£150 Walkabout Lens

willbaroo

willbaroo

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William
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Hey guys, birthday money to spend.

Not fussed if its 2nd/3rd hand.

Have a Canon 400D and would love a new lens to replace my 18-55mm Kit lens.

Any ideas? or should I not bother with a budget of £150.

Ideally would like a decent quality lens for walking about the pits/doing a bit of landscape.
 
I was gonna recommend Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 but it's more than your bugget. It's a great lens when I used with my 40D. Very sharp. A good upgrade from kit lens. You can find second hand for about £200ish.

Review at photozone. :)
 
For £150 you are not going to get a huge improvement
For about £170 or thereabouts you may be able to get a Sigma 17-70
For a bit over £200 you can get the Canon 17-85mm IS
I think the £250 price point will get you the excellent Tamron 17-50F2.8
 
You could also consider a Sigma 18-50mm f2.8, although probably closer to £200.

But, if you can scrape together some extra pennies, the f2.8 aperture is great for indoor photos without flash.
 
Sigma 17-70 2nd hand.
 
The IS kit lens is actually very good and a step up in quality, but you perhaps won't feel like you've gained much.

EF-S 17-85 is a really nice lens to use, great range, nicely made, and has IS. There's at least one in the For Sale section now.

One of the benefits of using Canon lenses is that you can fix any slight CA, vignetting and distortion by shooting Raw and running the files through the DPP software that came with the camera. You'll probably need to upgrade your version though, which is a free download from Canon-Europe site.

Review of the 17-85 here, demonstrating what the DPP corrections can do.
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/canon_17-85_4-5p6_is_usm_c16/
 
HoppyUK said:
The IS kit lens is actually very good and a step up in quality, but you perhaps won't feel like you've gained much.

EF-S 17-85 is a really nice lens to use, great range, nicely made, and has IS. There's at least one in the For Sale section now.

One of the benefits of using Canon lenses is that you can fix any slight CA, vignetting and distortion by shooting Raw and running the files through the DPP software that came with the camera. You'll probably need to upgrade your version though, which is a free download from Canon-Europe site.

Review of the 17-85 here, demonstrating what the DPP corrections can do.
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/canon_17-85_4-5p6_is_usm_c16/
Click to expand...

I'll second that, I use one as a walk about lens as well as for other work, very versatile and good quality. Theres one for sale on the forum and a few second hand on eBay right now.
Trev
 
If you can stretch to £200, I'd give a HUGE thumbs up to the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8. Either that or the sigma 18-50 f/2.8. For anything less, I don't think you'll really be seeing any noticeable improvement in image quality or functionality. Personally I didn't see much point in the sigma 17-70mm, it's only f/2.8 at the wide end, and unless you need the extra reach there seems little point.

If you NEED to replace your kit lens right now, then you could always go for the IS version of your kit lens, it's a cracker especially for the price. However, if you need something that can cope with low light (as I did), I'd save for a little longer and get the sigma or tamron f/2.8.

Chris
 
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