Canon EOS 40D

[swampa]

1. Wife is a die hard Canon person, so she only wanted to look at Canon cameras and lenses.

I used to think like that too. Most of my lenses are the same brand as the camera but the last one I got was a Sigma lens. I love the colour and clarity it has. I’m glad I changed my mind on this.

4. I am a little vague on the understanding between the f/4 and f/2.8. Sounds like it is the speed of the shutter? Schnee mentioned getting the bigger flash to assist with the f/4 lenses. Am I understanding that right? Another $100 to upgrade that flash, but the prices on the same lense at f/2.8 is about 3 times f/4. For what she is going to be doing, does she need the faster lense or just the better flash?

It isn’t the shutter speed, it is the amount of light the lens lets through. But the more light you have through the faster the shutter speed you can use. For some reason though the number system is backwards, where 2.8 lets in more light than 4 and you had better be in full sunlight if you want to use 32 (or have a tripod)! The other thing the aperture does is control the depth of field. In schnee’s photos you see how the object is in focus but the rest is blurred. The higher the aperture, the more this effect is noticeable. It is really good for portraits as it tends to hide distractions in the background.

5. As to the 5D… Ouch… Please don’t mention that to her…

Don’t worry about that! If she is already taking about the 1D then the 5D is the least of your worries. Wait until she sees the 1Ds Mark III *snickers evily*

[schnee]

3. As to those trick filters I mentioned (Star filters, etc). She has those already for her old camera with a 52mm lense. Can they be used on the 77mm lenses with an adapter? Or would that be like cropping the image again?

4. I am a little vague on the understanding between the f/4 and f/2.8. Sounds like it is the speed of the shutter? Schnee mentioned getting the bigger flash to assist with the f/4 lenses. Am I understanding that right? Another $100 to upgrade that flash, but the prices on the same lense at f/2.8 is about 3 times f/4. For what she is going to be doing, does she need the faster lense or just the better flash?

3. Not cropping as much as “stopping down”, but 77 to 52 seems pretty extreme – you may get vignetting.

4. Not shutter speed, but how much the aperture opens. f/2.8 is bigger than f/4, which means that for the same shutter speed (e.g. 1/125s), more light would hit the sensor with f/2.8. That means you may be able to get a photo that you would not have been able to before (maybe there’s enough light for f/2.8 but not f/4). There’s also a Depth of Field thing to worry about with aperture – the small the aperture, the greater the DOF.

My comment re: flash was not really related to the f-stop. The 580 EXII can throw more light farther than the other one – that may be a consideration for weddings.

[THoey]

Cool. Thanks for the explanations…

[Analogy]

3. As to those trick filters I mentioned (Star filters, etc). She has those already for her old camera with a 52mm lense. Can they be used on the 77mm lenses with an adapter? Or would that be like cropping the image again?

Doing this will cause vignetting and will generally darken the picture. A larger filter can be stepped down onto a smaller lens, but not the other way around.

4. I am a little vague on the understanding between the f/4 and f/2.8. Sounds like it is the speed of the shutter? Schnee mentioned getting the bigger flash to assist with the f/4 lenses. Am I understanding that right? Another $100 to upgrade that flash, but the prices on the same lense at f/2.8 is about 3 times f/4. For what she is going to be doing, does she need the faster lense or just the better flash?

It’s not the shutter, it’s the aperture, which is an important factor in the lens’s light gathering ability. A larger aperture lets you go into darker areas without resorting to flash, and also allows you to isolate subjects using its smaller depth of field.

[THoey]

Okay, this is what we ended up buying:

Canon EOS 40D 10.1 Megapixel Digital SLR Camera Body
Canon 17-55 f2.8 EFS IS USM With Canon 1-Year USA Warranty
Kingston Elite Pro 4GB Compact Flash (CF) Flash Card Model CF/4GB-S2 X 2
77mm Professional Three Piece Filter Kit
Canon Speedlite 580EX II, Shoe Mount Flash with Canon 1 Year USA Warranty
AA Rapid Multivoltage AC/DC Charger (110-220v) w/4 AA 2500mAh
Canon BG-E2N BATTERY GRIP f/EOS 40D
Canon BP-511 Lithium Ion Battery X 2
BP-511 Rapid Travel Charger

We purchased that lense on the advice of a photographer friend of hers as a good general purpose starter lense. But, already she is not quite happy with it. As I said, it is a general purpose lense, so while it is good at doing a little of everything, it is limited when taking macro or zoom shots. (Part of the reason I was looking to buy her two lenses in the first place.) So, we are already thinking of returning the lense and getting two lenses. We have been looking at the following:

Canon 60mm f/2.8 EF-S USM Macro Autofocus
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L EF IS USM

All total, about twice as much as the original lense we bought, but my understanding is that it should cover the complete range of anything she will want to take pictures of, from a single flower up close to a bride and groom walking down the aisle. Is that a good understanding? Any better suggestions?

The company I made the original purchase through ( http://www.us1photo.com ) has been very good at understanding, explaining, etc. No restocking fee since I would be returning for an exchange.

[THoey]

Okay, now I just made a call to Canon, and the following are what they are recommending:

EF 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM

and either:

Canon 60mm f/2.8 EF-S USM Macro
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM

Too many choices and different opinions.

[Elsinore]

Well, 70-200mm is going to be waaaay long if you ever have any occasion to shoot indoors (which could be quite often), so a 28-200mm focal length range will be a very useful range covering normal to telephoto. Only issue could be image quality–I don’t know how that lens rates, but it sounds like your wife has very high standards, so it’s possible it might not be up to snuff (and it isn’t an L-series lens, so it quite possibly won’t be up to snuff 😆 ). The 17-55mm that your friend recommended is an excellent lens, especially if you shoot indoors at all, but I can see how it would be limiting if it were your only lens. As for macro stuff, either the 60mm or 100mm will be excellent; the 100mm will allow you to stand back further, but both are great lenses.

[Analogy]

My concern with the 28-200 is the low max aperture. Even Canon’s consumer zooms nowadays are easily beating their top of the line primes from days back so I’m not really as concerned about optical quality. Pretty much any lens you buy in this day and age will look good for you. But not having an f/2.8 or wider max aperture is gonna hurt.

The 17-55 f/2.8 is good glass, though for the same price I was able to get a 24-70 f/2.8L, giving me a bit more tele reach while still having a reasonable wide end. Plus it’s L glass and a full-frame lens that will stay with me if I ever go to a full frame camera.

I’d say 24-70 and 70-200 and add a macro lens (though the 24-70 is able to achieve a 1:3 magnification ratio for macro, which isn’t bad at all). If the wide end on the 24-70 feels too cramped, you can add a 10-22 later.

[THoey]

Thanks for the input. We went to the local Wolf Camera today to “look” and took the body with us. Unfortunately, due to holiday sales, their lense selection was quite limited. Out of the list the only thing they had on hand was the 60mm. Got to play with it for a bit, but with nothing else to compare it to it was kind of purposeless. I think the 15-55 is going to be great for what she mainly does, but we will need other lenses for special purposes (macro, zoom). I think she has decided that she will keep it, especially since we dropped by a friends place and she took some more pictures using it. I think it will end up being an every day lense and we will just need to buy some special purpose lenses for macro or zoom.

Sorry if it seems like I am waffling. I trust the opinions of those here as they know WAY more than I do. Just trying to make mama happy.

[THoey]

Oh, and I did get a chance to try a Sigma lense, I think it was the 105mm macro, but even I was not happy with the way the auto focus worked with it. Maybe it was just the demo pictures I was trying to take, but her Canon lense focused much faster and easier then it did. Maybe it was me or what I was shooting, but based off that, Mama is back to her original Canon only self.

[RcMacStudent]

Thoey I’ll let you pick your battles, but I’d recommend considering the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8. I’ve used mine for awhile now and I’ve found it to be a great all-purpose zoom.

[Mr.BobDobalita]

THoey is a wise and intelligent man… keeping mama happy is of utmost importance! Why not just buy her all 3!!! 😀

[THoey]

I am back. Wife has been using the setup I bought listed higher up on this page. We have not bought any additional lenses yet, but with the holidays coming and a friends wedding in a couple weeks, I am looking to add to her equipment. The lense she currently has is:

Canon 17-55 f2.8 EFS IS USM

As mentioned above, this is a decent general purpose lense, but limited. I am looking to get her a couple other lenses to cover the zoom and macro end of the spectrum. Quality is the first priority, but as mentioned in this thread it must be Canon, and I would like to keep the total for both less than 1k, with a max 1.5k.

Looking for suggestions for lenses and online stores. I don’t mind doing the Google leg work to find something, but with all the companies and different lenses, I don’t know where to start.

[nobigdeal]

My most used lenses are my 50mm 1.8 and 70-200L lens.
The 50mm 1.8 is a relatively inexpensive lens and not the highest quality but it is a very versatile piece of glass. If you go with the 50mm 1.4 the price goes way up but so does the things you can do with it.

The 70-200L without IS can be bought for decent money right now and if you have a steady hand or use a tripod for long shots its the way to go. The IS version is an awesome lens but the cost is almost double and so is the weight.

I also have a 18-55s lens which is ok but I just use it when I want a real wide shot.

My 40d came with the 24-135 IS as the kit lens and I like it but do not use it a whole lot.

I also have a 70-300IS usm lens that I almost never use and am thinking about selling. Its a great lens up to about 220mm then it gets a bit too soft for my taste. So I may as well use the 70-200 which is tack sharp all the way.

As for where to buy I bought most of my lenses on eBay used because I am a cheap bastard.

I have bought lenses from superdigitalcity.com and have had good luck with tehm and the prices are about the lowest around.

Hope this helps some.

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