What lens for a Canon Digitial Rebel XT?

[janakaybravo]

I'm new to photography, want to get a Canon Digital Rebel XT. Does the lens that comes with it, the 18-55 mm good enough for reef tank pictures? How about getting just the camera body and a different lens?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rockitmakr]

The lens that comes with it is Ok but if you want to take nice close-up's you will need a macro lens, I love mine.

:beer:

 

[Blue Deuce]

In addition to a Macro lens you also need a sturdy tripod. I use and always recommened the Canon 100mm f 2.8 which doubles as a very fine portrait lens. Sigma makes a good one as well and is a tad bit cheaper. Using a remote shutter release always helps to.

 

[janakaybravo]

I was looking at the Tamron 28-300 mm. Would that be a good lens for macro? My problem is I don't understand the meaning of the numbers, such as 18-55 mm, which is the kit lens for that camera. I was thinking of just buying the camera body and a good lens for macro and all around. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[divecj5]

All great questions and I'm sure that others can elaborate a little more on suggestions as well. Without writing a book on Aperature (what the F2.8 for example is) and shutter speeds, the mm stands for millimeters. This is just like the magnification on a telescope or microscope. A 50mm lens is considered a "normal" lens....basically meaning that when you look in the viewfinder, you see basically what your eye would see without the lens. Anything "wider" (less than 50mm) is considered a wide angle lens (you are able to see a lot more through the lens). Anything "more" than 50mm (for instance 100mm) is considered a zoom lens. There are all sorts of combinations out there from the Canon 17-40mm to 70-200mm to 500mm Bigmas (made by Sigma). These are considered zooms where say a 100mm is considered a Prime lens (basically you can't zoom in or out obviously).

I don't want to go into any more since I'm sure that that much might be confusing as it is.

What I would suggest doing (and what I did when I got my canon 300d) was just use the "kit" lens (18-55mm) as your normal walking around lens and just learn the overall basics of the camera. Maybe buy or just read online the basics of aperature, shutter speed, ISO, etc. and go from there. The first zoom lens that I got was a sigma I believe 55-300mm lens that also had a macro setting. As I gained in experience and just like this hobby, I ended up buying high quality glass and phasing out my other lenses.

I hope that helps a little and hopefully others will comment as well with some more suggestions.

Congrats on the new camera and welcome to another expensive hobby

 

[spanglish]

I got a Canon 35mm-80mm with the camera when I bought
the film version of the Rebel. So, when I bought the digital
last year I bought a tamron 80-300 for less than $100.00.

I have been shocked at how expensive a nice macro (specifically
canon 100mm f 2.8) compared to others. they are about $500.00

 

[spanglish]

Be careful of online camera vendors ( especially some of the
google advertised links ) check out their reviews, there are
a couple that will blow your mind how bad the reviews are.
I had a good experience buying my digital rebel on amazon

 

["Umm fish?"]

If you want to do macro, I would suggest getting a tripod, too. For the best macro shots, look for as heavy a tripod as you can find for stability. This is where you are in luck: most macro photographers backpack their equipment out to nature and so want the lightest tripods they can find. So, the heavy tripods are really relatively cheap.

Good luck!

 

[Im14abeer]

Just a note on the 100mm canon macro. This lens is as close as you can get to L series glass, minus the red stripe. It's pricey to us working stiffs, but it is the tool for the job.

 

[janakaybravo]

Thanks for the short education! Now it makes sense, under 50 mm is wide, over 50 is zoom. So a 100 mm would be zoom only. I was thinking of the Tamron too because it's a good price for all around. I'll probably just get the kit lens until I get good at that, and then graduate on up.

On the tripod, do you need it because it's hard to keep your hands still? I know that's a dumb question, but when I try to take pictures with my phone, I'm following the fish with my phone camera.

 

[spanglish]

I agree that a tripod is a must. My best shots so far are with
the camera set on Av. This results in slow shutter speed and
increases depth of field. I also use the timer option so my
pressing the button doesn't shake the camera.

 

["Umm fish?"]

On the tripod, do you need it because it's hard to keep your hands still?

Yep. I've had macro shots that went on for longer than 1 minute. I can't even keep still for a second, much less a minute.

By the way, I take all of my macros with a Canon 100mm/f2.8. It is just a great, great lens. Absolutely fantastic!

 

[Im14abeer]

Semantics maybe, but longer focal lenght lenses are "telephoto." Zoom means that the lens has a variable focal lenght. 18-55mm for example. The opposite is a single focal lenght lens, called a prime, ie 100mm. And 1/60sec. is about as slow an exposure as most people can handhold. Pretty much makes a tripod a must.