Q: Lenses and zoom

[yeah1000]

Hello,
I dont know much about photography and am just collecting money for an EOS300d (not very successfully though :( ) and i came to this problem. These normal digital cameras alla have 3X and 4X zooms and so on but how much could i zoom with lenses like Canon 18-55 and Tamron 28-75 ? Or is it so whenever i want to shoot something further away i have to buy another lense?
Thanks in advance

[Deckyon]

Well, actually telephoto is anything beyond "normal" The Canon 18-55 mm lens is a wide angle to normal (roughly) zoom lens.

If you want something like 4x, you will need at least 200mm lens. 6x = 300mm and so on, with 50mm being "normal" (which it is for standard 35mm cameras)

So the answer to your question is Yes, you will need to buy other lenses to gain the required zoom you are looking for.

[Longwatcher]

A Canon 18-55 lens has a 55 divided by 18 zoom range or basically a 3x equivilant. The Tamron would be a little under 3x.

For a DSLR you need a range of lenses to get the best shot, that is the whole point of a DSLR over a P&S. A 300D has a potential 43x zoom without extenders and ignoring the 1200mm lens. From 14mm to 600mm or for a low price with say a 18-55 and a 55-200 (not necessarily recommended, but only for example) with those two you have an 11x range.

Now ignore all of the above:
The purpose of the lens is to get the shot you want. To do this you use wide angle, normal and telephoto lenses. Normal is 50mm for a full frame 35mm format camera for an APS-C camera such as 300D, 35mm would be about normal.

Anything with a smaller number is a wide angle, anything with a larger focal length is a telephoto.

If you had the 18-55 and it did not enlarge the view enough, your options are to crop and then enlarge the image in the computer (resulting in fewer pixels and lower resolution) or yes you would need to get a longer lens such as a 75-300 (relatively similiar price range to 18-55). This would give you the full resolution of the camera while bringing the subject in closer.

Normally you can expect if the 18-55 doesn't do the job for you, that you will end up getting at least 2 zoom lenses to cover the full range most people want. If for some reason you need to go wider then 18 or longer then 300, the price goes up dramatically.

See the recommended lens sestion "sticky" at the top of the EOS digital cameras section

http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=56752

Hope that helps a little bit,

[yeah1000]

Thank you for very quick and informative replies!
They helped a lot. I read a lot about cameras from all around but this part just remained unclear.
Ok thx again...