About to buy Rebel XT or XTi and a few lenses, help the newbie!

[dlomonosov]

After browsing this site for few days and learning about different lenses and looking at all these beautiful photos you guys take. I kind of decided to get a used or new XTi or XT Rebel and was woundering if I should get a kit 18-55mm lens that usually comes with it or some other lens to be my first one? I am a beginer and have Canon SD300 camera now and want to get DSLR now. I am a realtor and sometimes in need to take some good pics of homes I am listing and take wide angle photos inside the home. since 18-55mm kit lense is wide zoom lens would it do the trick for real estate and other kind of photos. I want to start learning how to take pictures of wildlife, pets, my cars, moving cars, sunsets, night city shots, etc.. After reading up on lenses you guys use i see that you guys use different lenses for different environments and objects. If I had the money i would get these lenses, after reading all the reviews and Polls by you guys, and I would have them some day:

Landscapes, inside room photos, cars:
EF 17-40mm f/4L USM ($670)
EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM ($670)
what would be the difference between two?

Portraits:
EF 50mm f/1.8 II OR f/1.4 USM ($75 or $300)
what would be the difference between the 2?

Wildlife, inside and outside sports, moving objects and portraits:
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS ($1600)

But for now I will most likely go with used or new XTi and I just need one lens for now, which one to get? (Remember I need it for real estate photos primary for now)
EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 USM Autofocus Lens or some other one?

[DavidEB]

skip the kit lens. Get the body only, and one of the 10-xx zooms (canon 10-22, tokina 10-20, sigma 10-something); and a tamron 28-75 to go along with it. Any of those will be major improvements over the kit lens. The f2.8 of the tamron will enable some indoor shots without flash.

also, get a flash (either 430EX or sigma 500 super) and learn how to bounce the flash off the ceiling; and get a tripod so you can do some longer exposures.

[Mike]

I agree with David, I was taking some room shots last night and found that 18mm was not quite wide enough.

[Jon]

Real estate for the web or those "here's 7 zillion houses we're offering" brochures with small pics, or for some big prints for buyers to leaf through?

You can do a decent job with the kit lens to start with. You'll need a tripod, but you'll need a tripod and remote release for carefully composing any kind of real estate shots with any lens. A wider lens would help for interiors, especially in very small rooms; only you can tell if that's enough of an issue that you can afford to lose the aded length the 18-55 or similar lenses would give you for exterior shots. There are several threads on here which demonstrate that teh kit lens is quite capable of producing good pictures if properly used. Once you've got a handle, from actually shooting, you can decide when to get the Canon 10-22, or its' Sigma, Tamron or Tokina counterparts.

The 50 f/1.8 is a much cheaper build, and tends to give some trouble focussing accurately in close; the 50 f/1.4's sturdya nad focusses well. If money's an issue, and you're not doing portraits for pay right off, the 50 f/1.8 will be fine.

The 70-200 2.8 IS is a great lens, but you'll find it too short for most wildlife. I find my 100-400 at the long end to be much more useful there. It is a good length for sports if you can get down to the sidelines outdoors; less so if you're back in the stands somewhere. The IS will help, but only minimally, on sports indoors, because you need to keep your shutter speed up anyhow just to stop the action (IS won't help with that). It'll be great for portraits if you have enough room.

[dlomonosov]

thank you guys.. Jon, as far as real estate shots is pics to put on MLS and website, so i need a wide angle lens to get the most into a pic. I found 18-55mm pic thread and some pics are just amazing, i can't imagine things look better then on those pics and the lens is so cheap compared to those for $1k! I also checked out 70-200mm and 100-400mm threads and those pics of wildlife are just out of this world! I think I will go with 18-55mm for now and then maybe get something like 100-400mm caliber and then maybe super wide angle lense maybe a good standard zoom lens.. What do you guys think? After reading all the reviews and seeing many pics on different lens threads, I am confused, because I saw pics taken with cheap 18-55mm lens that looked so good i do not see a point spending $1000-1600 on a single lense?! Can you tell me, if I wanted to have 3 lenses in my collection, and money is an object, which ones do i need to have for my XTi, so I was able to take following pics:

Real Estate wide angle interior room pics
Portraits
zoom on wild life
indoor/outdoor sports (moving cars, basketball game)
Landscapes and night city shots

[EORI]

" Real Estate wide angle interior room pics"

Business comes first, right? In this case, 18-55 will not be wide enough. Skip it, and get the Canon 10-22 or comparable third party lens. This lens will also take care of your landscape and other interior photography.

You don't specify your budget, so I'll assume that the purchase of a wide angle zoom will pretty much exhaust your funds. In that case, bag your lunch for a month, save $80, and get the 50/1.8 lens. It will serve as a nice portrait lens, and as a lens for available light photography; i.e., indoor sports and night-time.

As for the rest of your needs, get the right lens once you've accumulated the necessary funds. Good telephoto prime and zooms are generally expensive.

[dlomonosov]

lol. yes business is first.. I saw few pics fellow realtors took of homes outside and inside that just stood out and made the homes look so rich and full of color, thats when I said i need to get a good camera and my SD300 just won't do any more. Yes, since I am not a pro and do not want to spend a lot of money on very expensive lenses, I want to see what are the best lenses I can get for a least amount of money spent.

[EORI]

BTW, image quality as between XT and XTi is negligible. Get the older XT, use the money saved on glass.

[DavidEB]

for the priorities you list, with total cost consideration...

tokina 12-34 or sigma 10-20 [oops :o typo it's really 12-24]
tamron 28-75
canon 100-400 or sigma 50-500

all fine glass, covers range you need.

definitely get a flash you can use to bounce off ceilings. necessity for your room work. 430EX or sigma 500 super.

For indoor rooms, even a cheap tripod is better than none, but if you want to do indoor 360 pano shots, bogen 3011 + 488Rc2

[DavidEB]

dlomonosov -

sorry, I wasn't clear enough about why I keep saying "Flash"

to get good interior shots you either need long (or long-ish) exposures with a tripod, in natural light, and you're at the mercy of how the light happens to fall; or you use a flash and control the light. Bouncing light off a wall, corner or ceiling gives you a wide area of illumination without harsh shadows.

you can manipulate the exposure to get a mix of window light and flash illumination, but again, natural light means long exposures and you'll need to stabilize the camera.

360 panos absolutely require a good tripod with a pano-capable head (hence the bogen recommendation).

the tripod and flash together will do more for your interior photos than will the higher quality glass.

hope that's helpful.

[EcoRick]

Since you're a beginner, the kit lens is a great way to start and learn. Wide enough to get started and enough range to get you started into DSLR. Another nice feature is the price. After a few months you'll know much more about the type of lenses you'll want.

[dlomonosov]

thanks David.. something to think about now.. i can't wait to get it and play arround with it.

[Broncobear]

based on what your trying to do , I also say go for a UWA lens. Kits lens is ood for a starter for people who don't have a specific task in mind. when you know what you want to do , go after the lens that best suits your needs

[dlomonosov]

thnaks guys.. David, can you please tell me why you have not put canon 70-200 4fL on this list? I read that it is the biggest burgain for $550 on this type of lens?! The 2 you mentioned were both $1000-1300. The tamron 28-75 lens I looked up and it looks very good with great reviews and pics! The wide zoom lens you picked was a good choice for me to save $200 over 10-22 canon lense and go with tokina 12-24 (was 12-34 a typo) instead! So there is no other lense as good as tamron 28-75 for less? It was $380 on b&h.

[DavidEB]

can you please tell me why you have not put canon 70-200 4fL on this list?

you said wildlife, and I assumed you plan on being far away from it. Bears tend to eat you, and birds fly away. So you want a really long lens. The 70-200 f4 is a fantastic lens, but limited for your purpose. Sadly, there is no cheap good long lens.

the tamron 28-75 is a fabulous lens. Check out tests of mid-range zooms at www.pbase.com/lightrules -- I consider him to be the authority. The sigma 24-70 also rates highly. Both are comparable optically to the much more expensive canon L zooms but lack USM focus, weather seal, etc.... I think the tamron is a great choice.

again though I think you'll get the most bang for your buck with a flash & 'pod. for what you want to do.

yeah, sorry, 12-34 a typo. ooops :o