What to look for when buying a lens?

[45R]

For those of you who have done this for a while. What do you look for when buying a lens?

What companies make the good stuff and what should I walk away from?

Right now I've got the 28-135 IS USM lens so I dont have any other lens to compare it to.

Thanks


45R

[cmM]

What do you look for when buying a lens?
A red stripe ! :wink:

No, it really depends on what you want to shoot. I haven't done this for a very long time, but I tend to stick with Canon, and keep into consideration price, weight, optical quality, durability(build), and speed(aperture)

*Edit: How could I have forgotten... another very important thing I take into consideration: other forum members' opinions !!!

[robertwgross]

The post by cmM covered most of the bases.

Some shooters want a long lens that comes complete with a tripod collar. For wide angle lenses, that does not apply. Similarly, some want any lens that comes complete with a hood. On others, you have to purchase the hood as an extra item.

If you purchase a lens that uses the same size filters as your previous lens, then that does not force any new filter purchase. On the other hand, if you purchase some new lens that takes a weird/large filter size, then the extra filter purchase will add on a lot more cost. I purchased a new lens once and then purchased two filters for it that cost 50% of the cost of the lens. Try to avoid that if you can.

Most of us understand that phrase "speed (aperture)" but the newbies don't. They know that the shutter speed is something you set inside the camera, and they don't understand the reference to the lens. But the faster lenses, e.g. f/1.8 or f/1.4, allows the lensed to work in dimmer light, so you can use faster shutter speeds of the camera body. If you always shoot in broad daylight, then this is not much of an issue. Further, for some kinds of shooting, like portraits, being able to control the depth of field very closely requires a faster lens, but that may or may not be an issue for you.

---Bob Gross---