Advice Please. Newcomer to Digital Photography Equipment.

[nyorks]

Retirement begins, purchases must be cost effective and will be intended to last, without further upgrading. I began by considering EOS350D against Nikon D70s, and finding little to choose between them, and some omissions, moved up to Canon EOS20D. This leaves only Spot Metering as a regretable omission, but cost stops any further upgrade. Question: What lens to put with it? I would prefer a "One lens for ALL" policy, and have considered Canon EF 28-300 mm f3.5-f5.6 L IS USM. Will I regret this combination? Will I regret not having the 200-400L top-end for Wildlife? Will the combination be too heavy in general use? I have never used wide angle lenses (under 50 mm in SLR-35mm) so I don't expect to need any more at the low-end. Main intended subject matter will be Landscapes, Wildlife, Portraits, and general. Advice Welcomed.

[AjP]

hmm... this is really hard question and decision up to you and $$$, depends who much quality do you need and how picky you are about cameara buld and functions... 350 or 20D (I got 20D for myself) about lenses, unfortuantely there is no lense that can cover all focal length and produce really sharp and great pics.... if you want really good quality youwill end up with 2-4 lense depending what u planning to shot. if can't afford Canon L's, Get Tamron or Sigma, ...
Sigma has 50-500 lense but it definately not walkaround lense, big and heavy.

hope this is helpful

[condyk]

Welcome ...

Great camera choice ... for what it's worth, I think the best reviewed 'bang per buck' for many people, while keeping to minimal lens numbers, is arguably:

12-24 Tokina Pro (which you may not need and the Sigma goes to 24mm anyway)
24-70 2.8 EX DG Macro Sigma (great lens, quite wide and does close ups well as well!)
100-400mm IS L Canon (or 100-300mm f4 EX HSM Sigma if you want constant F4 and add a 1.4 TCon for 420mm at constant f5.6 for wildlife, which is what I do)

If you love portraits add a 85mm 1.8 Canon if you need it. If you want a flash, get a 500 DG Super Sigma or a Canon 420 EX. Of course, you don't have to carry everything around at the same time ;) AND, unless you get the IS L you will need at least a monopod to get best results with most lenses of any reasonable length (150mm and over, less if you have handshake)

Hope that's at least food for thought.

[Aqua74]

Hi there,

I also have a 20D and with an EF 17-85mm lens and a 70-200mm. The 17-85 lens although pretty expensive is an excellent lens. I believe there is no point going the extra mile with a 20D and not justifying it with a decent lens. You are short changing yourself. The 70-200mm, while a pretty good zoom lens, does cause a lot of camera shake. You will find this with any telephoto lens due to the "top heaviness" of them. If you really need an all rounder, although you won't get something for everything, I think the best thing to do would be purchase something like a 17-85mm. With such a high end lens and camera capable of 8.5 mp I have found that many pictures can be taken without using a telephoto lens, which can then be zoomed and blown keeping much, and in some cases more due to less camera shake, of the detail and sharpeness of a telephoto lens. This also works for macro shots. Although not the perfect scenario for everything, I think its a good compromise.