using the 75-300mm and I did not think it would get me as close as I wanted.
I am able to find just the body for as low as $569 but they are refurbished and don't have any warranty. (with the exception of a 15 day return policy for the date of purchase, but it takes 7-14 day's to ship go fig.)

I have a camp site not far from where I live and the shots I will be getting are of bear,elk and moose and the closest I am able to get is 150-400 yards for elk, 75 for bear and 60 for moose, dear are easy only 15-25.
There are lots of hills and some of the shots would be from across the ravine for the elk.

thanks again.
Nick

Hi Nick,

I'm confused and please don't believe that this post is an attempt to persuade you to buy from any particular store but if you follow this link you will see that none of the stores are anywhere near $900 and that you can indeed, as Gordon suggested, pick up a Rebel XTi with the 18-55mm kit lens for not much over $600. Are you unwilling to go the mail order route or am I missing something else?

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Hello

I have looked at the sites that Gordon suggested and had seen the camera for as low as $619.
I have bought some stuff online before and most of the time I don't get what I ordered i.e missing something, out of stock at the last minute, refurbished yet sold as "new", double charged then taking forever to get the money back to you.
I was reading some of the reviews for some of the sites and had seen that some people have had the same issue. needless to say I'm not fond of buying anything online. The prices I was listing were from stores here in town.

The best example I can give you is - A friend told me about a site that he got his stuff on and was a happy camper. it came highly recomended to him. I looked and had found the best offer I have ever seen for this camera.
It came with everything I could need to get started. The package was valued at $2494.00 and was selling for $799.00. Everything is advertised as new!! I was reading the reviews and was turned off. I called the compony asking about the who makes the lenses offerd with the package, and the only info he would give was that everything offerd is new and it is canon. (the website does not go into detail about anything camera, lens, tripod, makes or models.)

It is hard for me to trust a company that I cannot get info or feedback from. (not saying the companies you/Gordon offer can't be trusted )
If you would like to see the package I am talking about let me know. I will NOT post it here. I like this site and don't want to degrade it by doing so.

Thanks
Nick
Nick

Hi Nick, there are trustworthy companies and there are those who seek to rip you off. Prices which are too good to be true invariably are. Luckily there's a great site for checking out vendors and it's called www.resellerratings.com - enter the name of your shop and see what others have to say.

I can assure you that I and many others have had no problems with the affiliate stores we list on the following page, such as Amazon.

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Affil ... ping.shtml

Gordon

Hello

I went back to the store and looked at the lenses again and they are:
EF-S 18-55mm II lens and EF 75-300 III lens they don't have the IS. They also just drop the price from 1000 to 850 for x-mas.

I will take a look at your link and give them the benefit of the doubt.

Thanks again
Nick

Hello

I went to http://www.resellerratings.com/ and found the company I was telling you about and found that it was rated 1.5 out of 10 so I will NOT be buying from them. I also went to your other link and found the camera paired with Sigma and Tamron lenses.

Is it better to stay with the same brand lens as the camera?
How do the three compair (Sigma vs Tamron vs Canon)??

Thanks again

Nick

Hi Nick,

If you can't find reviews for the lenses here at the CameraLabs len reviews a site which many of us value for lens reviews is PhotoZone. You should find the information you need there.

Good to hear you have not totally discounted the idea of buying online. With the sort of care that Gordon suggested you can get some great value.

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Hello

I went to Photo zone and looked at the 17-85mm IS lens review. They were talking about the distortion it has. they had sample pics but I did not think it was as bad as they said. Any thoughts?

Also I was unable to find a review on the EF 75-300mm III lens.
Does anyone have one? How does it perform?

Thanks
Nick

Hi Nick.
I used the Tamron 18-200 until now and it has the barrel distortion. Photozone say that the 17-85 has even larger distortion.
When you use 18mm (or 17) you can really see that straight lines are curved if they are close to the edges of the picture.
You can see an example here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/amitziliron/Peru2007/photo#5117615081902702866

Believe me that the steps at the bottom were not curved...

About the 75-300 III, I have it and use it sometimes (I mainly used it on me film SLR, I got it as part of the 2 lens kit I bought). It's a nice lens, but very simple (and cheap), not fast focusing, not very sharp, but I think it maybe OK to invest in such a lens and if you find yourself using it a lot, maybe buy a better one later.

Liron.

_________________
Canon EOS 50D, Canon EF 17-40L, Canon EF 70-200L f/4 IS and Canon SpeedLite 430EX
My picasa

If you have a look at the PhotoZone review index page you will see that the EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM is down for a retest. Maybe their first test was with a poor example of the lens as other reviewers have been generally less critical?

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Nick I too live in the US and just bought a XTI with two lense for a lot less than what you are being offered. Mine was purchased at a Brick and Mortor store (major franchise) and there are many reputable online stores I and others use oftern in the US with better prices than what you were quoted. Yes most of them are on camerlabs pricegrabber list. Im only saying this because that price for what you are getting seems a bit odd to me having recently bought it myself, I'd hate to see you get ripped off.

One thing you may want to consider is getting the kit (which you can easly find for around $600, and buying a EF 28 -135 IS USM. It is a good lense (to get started into DSLR) for less than $500 and you can get one off of ebay for $300; since they came with the US 40D kit a lot of people are off loading them OEM and not used for a lot less than retail. Obviously you have some interests with a wide variety of focal ranges, but if you want a decent lense now it is a good choice IMO. (not vary wide though)