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- Riddhi Sengupta
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Canon 75-300mm or Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM? Which is better for a beginner?
And Welcome to TP by the way!What camera do you have Riddhi? Did it come with a kit lens?
A lens I would always recommend as a great general walkabout lens is the Canon 28-135mm IS USM lens.
I have had one of these or several tears now and always keep it handy.
The other lens I would never get rid of is the Canon 50mm f1.8 which is an exceptionally sharp lens with the quality of an L glass lens.
The 75-300mm lens is a reasonable lens but after 200mm it starts to get quite soft.
How close is a close-up? Or to put it another way, how big are the things you'd like to photograph? Taking photos of things which are a few millimetres across is quite different to taking photos of things which are a few centimetres across....Mostly closeups and also nature photography.
Except for lacking any real wide angle (which may or may not be of relevance to the OP).So it is quite versatile on any camera.
Personally I would never buy EF-S lenses simply because if the OP ever wanted to go FF then they would be no good at all.
I have a variety of cameras from FF to a 1.3 crop (1D mkIIN) and 1.6 crop (Canon 40D and 350D) and only one EF-S lens, the kit lens on the 350D, and have never felt disadvantaged at all using EF lenses.
Is the 50mm still your recommendation considering the OP is likely to have a crop sensor camera? The 50mm would give a modest telephoto field of view in such a situation. Not sure if there is any suitable Canon 35mm f/1.8 for EF-S?and then to consider the 50mm f1.8 as a possibly 3rd lens.
I don't have the 50mm lens but those photos show that the quality is as good as the canon 60mm macro lens which I do own. Saying that I don't know how the ease of use compares e.g. working distance, focus etc.I missed the bit about wanting to photograph close ups but for that my recommendation would be the 50mm f1.8 lens with a set of Auto Extension tubes:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/20926615@N05/albums/72157625975281497
and with 2 sets of extension tubes you are really into almost super macro:
https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/harold-the-spider.637407/
One advantage of the 50mm f1.8 lens is that f1.8 gives a bit more light when trying those kinds of shots.
And this was taken with the 28-135mm lens on my 350D a few weeks ago:
View attachment 93817
So it is quite versatile on any camera.
Personally I would never buy EF-S lenses simply because if the OP ever wanted to go FF then they would be no good at all.
I have a variety of cameras from FF to a 1.3 crop (1D mkIIN) and 1.6 crop (Canon 40D and 350D) and only one EF-S lens, the kit lens on the 350D, and have never felt disadvantaged at all using EF lenses.
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The 75-300mm lens is a reasonable lens but after 200mm it starts to get quite soft.