New camera! Lens questions...

On Sun, 22 May 2011 09:59:12 -0800, Jon Anderson wrote:

I don't have a lot of
money to blow on fancy lenses.

A good camera needs a good lens. This is absolute.

Many people, after sinking a lot of money into a good SLR body,
will become reluctant to invest further in good lenses. Instead,
they may become tempted by the cheaper models offered by third-party
vendors such as Tamron and others. These third-party models
are not worth the price. Buy only from the same manufacturer
that builds the camera.

If you can only afford a single lens, make it a zoom. However,
zoom lenses are the most difficult lenses to make in high quality.
Every zoom lens is destined to be inferior to a fixed focal length
counterpart, and this is especially true for zoom lenses that
attempt to cover a very long range (e.g. 20-200mm). Zoom lenses
that cover a shorter range can be made in higher quality, and
I would suggest acquiring a zoom lenses for wide angle and another
zoom for telephoto.

For aircraft photography, a zoom in the range of 70-200mm can
be obtained in high quality. For other subjects, a range of
20-60mm would also be recommended.

Close up photography can be done with some zoom lenses but
the best solution would be a dedicated fixed focal length macro
lens.

You should maybe begin with a high quality 70-200mm zoom and
as the years go by you can acquire other lenses later.

Unless you have lots of money, I would avoid fixed focal length
lenses. They may be superior in optics but zooms are far more
convenient.

Rule #1: Avoid third-party suppliers (especially their zoom
lenses).

Rule #2: Avoid extreme-range zoom lenses that promise to do
it all for you.

On 5/22/2011 9:23 PM, Chris Richardson wrote:

Rule #2: Avoid extreme-range zoom lenses that promise to do
it all for you.


I don't know, my Canon 100mm-400mm USM IS L does a tolerable job.


--
Dale G Elhardt
Cypress Ca
I welcome change. But I prefer bills.
http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?userid=7702

On Mon, 23 May 2011 15:57:48 -0700, the Legend of LAX wrote:

I don't know, my Canon 100mm-400mm USM IS L does a tolerable job.

100-400mm is not an extreme range.

By extreme range I am referring to zoom lenses that attempt to
capture both the wide angle and the telephoto focal lengths, e.g.
24-200mm. (I assume that 35-50mm is the dividing point between
wide angle and telephoto.)

100-400mm is within the telephoto focal lengths and so the design
of this lens is not that difficult (comparatively speaking.)

But any serious consumer should always check the MTF data for
the lens in question. Most manufacturers provide this data
somewhere, but independent MTF test data is the best.

Buying a lens is always something of a gamble. The on-line reviews
are not at all reliable, and any model of lens will exhibit variation
due to differences in manufacturing. Even MTF can be unreliable
because some MTF data is based on simulation rather than actual
testing.

I hate to sound pessimistic. I suppose that unless one is
obsessed with quality most high-end lenses will do a good
job.

"the Legend of LAX" wrote in message
...
On 5/22/2011 9:23 PM, Chris Richardson wrote:

Rule #2: Avoid extreme-range zoom lenses that promise to do
it all for you.


I don't know, my Canon 100mm-400mm USM IS L does a tolerable job.


--
Dale G Elhardt
Cypress Ca
I welcome change. But I prefer bills.
http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?userid=7702


No argument about great picture quality. There may be an issue with the
price of such a lens, however. I just checked on Amazon and the Canon EF
100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM is quoted at $1,649 down from a list price of
$2,700 WOW!!!!

Cheers,

Indrek Aavisto


--
Criticism is easy; achievement is difficult W.S. Churchill

On 5/24/2011 7:34 AM, Indrek wrote:


"the Legend of LAX" wrote in message
...
On 5/22/2011 9:23 PM, Chris Richardson wrote:

Rule #2: Avoid extreme-range zoom lenses that promise to do
it all for you.


I don't know, my Canon 100mm-400mm USM IS L does a tolerable job.


--
Dale G Elhardt
Cypress Ca
I welcome change. But I prefer bills.
http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?userid=7702


No argument about great picture quality. There may be an issue with the
price of such a lens, however. I just checked on Amazon and the Canon EF
100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM is quoted at $1,649 down from a list price of
$2,700 WOW!!!!

Cheers,

Indrek Aavisto


That's about right. I paid about $1400 for it a few years (holy cow! has
it been seven years already?) ago from B&H.

--
Dale G Elhardt
Cypress Ca
I welcome change. But I prefer bills.
http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?userid=7702