good lenses

I have a basic canon eos xs I was wondering what are some essential lenses. I want to take decent portraits and candid shots... as good a quality as you can with just the xs?

 

Do you have just the 18-55 kit lens? I would also go for a 55-250mm telephoto lens for the farther shots. As far as glass for portraits, I am still trying to find a good lens for that. maybe a 50 prime?? although I dont like the lens distortion. I am playing with a 10-22mm wide angle and I love it!!! for testing lenses, try renting first to get the feel of it and see before you go dropping the $$ on a lens you might not like.. Also shoot for lenses that are Image stabilized (IS), yea a lil more $$ but defiantly help

Just a few places..
http://www.lensrentals.com/
http://www.borrowlenses.com/
http://www.rentglass.com/shop.aspx?type=Canon

Just remember good glass helps makes the shot. I still have yet to see an amazing pic from an ebay lens... I would try to stay with the Canon lenses.

 

Every photographer should have a fast 50mm. The Canon f/1.8 is ~$80 and the Canon f/1.4 can be had for less than $400 and probably closer to $300.

For portraits anything in the 50-200mm range is good. Candids require a longer lens. Say something in the 200mm range.

I've seen folks do great things with the 100-400 zoom.

Good glass is expensive. Don't be surprised when you see prices greater than your camera body. A lot greater in some cases!

 

I do have the 18-55 mm,

what about for action shots, I've been fumbling around with the F-stop and ISO but all my movements still come out blurry.

 

go for a 50mm 1.4 i just got one for my nikon im in love with it

 

those are nice photos... thats with the 50mm? wow

 

for starters start with the shutter priority function. It will give you the best results until you really get a feel for manipulating the shutter and aperture simultaneously. It will automatically select the aperture and ISO that is idea for the shutter speed you have selected.

 

Definitely pick up the 1.8 50mm. It is less than $100. When your done playing with it and buy the better built 1.4 you can sell the 1.8 for damn near what you paid for it. As far as action goes, you need a fast lens to stop the action, same goes for indoors, lowlight situations.

 

yah dude thanks i love it

 

ok, I've been having two problems

1. Low level light
2. Action photos

For action I've been manipulating the shutter speed but still with terrible results

For low level light I've been messing with the aperature and shutter speed but to mixed results.

 

Well I am by no means a pro and barely know my way around my own camera, and not very well at that. Hopefully someone else will chime in and give you some better guidance because I wouldnt want to send you looking in the wrong direction.

Heres a picture I took this weekend while a friend and I were screwing and shooting some Big Red cans (I know, thats criminal... Big Red should never be wasted ) The pictures were taken with a Rebel XS using a 70-210mm 1:4 EF lens. The lens was pretty dirty considering it has been on the self for quite a few years, so the picture quality was so so.


This was actually taken in the sport mode. I wanted to see how good of a shot I could get by just simply throwing it into a point a shoot mode, and this is what I got. Not to bad considering. The shutter speed could have been slightly quicker, although what can you expect when you put it in a preset mode like that?

 

50mm 1.4. probably the most used lens in my kit. lately i seem to be using only prime lenses...
the 1.8 is good for the money but it feels like a toy. but you can't beat it for 80 bucks. (ebay)
check out
http://www.canonlensreview.com/

 

you sure thats a 1.4?

 

Printed on the lens is, "Canon Zoom Lens EF 70-210mm 1:4"

 

oh sweet it just doesnt look lik it from the photo

 

It was probably my awesome photography skills. lol


I've been trying to put some effort towards learning more lately, but I've just been damn busy. I got the bug though so I'm sure before long i'll have a handle on things.

 

1:4 is f4, not f1.4.

F stop is expressed as the denominator of a fraction where the fraction is a fraction of focal length of the lens. so f 1.4 is actually (1/1.4)*50mm or 35.71mm. 35.71mm is the aperture opening when the aperture of the lens is set to f1.4. Thus, the longer the focal length of the lens, the bigger the opening gets. Because the amount of glass in a circle goes up exponentially relative to the radius, fast lenses get expensive fast.

 

^^^ What he said.

Hey, bud. Actually, I'm pretty sure the 1:4 translates to an f4 lens. Here is some info on my 70-210mm...


http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/eos/EF-lenses/EF80200mmf28L/index1.htm

 

oh! i didnt notice the ":"

 

Low light and action are two areas that are tough to get good pictures without some information. The key to low light is having a very stable platform to shoot from. A beanbag tripod in a pinch, or a legit tripod for more planned shots. Set the camera's self timer to trigger the shutter after you've quit touching the camera to prevent camera shake. Set the iso to 400-800, do that, and you'll get pretty good results typically.

Action is tougher. You're going to probably have to try multiple approaches. If it's bright and outdoors, you can go with iso 400, and use aperture priority, and set it to the largest aperture you can. (smallest number) If it's still blurry, try going to iso 800. Rinse, repeat until you run out of iso. You should be able to get fine shots in bright daylight at 800 though. If you can't you may have to pan the shots with the motion. This takes lots and lots of practice to get right, so don't be discouraged if some of your shots aren't lined up in the frame where you'd like. If the action is indoors go to iso 1600 or higher and hope for the best. I'd really recommend an outboard flash for this kind of stuff though, and shooting with flash is a WHOLE nother bag of tricks in the way it interacts with exposure.