First DSLR - Question& Ideas

I had the Sigma 30 1.4 EX DC HSM when I still had my 400D and it was excellent... after I sent back the first copy that I bought from WEX back because it was horribly soft. Sigma's quality control at the time wasn't always the best so if you're unlucky you could end up with a dud copy that doesn't outperform a zoom. Make sure you test the lens and can return it if you're not happy with it. If you can get a good copy it is a bargain at around £150.

I also had the Canon EF 35 f/2 MkI at some point and it was OK-ish but not as good as the Sigma at wide apertures.

I recently bought the Canon EF 35 f/2 IS USM and I found it to be excellent but will cost around £350 second hand.

Although the YongNuo tests for the 50 f/1.8 lens look good, I personally would probably steer clear of it because companies like Sigma and YongNuo reverse engineer Canon's protocols for driving the lens and as a result the lens might work on existing Canon bodies but might stop working on future bodies or be problematic. There are many old Sigma lenses around that will work on Canon film bodies but will not work on digital (the lens suggested by Alistair will be OK though). One of the great things about the Canon system is that any Canon EF lens will work on any Canon EF or EF-S mount body - film or digital. The second reason is resale value: if you buy a Canon EF 50 f/1.8 II or Canon EF 50 f/1.8 STM second hand for a good price, you can probably resell it for pretty much the same amount of money if you conclude that another lens would serve you better. As mentioned before in the thread the Canon EF 50 f/1.8 STM is better than the Canon EF 50 f/1.8 II but it is also a bit more expensive.

So what should you get? Given the stated budget of £250, I still think a combination of Canon 40D + Canon EF 50 f/1.8 (II or STM) + Canon EF-S 18-55 kit lens makes sense. The Canon kit lens doesn't have great build quality but it has pretty good optics, especially the later versions. If you find that the 50 f/1.8 prime is too "long" for what you are trying to do, you can sell it and put the money towards one of the 30/35mm primes. If you find it is too "short" then you can consider the EF 85mm f/1.8 as your next purchase. In the meantime it will enable you to achieve shallow Depth Of Field by shooting at f/1.8 and to appreciate the difference between a prime and a zoom (both benefits and drawbacks). It will also mean that you stay within the £250 budget.

You might try to put a "Wanted" thread in the Classifieds because you can often buy equipment slightly cheaper on TP than from eBay or a dealer.
 
The one I linked to on ebay here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SIGMA-18-...e&clk_rvr_id=1182366392462&afsrc=1&rmvSB=true
is £120, which even though it's £20 over your £100 budget, it's very good value at that price.

As an alternative, here's a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 that's on auction for less than £100 with less than 24hrs to go, but it may well creep over the £100 price.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tamron-SP...639053?hash=item4d558ac30d:g:j3sAAOSwr7ZW7oY-

Apart from those, you're best bet is the Canon 50mm f1.8 STM. Here's one for £85: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/canon-ef-...765658?hash=item25d173039a:g:hAAAAOSwt5hYe6Ji
 
maarten.dhaese said:
I had the Sigma 30 1.4 EX DC HSM when I still had my 400D and it was excellent... after I sent back the first copy that I bought from WEX back because it was horribly soft. Sigma's quality control at the time wasn't always the best so if you're unlucky you could end up with a dud copy that doesn't outperform a zoom. Make sure you test the lens and can return it if you're not happy with it. If you can get a good copy it is a bargain at around £150.

I also had the Canon EF 35 f/2 MkI at some point and it was OK-ish but not as good as the Sigma at wide apertures.

I recently bought the Canon EF 35 f/2 IS USM and I found it to be excellent but will cost around £350 second hand.

Although the YongNuo tests for the 50 f/1.8 lens look good, I personally would probably steer clear of it because companies like Sigma and YongNuo reverse engineer Canon's protocols for driving the lens and as a result the lens might work on existing Canon bodies but might stop working on future bodies or be problematic. There are many old Sigma lenses around that will work on Canon film bodies but will not work on digital (the lens suggested by Alistair will be OK though). One of the great things about the Canon system is that any Canon EF lens will work on any Canon EF or EF-S mount body - film or digital. The second reason is resale value: if you buy a Canon EF 50 f/1.8 II or Canon EF 50 f/1.8 STM second hand for a good price, you can probably resell it for pretty much the same amount of money if you conclude that another lens would serve you better. As mentioned before in the thread the Canon EF 50 f/1.8 STM is better than the Canon EF 50 f/1.8 II but it is also a bit more expensive.

So what should you get? Given the stated budget of £250, I still think a combination of Canon 40D + Canon EF 50 f/1.8 (II or STM) + Canon EF-S 18-55 kit lens makes sense. The Canon kit lens doesn't have great build quality but it has pretty good optics, especially the later versions. If you find that the 50 f/1.8 prime is too "long" for what you are trying to do, you can sell it and put the money towards one of the 30/35mm primes. If you find it is too "short" then you can consider the EF 85mm f/1.8 as your next purchase. In the meantime it will enable you to achieve shallow Depth Of Field by shooting at f/1.8 and to appreciate the difference between a prime and a zoom (both benefits and drawbacks). It will also mean that you stay within the £250 budget.

You might try to put a "Wanted" thread in the Classifieds because you can often buy equipment slightly cheaper on TP than from eBay or a dealer.
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Thank you so much

I can't post in the classifieds as I haven't enough posts or been here long enough :(
 
Look for a used canon 55-250 mm is lens there are several versions but it's a cheap all rounder lens that shoots way above its price point ,and will give you image stabilisation . .it will take a couple of months to get used to your camera and lens set ups but it's a easy learning curve and help is always to hand especially as you have actually listened and acted on the advise .

Please order a CF or compact flash card ,not a sf as that's what your writing and you might order the wrong type .and get a sd card instead .

Your next problem will be in processing your shots unless you intend to shoot j.peg only ,again let us know .


And while tonight has been on the subject of lenses don't forget or you probably don't know you can get old film era lenses to work on your camera with a adaptor ,once you know what your doing ,( a few months away) but for instance I have a 135mm f2.8 lens that gives outstanding performance ,but it's manual metering and manual focus so you really need that experience to use them ,the beauty of them is mine cost the vast sum of £14 for a real quality bit of glass .something for the future though
 
Hi Leah, with regard to your post about seeing another dSLR with kit lens for cheaper I wouldn't worry too much. As has been said the 40D is a good camera and the fact that it was a higher end body should mean that it is easier to use and will handle better. Usually the entry level dSLR will have their features available only using quite long winded menus whereas the higher end ones have more features available at the touch of a button. Much less fiddly.

As for lens, there are a lot of good suggestions here. Ultimately you have listed a variety of interests and you would probably be best suited to a standard zoom so that you have the flexibility of more focal lengths. If you could stretch to the f2.8 constant aperture zoom you would notice the difference but if not you can probably sell a kit zoom later and recoup much of the cost to put towards a better lens.

The prime lenses are going to offer a faster aperture and better quality glass but are less flexible. (Try zooming in on your phone camera and just using that focal length to take all your photos). Sometimes you need a normal field of view or even wide angle. Especially if you are working with limited space and can't back away from the subject of your photo to get it all into the shot.
 
mdjchat said:
The prime lenses are going to offer a faster aperture and better quality glass but are less flexible. (Try zooming in on your phone camera and just using that focal length to take all your photos). Sometimes you need a normal field of view or even wide angle. Especially if you are working with limited space and can't back away from the subject of your photo to get it all into the shot.
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I agree entirely about not having only the 50mm prime, it's not helpful and why I suggested getting a cheap std zoom too to learn on.

But (honest I'm not being picky) this attitude to why we use different lenses can hold us back when we're learning.

Different focal length lenses shouldn't be chosen based on 'how much space we have', sometimes they should be chosen based on how close we can get, or want to get (but that's a different issue).

But much more importantly, focal length changes the relationship between a subject and it's surroundings. We choose a focal length to make the picture we have in our heads. It's one of those 'aah' moments when this clicks, in the same way we stop thinking about the amount of light, and start to think about the quality of light.

It goes to the heart of making photographs not taking pictures.

Edit to add:
When you give a camera to someone who isn't 'a photographer' to take a picture, they root themselves to the spot, point the camera in the direction of the subject and twist the zoom back and forth looking for 'the nice picture'.

A photographer, should start with the right light, then the setting, the create the composition by changing the relationship of the elements therein by moving himself, his subjects and by selection of focal length.
 
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Okay. Haha great advice from everyone. How about I go the one I mentioned above, Canon EFS 55-250mm, and then the 50mm 1.8 STM? And then, I will save for a 35mm?
 
ABTog said:
Congratulations on your new purchase.
The 40D is a good place to start.
As for the lens, the Canon 50mm 1.8 STM is going to be much better than the Yonguo, the build quality and focus speed will be a big improvement. It'll be worth the money because you can keep using it as you upgrade your camera, some people still swear by the 50mm f1.8 even when using pro cameras like a 5D Mk3.

A 50mm lens on a crop sensor camera like the 40D does give you an "effective focal length" (more accurately referred to as "equivalent field of view") of about 80mm (note that the actual focal doesn't change, it's just giving you an equivalent). So 80mm is close to the traditional portrait focal length of 85mm.

The reason 85mm (and longer) lenses are popular for portraits is not just to do with background blur (because you can do that with a 35mm f2 lens), it's because it flatters the face.
Notice how the face is distorted with the wider 24mm lens.
focallengtharticle.jpg

(borrowed from here: https://mcpactions.com/2010/07/21/the-ideal-focal-length-for-portraiture-a-photographers-experiment/ )

I've used a 50mm on a crop sensor camera (the 60D) to photograph babies, it's not a problem, but working in the smaller environment of the families' home, it can be restrictive in terms of how far you need to move back in order to get the whole of the body in shot.

As an example, here's a shot I took with my old 60D and 50mm lens:
Blue Eyes by Alistair Beavis, on Flickr

This was also at 50mm, though with a Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 lens
Father's Hands by Alistair Beavis, on Flickr

That Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 EX DC lens I used for the second shot there is a great budget alternative to Canon's 17-55 f2.8. As a zoom lens it's more flexible when working with people and it's also able to shoot at f2.8 all the way from 18mm to 50mm (this is referred to as "constant aperture zoom"). You can probably pick up one of these for about £150 (the newer version is 17-50mm f2.8 and will be more expensive as it also has Optical Stabilisation).

And here's some tips on photographing babies: https://digital-photography-school.com/photographing-babies/

Hope that helps.
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Very good point - any why camera phone selfies often aren't very flattering, particularly if they are a portrait.
 
LeahP said:
Okay. Haha great advice from everyone. How about I go the one I mentioned above, Canon EFS 55-250mm, and then the 50mm 1.8 STM? And then, I will save for a 35mm?
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I'd go for an 18-55 and 55-200 (or so) pairing which will cover most of your wants as far as focal lengths go. Shop wisely and don't be in too much of a hurry and you should be able to sell the lenses on when you've upgraded them. Use the lenses for a while and see which focal lengths (FL) you use (and like the look of in the shots you take). You'll probably see a couple of focal lengths you use more than others. Now you'll know what FL to look for if you decide to go down the prime (fixed FL) route.
 
My DSLR arrived today, not a mark on it! So pleased. Going to order a compact flash card and a lens or two today!

Why are the STM lens more expensive? Are they an updated version?
 
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ABTog said:
A 50mm lens on a crop sensor camera like the 40D does give you an "effective focal length" (more accurately referred to as "equivalent field of view") of about 80mm (note that the actual focal doesn't change, it's just giving you an equivalent). So 80mm is close to the traditional portrait focal length of 85mm.

The reason 85mm (and longer) lenses are popular for portraits is not just to do with background blur (because you can do that with a 35mm f2 lens), it's because it flatters the face.
Notice how the face is distorted with the wider 24mm lens.
focallengtharticle.jpg

(borrowed from here: https://mcpactions.com/2010/07/21/the-ideal-focal-length-for-portraiture-a-photographers-experiment/ )
Click to expand...
I thought this was worth commenting on because it's a bit misleading.

The distortion of faces as illustrated here is *not* caused by the choice of focal length. It is caused by the distance between the subject and the camera.

Time for a thought experiment. Take a portrait photo with an 85mm lens from a convenient distance. Then switch to a 24mm lens without moving either the camera or the subject. Take another photo, then crop and enlarge it so that the face is the same size as the photo taken with the 85mm lens. What do you expect to see?

(Answer: The two photos have the same amount of distortion.)
 
Seems a good price, if not a little cheap. Just make sure that it is actually the stm version. I've seen a lot advertised on ebay as stm that most definitely aren't. It should be written around the lens.
 
Don't forget a spare battery and something like a Lenspen to keep the Lenses clean, Rocket Blower is also very handy to have.
 
Dave70D said:
You will love the 55-250mm as imo it is a cracking lens and sharp.
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Sounds like the successor to the "pocket rocket", my first shorter zoom in my initial digital days :) a stellar performer for such a low cost lens.
 
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Now the really big question is which camera bag/case. Many people on here are still searching for the perfect bag :eek:, and the search never really stops. :runaway:

Oh and don't forget a flashgun!!
 
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I started with a D90 and it is a great starter camera. I almost preferred the sensor to later cameras because I am not necessarily a fan of higher pixel counts. Avoid it if you want to do video, however. (It was one of the first DSLRs to embrace video, but did things like cutting rows of pixels out of the image making for jagged artefacts, etc.)
 
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