I recently had a similar dilema. I wanted some good quality lenses but I didn't want anything too big or heavy cause I know that I wouldn't carry them with me and therfore wouldn't use them.


1)Lens for taking on vacation...

I went for the EF 24-105 L IS USM A lot of the guys in the UK recommended this lens and I took it on holiday with me. A very good all round lens. A bit on the heavy side.

2)Lens for shooting artistic photos ......

I got an EF 50mm f1.4 and I have used this a lot more than I thought I would. The quality is very good. I have also been considering getting the EF-S 60mm USM Macro.

3)Fisheye....

I recently got an EF-S 10-22. Not used it much so far but being an EF-S lens it doesn't weigh a lot.


(I also bought an EF 70-300 DI IS USM Zoom lens mainly because of its compact size.)

 

correct. "Zoom" means a range of focal lengths. A smaller range is typically a better lens, image-wise. Something crazy like 20mm-300mm is going to be expensive, heavy, and slow with lots of distortion and color fringing while not being very sharp.

 

there are zooms with macro capabilities. A macro lens basically has the ability to focus up close, and typically has a macro setting that magnifies the image. You can acheive the same afect with "macro tubes" which move the lens farther from the body, effectively magnifying the image. I don't know that such a thing (macro tubes) is offered for autofocus systems, however.

A macro lens doesn't need to be a zoom to work. A zoom with a macro ability is fine, but you will get better images with a prime, and require less light.

 

Thanks. I noticed the 10mm-1000mm (exaggeration ) are more expensive, because they have more parts in them. I guess its better to have a number of lenses, one for each job. Basically the fixed lenses....the zoom is you moving closer to the subject.

 

[QUOTE=no_really,Dec 13 2006, 04:23 AM] there are zooms with macro capabilities.

 

[QUOTE=NFRs2000NYC,Dec 13 2006, 03:25 AM] For my idiot brain....when you say "prime" what do you mean?

 

[QUOTE=NFRs2000NYC,Dec 13 2006, 02:14 AM] OK........so let me narrow this down.....

1)Lens for taking on vacation...must be able to zoom a bit (not a telephoto), take good pics of people on a backdrop....like the eiffel tower or something, you know....regular, normal people vacation pics.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller...rch&Q=&ci=12039

Please link me to the best lens you think would be for this application.

2)Lens for shooting artistic photos, my s2000 photoshoots (especially at night), maybe flowers, etc.

 

My turn for a newbie question!

The first two lenses you recommend in the above post are a 35mm and a 20mm. I always thought that was the length of the lens, so why does the 35mm look so much shorter than the 20mm?

Also, i'm coming from the film world, and my favorite "every day" lens for my camera (Minolta X-700) is a 50mm 1.8. I notice you're recommending shorter lenses. Is there a difference between fim/digi in this respect? Or do I just prefer a longer lens?

thanks!

 

focal length is apparently the distance from the center of the lens to the film plane.

In modern lenses, the actual focal length of a lens isn't the same as the distance from the lens body's center to the film plane. I'm not sure why. Lens designs for an SLR need to deal with the fact that there is a mirror in the way, whereas before the SLR, there was no reason the rear of the lens couldn't be very close to the film plane. I'm guessing that lens designs using multiple elements in multiple groups deviate far enough from the idea of a simple lens that the focal length calculation isn't as straightforward as measuring with a ruler.

The reason I am suggesting shorter lenses is because he is buying a DSLR with an APS-C sized sensor, which is smaller than 35mm. Basically, a single 35mm frame is 1.6 times the size of the APS-C sensor. So you multiply the focal length by 1.6 to arrive at the 35mm film equivalent.

A 20mm mounted to a 30D results in an image roughly similar to what you'd get with a 32mm lens on your X700. It's really just the center part cut out of your 35mm film frame taken with a 20mm lens and blown up. On the one hand, it captures the part of the frame where most lenses have the most detail and the least distortion, but on the other hand, it means the ability of a lens to resolve detail is even more important, and getting a true fisheye is difficult. Because you still have the mirror in the way, designing a lens that has an extremely short focal length is probably quite the exercise for optical engineers.

 

Ahhh, that all makes sense. Thanks.

So basically a 35mm on a dslr with a sensor the same size as a 30D (APS-C) is approx. equivalent to the 50mm on the end of my film camera. Cool!