T3i QVC Today Special Value + rookie = ??

[lucy0558]

Greetings,

QVC has the T3i 18MP with EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 and EF-S 55mm-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II. It also comes with the charger, strap, bag, battery USB. The price is $749.94, free S&H.

DSL will be new to me; but we are taking a DCL to Alaska as well as a trip to Italy in 2014. My question is before I take this leap....is this a good package for the price?

I'm such a newbie; what would the 55mm-250mm lens be the equivilant to in point & shoot "zoom" terms?

Thanks much!

 

[hakepb]

Literally, the difference between 55 and 250 is 4.5x
But your total system reach is 18-250 which is 13.9x

But you really need to compare 35mm equivilent reach numbers. Most point and shoots provide 35mm equivilent numbers.

As a Canon crop body, you multiply the lens mm by 1.6 to get the 35mm(full frame) field of view. That 250mm max zoom is a 400mm equivilent max reach.

The 10x, 20x, 30x.. Numbers you see advertized are misleading, because how far you reach really depends on your starting point. It used to be that PnS cameras started at ~35mm so a 10x zoom got you 350mm reach. Now 24-28mm is a common starting point so a 10x camera only zooms to a 240-280 range.

I think those may be decent lenses, but in past posts, QVC may not really have the best system deal, if you shop around.

 

[cisobe]

That seems to be the going rate for that package, Amazon has it for a few cents cheaper, but $749 looks about right. The T3i is about 2 generations old, but still a good camera.

In terms of the lens equivalence to a point and shoot. I'm assuming you mean something like 10x zoom or rating like that? The 18-55 is approximately a 3x zoom, and the 55-250 is roughly a 4.5x zoom. Heres the confusing part... The actual full frame equivalent for the 18-55 and 55-250 is 28.8-88 and 88-400 (due to the crop factor of the sense or in the T3i).

A lot of point and shoots give you a full frame equivalent focal range which typically run around 28-80mm for typical 3x cameras sometime a little wider or a little longer. Superzoom point and shoots typically are around 28-300x for 10x or 28-420 for 15x. These are approximate ranges.

Hope this helps...

 

[lucy0558]

Thank you for the information, that was helpful. I'm going to give it a try and shoot like crazy to see if it is for me.