Thrilled with my Canon 30D

[mgdimo]

Just thought I'd mention here that I'm so happy I recently bought my 30D. Had a powershot A70 (also Canon) 3.2 MP and had been wanting to upgrade for a while now.

Anybody else experience this camera? For the price and the level of photography I'm into, this was perfect for me. I'm nowhere close to pro, but I loooove takin pictures! This thing is fast and versatile. I knew I'd be shopping for lenses soon, but I'm on it right away. I bought the body only and am using an older 28-80 canon lens that came with my EOS Elan. I realize it's garbagr compared to what I could get. Every photographer has told me, "get good glass" or "it's all about the lens." Soooo.......

SLR photographers: If ya had to have only one lens, ONE LENS!! What would it be and why? (brand and mm I suppose)

Also, if you could have 2 or 3 lenses, what would they be and why?

Let's discuss...

[Pastagaman]

Hi,

I got an EOS 350D and I bought a few days ago a "17-85 IS USM"(485 euros) on ebay. I'll get it tonight or tomorrow. My previous lenses were a Canon 18-55 (the one you get with the camera), and a Sigma pack with a 18-50 and a 55-200.

Humm if you have to have only one lens ? hard to say....Depends on many things but if you got the money buy an 'L' series from canon there's nothing better.

Take a look to these websites, it will help you to find THE one:

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/

http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/

The next lens I'll buy will be the 70-200 f/4 L or the "IS" one if I have the money....

Edited July 3, 2007 by Pastagaman

[mgdimo]

I do have my sights set on a 70-200 f2.8 or lower--I believe there's a f1.x of this lens. But that wouldn't be my "one" lens. I'm just happy to finally be taking the pictures I knew I could take. I like using only natural light as much as possible, so the lower f# is always good.

Anyone else?

GREG

P.S. Thanks for the websites. Very helpful so far.

[Superbaldguy]

There is no such thing as a faster 70-200mm lens - f/2.8 is the limit. Besides, isn't that optic big enough as it is?

I have yet to jump to the DSLR ship, but the 30D has a lot of features I like. I do not feel EF-S glass is a good investment as Canon may be going all-Full Frame within a couple years, and those EF-S lenses won't work on those models.

Who knows, maybe I am wrong.

[tekdroid]

I like using only natural light as much as possible, so the lower f# is always good.

I like the trend of in-camera stabilisation, rather than in-lens.

Olympus, Sony and Pentax are doing great things in their respective price ranges, IMO. It would be hard for me to ignore their cams in my next purchase.

[sector001]

i agree about the in camera stabilization, it's expensive on the lens if it has IS. I have a 350 myself with the stock lens 18-55mm, 28-135IS and the 100mm Macro lens. and a Sigma 28-300mm.

[mgdimo]

I think I recently answered my own questions about lenses. My friend Jason Chinn http://jasonchinn.com/lifestyle/8.html (website highly recommended!) let me use his Canon 24-70 f/2.8 yesterday on the Fourth of July. And he said "I always go back to this lens" before I could even ask him my standard question to photographers these days..! That, with this, http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews...ens-Review.aspx upon your fruitful recommendations Pastagaman, have lead me to the following conclusions,,,(with NO money in my pockets right now mind you!):

Lenses. If I had to have just:

1- aforementioned 24-70 f/2.8

2- aforementioned plus 70-200 f/2.8

3- add some macro that I haven't researched yet

So if I could find a cool, say, oh I don't know 15 GRAND to do all the things I want to do. For now I'll settle for the 24-70 and capture life as I see it.

On a related topic:

If I wanted to post pictures here on the gallery from Canon Zoom Browser v5.6 and my 30D, on Windows xp sp2, how would I go about sizing the jpegs appropriately to fit. Don't know the software yet.

Thanks for indulging folks,

GREG

[greenmachine]

If I wanted to post pictures here on the gallery from Canon Zoom Browser v5.6 and my 30D, on Windows xp sp2, how would I go about sizing the jpegs appropriately to fit. Don't know the software yet.

For resizing and other basic editing tasks I use the free but excellent IrfanView.

[Strungup]

Ill echo the Irfanview , cool prog.

Edited July 6, 2007 by Guitarfxr

[streaml1ne]

Anybody else experience this camera?

I have one, it's a great camera. Do you have steady hands? If not I recommend getting IS lenses. They help in all sorts of light, but really come in handy in darker situations. For a strong zoom go for Canon's 70-300 f4.5-5.6 IS, B&H in NYC has it for $600 or less. It's not an L series (pro lens), but it has several elements of the pro series, namely an ultra low dispersant glass element (UD). Generally this kind of glass is reserved for their L-series lenses. The better glass makes the 70-300 sharp as a tack and the IS really helps hand-hold shots at 300mm. If you want an all-purpose quality lens, Canon also makes a 24-105 f/4 IS. It's an L series lens so it does cost more, but it's well worth it. The lens is weather sealed and is very very well built with excellent optics. You'll pay for it though, ~$1100. I have both and am trying to get rid of my other non-Canon lenses because I simply don't use them anymore, the 70-300 and 24-105 cover every range I ever need to shoot.

Here's a good site with bench tests for many lenses:

http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/index.html

ps, If you're interested, make sure you get the 70-300, NOT the 75-300, it's a prior generation and not as good.

[Pastagaman]

For those who like the Warbirds I have uploaded some photos I took with my camera (and my new lens (EF 17-85 IS USM)) when I was in Duxford 3 weeks ago.

http://forums.minidisc.org/index.php?autom...m&album=334

There's only six photos by now but more will come...I got some problems with the gallery page currently.