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Photography Advice and Tips Thread.

Started by renfairephotog, July 06, 2008, 05:44:59 PM

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Waite

Quote from: Elennare on November 21, 2011, 11:57:36 AM
Hello wonderful photography people!  I have a question that I am hoping you can help me with.

My husband has a DSLR camera, some sort of Cannon Rebel.  He would like to get a zoom lens for it, that goes to 120mm.  I am planning to get him one for Christmas, but since I know pretty much nothing about camera hardware, I have no idea what I should be looking for.  Can any of you folks point me in the right direction to find him a good lens?  I can get more details about camera model if that's needed.

Thanks!  :)

Canon has a fairly good EF-S 18-135mm lens.  It comes out about ½ to 4x zoom. It's fairly good for a walking around lens. It has image stabilization which will help with hand hold camera shake, but not for subjects that are moving. There also is the EF-S 18-200mm, little more reach. There also is the do all EF 28-300 lot more reach and versatility and a lot of money to do it.

The faster lenses like 2.8 will allow you to shoot with a shallower depth of field. It will allow you to blur out the background a little bit better, nice if you are shooting people in a crowd and want to isolate your subject.  Also useful in low light but adds to the cost.

There are some good camera lens reviews at http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/

If you look under the EF-S reviews tab, you will find reviews of the 18-135 and the 18-200.

It would be helpful to know what lenses he has already. If he has a good zoom already then the 18-135 might be better. If he has the kit 17-55 than any of the above would be good, or just better.

Elennare

Sorry I disappeared.  Was out of town for Thanksgiving, and didn't have a chance to check back here like I thought I would.

He wants the lens primarily for taking wildlife pictures (especially birds), though I am guessing he may also want to use it to take pictures of our son at some point.

The only lens he currently has is the one that came with the camera.

Thanks for the link to the Canon lenses.  Unfortunately, I know nothing about camera lenses, so I have no idea what the various lenses there are useful for. :(
My (infrequently updated) costume blog: http://manufactorumbrandis.wordpress.com/

Merlin the Elder

That being the case, Elennare, I can safely attest to the 75-300mm Canon lens, which I personally own. Without getting into the real expensive lenses, it will do a nice job.
Living life in the slow lane
ROoL #116; the Jack of Daniels; AARP #7; SS# 000-00-0013
I've upped my standards. Now, up yours.
...and may all your babies be born naked...

Francisco Paula

Hello Elennare,

Now i am a nikon shooter but the lenses should be similar in sizes just make sure you get canon mounts and any good camera store should know there mounts.

The 75 to 300 is an awsome lense works great. Now i just switched to an 18 to 250 and it took place of two lenses for me. It covers you when the subject is close and also when they are far away. Also some of the off brand names like Tamron and Sigma are good lenses just not as expensive as the Canon brand lenses.

For an example i shot these shots this weekend at a wolf sanctuary with my 18 to 250 Sigma lense. https://picasaweb.google.com/Hikadaf/TurkeyToss2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCNjvpfaYxbHoKQ#

Oh the cost was between $500 and $600 for that lense. The one Merlin the elder is talking in the Tamron should be several hundred cheaper.

dbaldock

Quote from: Merlin the Elder on November 28, 2011, 11:12:34 AM
That being the case, Elennare, I can safely attest to the 75-300mm Canon lens, which I personally own. Without getting into the real expensive lenses, it will do a nice job.

I agree with Merlin.

The kit lens is probably a wide-to-medium-telephoto zoom.  So, in order to take photos of birds (unless they're all Emus or Ostriches), he will want a lens that can cover the range from above the kit lens, to 300 - 400mm.

The 70 - 300 is a good choice, and the 100 - 400 has more reach but costs more than twice as much.
$ 650 MSRP Canon 70 - 300 IS USM
$1700 MSRP Canon 100 - 400 L IS USM
Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people... -anonymous

Merlin the Elder

David, the Canon lens I have is considerably cheaper at $235 MSRP: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM. Mine does not have the image stabilizer. I've never had any difficulty.
Living life in the slow lane
ROoL #116; the Jack of Daniels; AARP #7; SS# 000-00-0013
I've upped my standards. Now, up yours.
...and may all your babies be born naked...

Elennare

Thank you all for the wonderful advice.  I am going to venture to the camera store in the next couple of days.  I'll be sure to let you know what he thinks of the lens after the holidays (still not quite sure which one I'm going to get, but I think probably the one Merlin suggested). :)
My (infrequently updated) costume blog: http://manufactorumbrandis.wordpress.com/

Elennare

Thank you once again to everyone who helped me pick a lens.  I ended up going with the Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM.  I got the last one the store had. :)  My husband was very pleased with it, and VERY surprised.  So, thank you for helping me get him the perfect Christmas gift!

I was hoping to have a picture to share with you, but he hasn't had time to take anything other than the few crappy "lets see what the new lens can do" pictures right after he opened it (crappy, because of poor lighting and the house being a mess, not because of issues with the lens :)).  If I waited until I have a nice picture taken with the lens, I'll probably be thanking you all in December.  ;D  But, when he does get some nice wildlife shots with it, I'll be sure to post one.

My (infrequently updated) costume blog: http://manufactorumbrandis.wordpress.com/

Merlin the Elder

He should really enjoy that lens. I've shot some wildlife with mine. Had some deer that liked to graze in our back yard and I got some fair pix of them.
Living life in the slow lane
ROoL #116; the Jack of Daniels; AARP #7; SS# 000-00-0013
I've upped my standards. Now, up yours.
...and may all your babies be born naked...

Brother Gregory

Have a question what is a good program to use for editing pictures? I have a digital camera that is a Nikon 12 meg pictures.

Merlin the Elder

I've used Adobe PhotoShop for years. Some cameras come with a lite version of PhotoShop, though I couldn't tell you the exact differences.
Living life in the slow lane
ROoL #116; the Jack of Daniels; AARP #7; SS# 000-00-0013
I've upped my standards. Now, up yours.
...and may all your babies be born naked...

Brother Gregory

Thanks Merlin. I brought an copy of Photoshop Elements 9 last year and this looks like it will work just, curious what others were using.

Merlin the Elder

I think PS Elements will do all but the most critical work. The full version may support additional filters and things.  If you aren't a pro-photographer, you should be fine, and if you are, you would already have the full version or something similar.
Living life in the slow lane
ROoL #116; the Jack of Daniels; AARP #7; SS# 000-00-0013
I've upped my standards. Now, up yours.
...and may all your babies be born naked...

Waite

Quote from: Brother Gregory on February 03, 2012, 09:57:32 AM
Have a question what is a good program to use for editing pictures? I have a digital camera that is a Nikon 12 meg pictures.

    I would seriously look into getting Adobe Lightroom. It will do just about everything you want. It's set up into four parts. Library, to sort, rate, crop, and add metadata to photos. Also links up to popular photo sharing sites, Facebook, Flickr, Smugmug. Develop, has your photo adjustment tools. It does a great job of reducing the noise in high ISO photos. Slideshow, makes slideshows you can add music to and save as PDF or a video file. Also has a print and web building options. Really the best part is that it's all non destructive. The program creates a catalog file that holds all the file changes.  The original file is never manipulated. There are some really great plugins also, Nik makes a great black and white plugin.
     You can also try before you buy, they have a 15 day trial on it. I like it a lot.

Mandrake Von Sets

You could also try Photoshop.com.  It has the basic tools and you'll be able to share pictures through the same site.
Wil