What Canon EF lens to buy????. please help

[foxcrew]

i have the canon 300D with the standared 18-55mm lens. the quality of the lens is shocking, the pictures are very soft. i would like to buy an "L" series lens but can not afford it. is there any of the other lenses that are very sharp but half the cost?. i would l;ike a medium zoom type lens around the 28-135 mark. any advice please account for sharpness as im very perticular about my photos being sharp.
cheers,
Foxcrew

[BearSummer]

Hi Foxcrew,

Have a look at either the EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM or the EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM. Watch out for the EF 28-105mm f/4-5.6 usm which is supposed to be nothing special

28-105 (http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/lens/ef/data/ef_28~105_35_usm.html)

28-135 (http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/lens/ef/data/ef_28~135_35is_usm.html)

Best regards

BearSummer

[Cadwell]

Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di. Very sharp from f/4 upwards. Far sharper than the Canon 28-135mm.

[EXA1a]

i have the canon 300D with the standared 18-55mm lens. the quality of the lens is shocking, the pictures are very soft. i would like to buy an "L" series lens but can not afford it. is there any of the other lenses that are very sharp but half the cost?. i would l;ike a medium zoom type lens around the 28-135 mark. any advice please account for sharpness as im very perticular about my photos being sharp.
cheers,
Foxcrew
I am not saying that the kit lens is a good lens. The build is exceptionally crappy and mine is dead after less than 1000 shots.
But the optical quality is not bad. From f8 upwards you will barely find a difference to the highly praised 17-40 at first sight. So, either you have a real bad copy of the lens or your expectations are too high or user-related errors lead to very soft images.
No doubt, it's a very good idea to invest into a good lens. The 17-40 is the best value for the money in that range.
But to be on the safe side, please post some typical very soft images so that the forum members can try to analyze the reasons for the softness.
--Jens--

[Sam North]

Crop your full-sized images down so that they show relevant 100% detail in your post.

I shoot quite bland images with my 300D and then carefully sharpen them in Corel PHOTO-PAINT. I do it this way because you can't really undo sharpening once the camera has done its thing, assuming you shoot JPEGs rather than RAW (and that's a whole new heated discussion!).

Sam

[Olegis]

Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di. Very sharp from f/4 upwards.

Ditto.

[Andy_T]

Foxcrew,

I second (actually third :lol: ) the suggestion of the Tamron 28-75/2.8.

However, try to use your kit lens at f/8 first. It might not be *that* bad.
Also, be aware that most photos need USM sharpening in photoshop to hsow their full potential.

Best regards,
Andy

[HJMinard]

I "fourth" the Tamron 28-75/2.8

I have been extremely pleased with this lens - amazing optical quality for the cost.

[gmen]

Perhaps it would be an idea to skip the zoom lens and invest in a couple of good primes.

The 85mm f/1.8 and 50mm f/1.4 are very good non-L lenses. If image quality is everything to you this could be a route to take.

Just a thought.

[CyberDyneSystems]

See replies in your OTHER thread on the same subject as well...

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=43968&highlight=


Maybe next time you could try posting these questions in one thread? :wink: :)