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I am thinking about getting either of them with Tamron 55-200 , or Tamron 18-200.

I 've heard so many bad things about Sigma 18-200 and its focus speed .

So I eliminated it .

Any one suggest me which lens to get for walk-around perpose?

I never shoot super tele or birds or wild life so I do not really need more than 150mm .

I love flowers and city scenes, and some times love to shoot some kind of paints at my school (I am a part time art teacher ).

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

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best regards.

Hi Derek, have you considered the Canon EF-S 17-85mm?

It has both Image Stabilisation AND fast and quiet USM focusing. It's the ideal walkaround lens for the Canon 400D / XTi...

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Canon1785EFS/

Gordon

Thank you , Iwill get that one ,I thought that one you mentioned would cost more than 1200USD.

Maybe , I was confused this 17-85 with 17-55.

Thank you for reminding me that one, this is in my budget range.

I think for my needs 85mm is long enough , I don't know if I 'll need Is though, I think I will like the USM and IF of the Canon lens, plus there will be no compatibility issue when I stick with EF or EF-S lenses .

Thank you for helping me many times .

_________________
best regards.

Hi Derek, yes, the EF-S 17-55mm is much more expensive because it is f2.8 throughout the range. Nice lens though! See our review here:

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Canon1755EFS/

The EF-S 17-85mm is much cheaper and is arguably a more useful general purpose lens though - and believe me, you'll find IS very useful! It's well worth having. Imagine handholding longish exposures when it starts getting dark without having to increase your ISO. It's a very useful facility.

Let us know how you get on,

Gordon

I bought it last night ,and quite happy with its reach and versatility.

While comparing it with the sigma 17-70 at a shop , I realized that this one focuses much faster , and the full time manual focus feature would be excellent because that allows me to adjust very slight different kind of precision of focus.

As combine this handy feature with the IS , I think I will get more keepers .

Plus , I will be mostly shooting landscape and night scene at clubs or some thing like that , the IS may be more useful than the faster aperture of the sigma or Tamron.

I loved the idea of having a fast walk around zoom , but the Tamron for my uses, was too short since I was sure I would not be able to get too close to a group of people in a bar or on a street, and I'd also love to shoot a cat and a dog.

For in door low light stuff , I can use my EF50 or EF-S60mm F2.8, I prefer the letter,and I'm still wondering I may or may not need a fast zoom like the Tamron or EF-S17-55IS.

I was thinking of getting a 24-105 L , but the price was too high , was completely out of my budget , so was the EF-S17-55IS (cost 48.000baht, about 1300USd).

Maybe in a few years , I will be able to upgrade to the EF24-105L IS , since it is also a full frame lens , it is a better choice for me than the EF-S17-55 IS which is shorter and limited to use with only EF-S mount bodies and as expensive as the EF24-105L.

BTW, I am wondering if the EF70-300Is is a full frame lens or a crop-sensor lens.



I may wanna this in a couple of months, or before this July .

Thanks alot for your assistance and I think I got the right one for my needs.

_________________
best regards.

Hi Derek, I'm glad you got the 17-85mm IS - it's a much classier lens overall when you take things like the focusing into account. Non-USM lenses just seem quite slow, loud and clunky in comparison.

As for the 70-300, it and all other telephotos will work fine on both full-frame and cropped Canon bodies. Of course if you attach a 70-300 on a cropped body like your 400D, it will have its field reduced by 1.6 times, so you'll effectively have a 112-480mm. IS is also essential with a range like that.

As far as I know, the only Canon telephoto lens which will ONLY work on cropped bodies is the 60mm EF-S macro model. Basically, if it says EF-S, it's only for cropped bodies, but if it says EF, it'll work on all Canon bodies - albeit with the field reduction mentioned above for cropped bodies.

Gordon

I am having serious problems with my new lens:

1 CA .
2 distortion.
3 vignetting ,light falls off , seems even worse than my kit .

But I like the ring USM with FTM feature.

So I am not sure should return it and exchange to another copy of this lens , or just send it to Canon and get it calibrated.

As you mentioned , EF-S lenses can only be used on a cropped body , this means I ca not use my EF-S60mm (did not get it yet , just ordered) on my friend's 5D to test, right?

Well, what is a comparable or similar macro lens in this price range that can be used on a FF body?

EF50mm F1.4?

Is this a macro?

I mean I am not sure all primes are also macro lenses .

sorry for my ignorance , I hope some one compare this EF 50 aginst EF-S60, I 've got a EF50F1.8 but I hate it , this looks so so so horrible like a toy , plus it is so soft compare to EF-S60 , is EF 50 F1.4 any better than F1.8?

If so I may get the macro lens instead as I am interested in the 5D and sharing lenses with my father and my friend .

One final question : Why are there so many people raving about the EF50 F1,8 and recommending any newbie to get it with his or her rebel or 30D?

I can see this produces interesting bokeh but it is not as sharp as many raving about it to be , when you hava a fast zoom lens like EF-S17-55 or Tamron 17-50 F2.8 , do you still need this kind of fixed focal length lens like this cheap 75USd lens?

I think 50mm on a cropped body is too long or narrow and for landscape , it is not sharp enough .

BTW, my friend's Tamron 17-50 is very sharp , much sharper than my father's Sigma 17-70 , and my Canon comes some where in between them .

If the Tamron had USM and FTM , I will get it without any hesitation.

It is quite fast focusing lens ,though it is too noisy to use in my church .

I beleive this Tamron got some award from EISA.

Maybe , I will add this one , it does not hurt my other lenses or camera, I just need to sell my Fuji S6000FD , which I'm fed up with .

Ok thanks a lot and you are right IS works really well , makes about 3 stops difference , some times even 4 stops .

_________________
best regards.

Hi Derek, yes the Canon 17-85mm has quite noticeable vignetting. How does your model compare to the results we published for ours?

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Canon1785EFS/

If yours appears worse than our results, then you may wish to change it.

As for your friend's 5D, none of the EF-S lenses will work on it. The 5D can only use EF lenses. So no, your 60mm EF-S will not work on a 5D.

The 50mm is not a macro lens either. A Canon prime lens will not be a macro lens unless it actually says Macro in its name.

In terms of coverage, the 60mm EF-S on a cropped body is closest to a 100mm macro on a full-frame like the 5D.

Hope that helps!

Gordon