canon eos 300 upgrade

unit 1

Ok so it's time to bite the bullet and upgrade from my old canon eos 300 to a dslr while at the same time stepping up a gear to say a 450D

My problem is my existing lenses. My eos came with a canon ef 35-80 and ef 80-200, and I'm wondering what weight to give to these when choosing my upgrade.

1 will they be compatible with a dslr (auto focus etc)
2 they were a bundle deal so I suspect of a quality that might be exposed by a good dslr, or are the newer lenses any better (I believe some photo editors now can correct lens abberations, and wonder would this be a factor)
3 still can't get my head around the new focal length-v-old focal length, but assume new bundle deals will probable replicate my old ones, so are there alternative bundle deals that would give me a better spread overall lenswise.

Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated and I have no hangups about dumping the lot and changing to another brand, it would just be a shame to waste perfectly good lenses, and bodies only seem bad value in the main.

Thanks in advance.

hbr

unit 1 wrote: »

My problem is my existing lenses. My eos came with a canon ef 35-80 and ef 80-200, and I'm wondering what weight to give to these when choosing my upgrade.

1 will they be compatible with a dslr (auto focus etc)

AFAIK, the 350D is an EF-S camera with an APS-C sensor about the
same size as the sensor in most current Canon cameras. I would
expect your lenses to work fine with a newer body.

2 they were a bundle deal so I suspect of a quality that might be exposed by a good dslr, or are the newer lenses any better (I believe some photo editors now can correct lens abberations, and wonder would this be a factor)

A good lens will still be a good lens when you put it on a new camera.
Did they perform well on the 300D?

3 still can't get my head around the new focal length-v-old focal length, but assume new bundle deals will probable replicate my old ones, so are there alternative bundle deals that would give me a better spread overall lenswise.

As you are changing to another camera with an APS-C size sensor,
everything will be the same as it was with the 300D.

Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated and I have no hangups about dumping the lot and changing to another brand, it would just be a shame to waste perfectly good lenses, and bodies only seem bad value in the main.

I agree, it would be a pity to ditch your old lenses unless you had a
burning desire to switch to another brand. As Nikon, Pentax and
others all have similar performance to similarly priced Canon models, I can't
see any compelling reason to change.

charybdis

All Canon EF lenses are compatible with all Canon EOS cameras, your lenses will work with any of Canon's DSLRs.

The 35-80mm kit lens you have isn't a great lens and on an APS-C sensor DSLR (like the 450D) will be the equivalent of a 55-125mm lens, meaning you'd have no wide-angle and barely a normal focal length. The 18-55mm kit lens that comes with most low-end Canon DSLRs is actually pretty good and would be the equivalent of a 28-80mm lens giving it a very respectable normal zoom range.

Your 80-200mm will be the equivalent of a 125-320mm zoom lens on an APS-C DSLR. That's still a respectable zoom range, and if you used that lens much on your film camera, you'll probably be able to keep using it without much mental adjustment on a digital camera.

If you were happy with the normal zoom, tele zoom combo on your film camera, you should probably buy the 450D (or similar) with the kit lens and use that and your 80-200mm without much change to the way you shoot.

hbr wrote: »

AFAIK, the 350D is an EF-S camera with an APS-C sensor about the
same size as the sensor in most current Canon cameras. I would
expect your lenses to work fine with a newer body.



A good lens will still be a good lens when you put it on a new camera.
Did they perform well on the 300D?



As you are changing to another camera with an APS-C size sensor,
everything will be the same as it was with the 300D.



I agree, it would be a pity to ditch your old lenses unless you had a
burning desire to switch to another brand. As Nikon, Pentax and
others all have similar performance to similarly priced Canon models, I can't
see any compelling reason to change.

I'm fairly certain his current camera is a film SLR.

hbr

charybdis wrote: »

I'm fairly certain his current camera is a film SLR.

Yes. I assumed the Eos 300 was a 300D. That means that his
lenses will behave like they have a focal length of about 1.6 times
the indicated value.

unit 1

Thanks for the replies (forgot to mention the 35mm bit:o)
From yout replies my old 35-80 seems to be the weak link lenswise, so a kit with a new 18-55 seems appropiate for the best spread.
It seems crazy but a kit with an 18-55 seems to be as cheap as a body only cosidering you say it's a useful lens. Cheers.

hbr

unit 1 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies (forgot to mention the 35mm bit:o)
From yout replies my old 35-80 seems to be the weak link lenswise, so a kit with a new 18-55 seems appropiate for the best spread.
It seems crazy but a kit with an 18-55 seems to be as cheap as a body only cosidering you say it's a useful lens. Cheers.

The 18-55mm kit lens and the 80-200mm will give a useful range of focal length.
I think the 450D comes with the same 18-55mm IS lens that came with my
500D. It is a pretty decent lens. €597 for the kit from Argos. As you say,
you could pay just as much for the body alone.

baby and crumble

I have the 35-80mm on a 10D and while it's not the most sleek or sexy bit of kit, I quite like the results, to be honest... It's not an horrendous lens...

hbr

zoegh wrote: »

It's not an horrendous lens...

The expression "damned with faint praise" comes to mind

Promac

unit 1 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies (forgot to mention the 35mm bit:o)
From yout replies my old 35-80 seems to be the weak link lenswise, so a kit with a new 18-55 seems appropiate for the best spread.
It seems crazy but a kit with an 18-55 seems to be as cheap as a body only cosidering you say it's a useful lens. Cheers.

I have the 18-55mm kit lens with my 450D and I can't complain about it. I took most of my shots with it.

nobeastsofierce

hbr wrote: »

The expression "damned with faint praise" comes to mind

well as Eamon O Cuiv might say, There was no effort made to not praise the lens