Opinion on Canon Lens

trotter_inc

Hi guys,

I was thinking of buying a camera lens for my wife for Christmas this year but I don't know a whole lot about photography. She has a Canon EOS 1000D Digital SLR camera but she only has the lens which came with the camera (18 mm - 55 mm) She's currently doing a photography course and has commented quite a few times that she might buy a lens with a better zoom in the new year.

I was thinking of buying her a lens similar to this one, it's a 55 mm - 250 mm, this seems like a good increase in zoom, right? Price works out at roughly €166 including delivery.

http://cgi.ebay.ie/BRAND-NEW-CANON-EF-S-55-250mm-f-4-5-6-LENS-55-250-mm-/290500989284?pt=UK_CamerasPhoto_CameraAccessories_CameraLensesFilters_JN&hash=item43a3355164

Could I please get your opinions on the above lens please? 55 mm - 250 mm lens is a decent upgrade, right?

I've noticed that other brands of lenses such as Sigma also fit her camera. These generally seem cheaper, is it any difference in quality? I mean, a 55 mm - 250 mm lens does what it says, is there any justification for the difference in price?

Thanks for your help and opinions guys!

Carrigman

According to the feedback on this highly respected website the lens is excellent value for money:

http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=362&sort=7&cat=27&page=4

I'd say: go for it.

Be aware though - the price mentioned on that eBay page is just a starting bid. The price in the UK is approx £189 which is about €223 not including postage.

As regards Sigma lenses: any quality differences will not be discernible.

Regards,

John

trotter_inc

Carrigman wrote: »

According to the feedback on this highly respected website the lens is excellent value for money:

http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=362&sort=7&cat=27&page=4

I'd say: go for it.

Be aware though - the price mentioned on that eBay page is just a starting bid. The price in the UK is approx £189 which is about €223 not including postage.

Thanks for your reply and that link to the reviews John! I probably should have been more specific on the price, it can be bought through the sellers shop at a "Buy it now" price of roughly €170 - €175.

.Longshanks.

You need to be aware that the 55-250mm is a different type of zoom lens and not necessary a better lens. It covers an entirely different focal range.

A direct comparable but better zoom would be a 18-50mm f2.8. I'd image the zoom she already has is a 18-55 mm f3.5-4.6 or similar.

Generally speaking the lower the f number the more expensive the lens. This is because the aperture is can open wider and let more light in. This allows faster shutter speeds or to be used in lower light levels without flash. It will also give nicer / better bokeh (the amount / quality of blur to the out of focus areas).

Somebody else might explain the above better

trotter_inc

kev_Longshanks100 wrote: »

A direct comparable but better zoom would be a 18-50mm f2.8. I'd image the zoom she already has is a 18-55 mm f3.5-4.6 or similar.

The lens she currently uses has "f/5.6-3.5", the lens above has "f/4-5.6", would this be a considerable upgrade (if I can call it that)? In summary, is this a worthwhile present for her? Would it make much of a difference to the range of photos she could take? Apologies if these are really vague questions

DotOrg

trotter_inc wrote: »

The lens she currently uses has "f/5.6-3.5", the lens above has "f/4-5.6", would this be a considerable upgrade (if I can call it that)? In summary, is this a worthwhile present for her? Would it make much of a difference to the range of photos she could take? Apologies if these are really vague questions

it would increase the range of things she could take pictures of but any lens under €400 will still have a lot of limitations. She'll really only be able to use that lens in good light. she won't be able to take photos the same as professional nature photographers for example who use lenses that allow one tiny part of a photo be in focus and everything else be blurry

generally beginners always think they need to have a big long zoom lens and then after a couple of years, they discover it's not all about having really long zooms, or really wide angles. It's actually more important to have a quality lens that gives better sharpness, better depth of field.

But it depends on what she wants to take pictures of. Is it only for holiday snapshots, to shoot the kids, to shoot nights out?

maybe a better present may be a tripod, a flash, a remote control for the camera, a better camera bag, a bigger memory card, some better software to edit the photos etc etc... they would all be things i would have benefited more from when i was just starting out

joepenguin

OP the 55-250 would make for a very good present indeed.
If you want to buy her a lens that lets her take shots of stuff far away, nature etc then either that, or a similar sigma or the canon 75-300 usm would be a good shout. The benefit of the 55-250 is that is has an image stabiliser so the little shakes of your hand wont be detected by the camera.

As Kev longshanks said, an uprgrade of the lens she already has would be the sigma 18-50 f/2.8 basically this is the same amount of zoom she has but pics will be better quality and will work in darker conditions. A lot of nightclub / gig photographers would use something like this. However brand new these are north of 300 quid.

Keep in mind the 50mm 1.8 ... it is really cheap for a lens and offers amazing imge quality. Great for portraits etc. google it and see what you think.

Sounds to me like the 55-250 would be a good shout now but keep all these other bits in mind for the future.

5uspect

trotter_inc wrote: »

The lens she currently uses has "f/5.6-3.5", the lens above has "f/4-5.6", would this be a considerable upgrade (if I can call it that)? In summary, is this a worthwhile present for her? Would it make much of a difference to the range of photos she could take? Apologies if these are really vague questions

Those aperture values essentially mean that both lenses have similar light gathering abilities, around f4 to f5. More expensive lenses tend to be closer to f2.8 meaning that they can gather a couple of times more light. It also means that you can achieve that fancy out of focus look easily.

I started with the 18-55 and 55-200mm lenses, which was the predecessor of the 55-250. They're cheap plastic things but offer okay image quality and a good range of focal lengths (magnification). They're not super sharp, won't give great results in the dark (pub) but they're light, cheap and cover all the zoom lengths you'd want.

If your missus want to zoom in on far away things get the 55-250.
If she wants to take arty narrow depth of field shots then get the 50mm f1.8.

Its also plastic but is super sharp and great in low light. It's a fixed, or prime, lens like your eye so it can't zoom. So it has a fixed field of view.

It would however represent a greater opportunity for your wife to learn a lot more about photography due to its much wider aperture range. Since Ireland is so dull and the 18-55 and 55-250 are not the best in low light a lot of people tend to shoot with the aperture wide open ignoring it completely. With the dramatic narrowness of the depth of field on the 50mm you have to think about your settings more and understand what the numbers mean.