zoom-help

[vvizard]

Anybody with a great aresnal of lenses care to pick up this "challenge". Go outside, tripodmount your 10D (or a "similiar" camera with 1.6x crop-factor) camera, facing towards an far-away object, and shoot it at maximum focal-length with different lenses, so we newbies can get the impression of exactly how much 200, 300, etc actually is, compared to a 50mm prime. That would helped me a _LOT_ when I'm deciding what zoom to buy. I've seen many shot's with different zooms, but they're usually fired at max focal length, and don't have a 50mm-shot from the same position to actually show how far away the subject is :/

[The Photo Tuell]

OK I don't have a 'great arsenal of lenses' (my 70-200 is still at Canon being repaired) but here's some non-scientific comparison shots with a rented 300 F/4L and the (Digital Rebel) kit lens. All are shot from the same spot, I might have recomposed between shots though.

18 mm (28.8 effective focal length):
http://www.pbase.com/image/22112157/medium.jpg

27 mm (43.2 effective focal length):
http://www.pbase.com/image/22112160/medium.jpg

55 mm (88 effective focal length):
http://www.pbase.com/image/21885813/medium.jpg

300 mm (480 effective focal length):
http://www.pbase.com/image/21885803/medium.jpg

So comparing the 27 to the 18, there is quite a difference. I don't think the 28-135 IS lens would be wide enough for me.

Larger shots in my Mt Baker gallery here: http://www.pbase.com/the_photo_tuell/mt_baker_092803

[vvizard]

Thanks. To bad you didn't have the 70-200mm with you, cause that's the one I've led my eyes on at this moment :-P I would really love to see how it looks compared to the 300mm you used. So if you feel like shooting another test when you get it back, it would be highly appreciated :) But thanks anyway, this was a great resource for me!

[Andy_T]

Now I don't want to spoil your fun here, but if you go to any photo shop and pick up a Sigma, Tamron, Tokina or whatnot brochure, there are normally a lot of these sample images included (also in most beginner's books on photography :)).

The results should be close enough to the results from the 10D test.

Just my 2 cents...

Regards,
Andy