Need Help with Camera Equip for DD/Christmas

[weewuvvdisney]

Our daughter has a Canon Rebel T51 and we would like to buy her a wide angle lens for Christmas.

I have been trying to figure out the right lens..... any suggestions?

Tks,




Janna

 

[havoc315]

What lenses does she currently have? How wide does she want to go?
If she interested in fisheye or a normal perspective?

 

[nbaresejr]

Adorama has the Canon 10-22 UWA on sale right now. Its the cheapest i have seen it and people say its the best UWA you can get on a Canon Camera

http://www.adorama.com/CA1022AFSU.html


I have the Sigma 10-20mm UWA and really like it. Corner sharpness is a little soft but at the time it was a good 300-400 cheaper then the canon. Now that the price is much closer I would probably purchase the canon.

 

[PoohLover78]

I had a chance to test out the Canon 10-22mm on my 60D on Wednesday. I absolutely loved it. It's crisp and easy to handle. There's a bit of vignetting at 10mm on the crop lens but it's only marginal. I'm currently looking into getting it for myself so I'd definitely recommend it.

 

[mom2rtk]

I had the Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 and loved it. But I sold it and got the Canon 10-22 and loved that too. But I really did miss the 2.8. So I sold it back and got the Tokina again.

You won't go wrong with either. But if she does any low light shooting, I'd definitely go with the Tokina.

 

[weewuvvdisney]

She currently has two lenses... One is 75-300mm and the other is 18 - 55mm.

She is a first year photography student and we were just thinking of getting her a lens for Christmas. She hasn't asked for one and we don't really don't want to question her. We want to surprise her.

I went on line and there are so many lenses to look at. I'm really not sure which would be a good option for her.

Thanks in advance,



Janna

ps we live in Canada so don't have all the stores that are in the US

 

[mom2rtk]

The other sort of lens I would consider would be an upgrade to her kit lens, something with a 2.8 constant aperture. I have the Canon version, although its drawback is its hefty pricetag.

Sigma and Tamron have versions for less.

Also look around used equipment forums. These are for crop sensor cameras and most will sell them when they upgrade to full frame.

 

[havoc315]

She currently has two lenses... One is 75-300mm and the other is 18 - 55mm.

She is a first year photography student and we were just thinking of getting her a lens for Christmas. She hasn't asked for one and we don't really don't want to question her. We want to surprise her.

I went on line and there are so many lenses to look at. I'm really not sure which would be a good option for her.

Thanks in advance,



Janna

ps we live in Canada so don't have all the stores that are in the US

Most good lenses need to be bought in specialty stores or online.

If I were you, I'd ask her what type of lens she wants. As a photography student, she might really prefer a high quality prime lens, or an upgraded kit lens. Yes, she already has an 18-55 --- But for example, she might want the vastly superior 17-55/2.8. They may sound the same, but they aren't at all.

She may get great benefit from a 50mm 1.4 prime.

Or maybe you are going down the right alley, and she would love an ultra-wide.

I will say I own about 10 lenses, and the ultrawide was one of the last I added to my collection. It's a fun lens for landscapes, and I've gotten some great shots with it. (I use the Tamron 10-24, affordable with a good range. But the Tokina 11-16 is a better lens overall). That said, my upgraded kit lens and my primes are more important and more useful to me than an ultrawide.

My progression... and the progression for many enthusiast photographers, often goes something like this:

1. Kit 18-55 lens.
2. Realize you sometimes want more reach, add Telephoto zoom.... 55-250, 70-200, 70-300, etc.
3. Want something for low light, and want to play with narrow depth of field, add Prime lens, often a 50 1.8.
4. Realize that the kit lens doesn't give you the quality of your 50/1.8 prime, so add Upgraded kit lens and/or more prime lenses.
5. Your interests start to get refined... You consider "specialty lenses" like a true 1:1 macro lens (if you want to try photographing closeups of bugs and flowers), or an ultrawide (for massive landscapes and some other uses), or a fisheye (for a unique perspective), or upgraded telephoto zooms (you love the reach of your telephoto zoom, but wish it was the quality of your upgraded kit lens!)

 

[Skywise]

10-22 EFs or the 17-55 EFs f2.8

The 17-55 seems like it would be similar to the 18-55 (which I presume is the lens that came with the T5i) but it's a much MUCH better lens.

The 50mm f1.8 is good too but it's all going to depend on her shooting tastes.

 

[Pixel Dust]

I had the Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 and loved it. But I sold it and got the Canon 10-22 and loved that too. But I really did miss the 2.8. So I sold it back and got the Tokina again.

You won't go wrong with either. But if she does any low light shooting, I'd definitely go with the Tokina.

Another vote for the Tokina. I have this lens too, but for a Nikon. It's a very sharp lens. Disney is also a great place to play with uwa lenses.

If she wants shoot dark rides at Disney, I would recommend the Canon 35mm f/2.

 

[photo_chick]

She currently has two lenses... One is 75-300mm and the other is 18 - 55mm.

She is a first year photography student and we were just thinking of getting her a lens for Christmas. She hasn't asked for one and we don't really don't want to question her. We want to surprise her.

I went on line and there are so many lenses to look at. I'm really not sure which would be a good option for her.

Thanks in advance,



Janna

ps we live in Canada so don't have all the stores that are in the US

Unless she has expressed a serious desire for a specific lens I would get her a gift card. For me, while working on my BFA in photography primes were a lot more valuable to my work. With just the two entry level lenses in her bag, and one of them being the horrid 75-300 (I have this lens and it truly is awful) there are a lot of other holes to fill in the bag before I'd tell a first year photo student to go wide angle. The first lenses I'd tell them to look at are a 30 or 35mm (look at the Sigma), an 85mm and possibly the Canon 100mm macro. The 50mm f/1.8 is always good to add to the bag and I'd go for it over the 50mm f/1.4 if you're just building your glass collection. Of course if you want to make her really, really popular among her peers and be the best parents ever drop the cash for the 24-105 f/4 L. It's the lens many college photo students with limited gear lust after and the first L a lot of us get. But you could buy 2 or 3 primes for what it cost new.

It all comes down to personal shooting style though and while these would be my choices someone else might make totally different choices.

 

[PoohLover78]

My progression... and the progression for many enthusiast photographers, often goes something like this:

1. Kit 18-55 lens.
2. Realize you sometimes want more reach, add Telephoto zoom.... 55-250, 70-200, 70-300, etc.
3. Want something for low light, and want to play with narrow depth of field, add Prime lens, often a 50 1.8.
4. Realize that the kit lens doesn't give you the quality of your 50/1.8 prime, so add Upgraded kit lens and/or more prime lenses.
5. Your interests start to get refined... You consider "specialty lenses" like a true 1:1 macro lens (if you want to try photographing closeups of bugs and flowers), or an ultrawide (for massive landscapes and some other uses), or a fisheye (for a unique perspective), or upgraded telephoto zooms (you love the reach of your telephoto zoom, but wish it was the quality of your upgraded kit lens!)

Sorry if this is a bit off topic but I just read this and thought you very talking about me... That's EXACTLY how it worked for me!

1. Kit lens
2. Added 50-200, then 70-300 zoom
3. Added the 50 prime and suddenly noticed how sucky the kit lens is, even compared to the 70-300 which I just got this spring XD
4. Added a 17-50/f2.8 and ditched the kit lens last week
5. Tested the Canon 10-22 this week and I damn want it!

To the OP - since your daughter is a photography student, I second and third what others have said that an upgraded kit lens might be better than an ultrawide as she will get more use out of it than out of a ultrawide or even fisheye.

 

[havoc315]

Sorry if this is a bit off topic but I just read this and thought you very talking about me... That's EXACTLY how it worked for me!

1. Kit lens
2. Added 50-200, then 70-300 zoom
3. Added the 50 prime and suddenly noticed how sucky the kit lens is, even compared to the 70-300 which I just got this spring XD
4. Added a 17-50/f2.8 and ditched the kit lens last week
5. Tested the Canon 10-22 this week and I damn want it!

To the OP - since your daughter is a photography student, I second and third what others have said that an upgraded kit lens might be better than an ultrawide as she will get more use out of it than out of a ultrawide or even fisheye.

lol.. As I said, I think it's a very common progression.

Ironically, next week, I'll be working backwards. I decided to rent a fullframe camera to test out over Thanksgiving (The Sony A99). But since some of my lenses are crop lenses..
I won't even have a "kit" zoom lens. I'll be working with a 50mm prime, 85mm prime, 135mm prime, and maybe a telephoto zoom. (70-210f4 of 70-300). While I could have rented a regular length zoom, I kind of want to just see how well the camera matches my current lenses to help me decide whether to buy.

You'll see soon -- once your lens collection feels "complete"-- you start looking for other upgrades. (better flash perhaps.. better software for post-processing).. and eventually, "hmm.... maybe full frame.."