New lens help ... I know another

Ok so primary focus is landscape and walk around. I have a T3 (1100d) and the 18-55 and 55-250, recently picked up a sigma 30 1.4

For landscapes I dont mind stitching images (at this point I prefer this method due to lack of megapixels). Would like something a little better the what came with the kit for walk around.

What would you suggest. I have no desire to go FF anytime soon. I am ok with 3rd party as long as it has good reviews. I am always looking for best bang for the buck, so I am ok with 99% quality for half the price.

Sell the 18-55 and buy a 17-55. It's a far superior lens and a perfect walk around, but it seems that you might be hinting at the Tamron 17-50 which is also a fine lens.

17-55 practically a requirement for a crop camera.

15-85, unless you need a large, constant aperture; in which case, I'd suggest the Sigma 17-50 f/2.8 OS. Personally, I've found the 24-105 to be the perfect solution for a "general" lens, but some folks don't feel that it's "wide" enough; I think that's bunk, but, it all depends on what sort of shooting you do.

whuband wrote in post #15786881
Sell the 18-55 and buy a 17-55. It's a far superior lens and a perfect walk around, but it seems that you might be hinting at the Tamron 17-50 which is also a fine lens.

Great thank you I will do some reading up on this lens.

Snydremark wrote in post #15786912
15-85, unless you need a large, constant aperture; in which case, I'd suggest the Sigma 17-50 f/2.8 OS. Personally, I've found the 24-105 to be the perfect solution for a "general" lens, but some folks don't feel that it's "wide" enough; I think that's bunk, but, it all depends on what sort of shooting you do.

Great thank you for that, I do spend alot of time at the 18mm end currently. Is there a big difference between the 15-85 and the 18-85. Is the quality better on the 24-105? I will check out the 24mm perspective tonight with what I have and see if I could live with that as my widest.

Littlejon Dsgn wrote in post #15786955
Great thank you for that, I do spend alot of time at the 18mm end currently. Is there a big difference between the 15-85 and the 18-85. Is the quality better on the 24-105? I will check out the 24mm perspective tonight with what I have and see if I could live with that as my widest.

I'll take the counterpoint. The 17-55 is to the crop body what the 24-105 is meant for the full frame body, a walkaround lens. It goes from wide to mild telephoto. Pretty much the key range for a day out. When you use the 24-105 on a crop instead of being wide to short tele, its normal to short tele. The problem is that while you give away the wide end, the additional reach you get on the long end isnt that impressive. Its still a short tele. Although the 24-105 is built a little better, optically they are comparable and the 17-55 gives you a faster max aperture at 2.8 and still has IS.

as with everything it comes down to how much you want to spend...if you spend a lot of time at the 18mm end...i think the 15-85mm is a good option...you haven't expressed anything about needing a faster aperture

DreDaze wrote in post #15787037
as with everything it comes down to how much you want to spend...if you spend a lot of time at the 18mm end...i think the 15-85mm is a good option...you haven't expressed anything about needing a faster aperture

I have the 30mm with 1.4 and am finding I dont use the 1.4 to often. Now as I start to get into night photography more that may change.

However I dont think the faster aperture would have me spending more, I am good with a little longer exposure since landscapes is 85% of what I shoot, and in Oregon most of them have some sort of water element in them (I prefer the flowing water look).

As for a budget $1000 is about max right now, but again if I can get 99% of the quality out of a lens that cost $600 vs $1000 guess which one I will go for

Littlejon Dsgn wrote in post #15786955
Great thank you for that, I do spend alot of time at the 18mm end currently. Is there a big difference between the 15-85 and the 18-85. Is the quality better on the 24-105? I will check out the 24mm perspective tonight with what I have and see if I could live with that as my widest.

If you spend a lot of time in the 18mm range, then it's very likely you're one of the folks that the 24-105 won't be wide enough for. The 15-85 is the newer version of the 18-85, has better optics (anecdotally; I haven't used it myself), and gives you wider views on the short end to help stave off the need for a UWA. 15mm vs 18mm is a fairly noticeable difference; whether it's *significant* or not depends on what you need to cover in the frame.

Back to the 24-105; the overall IQ is probably better, side by side, in the 15-85 and the quality of the images I get is nothing to complain about. However, I much prefer the constant aperture of the L and I found the 17-xx range of lenses to be the most useless combination of focal lengths I've ever seen (for my own purposes, it was always too wide/short or not wide enough). Pairing the 10-22 w/ the 24-105 has been much more functional for me.

Ok so at this point I am looking at the 17-55 and 15-85 both from Canon and the Tamron 17-50 and sigma 17-50. I will do more reading tonight on them Thank you guys

Between the 17-55 and the 15-85 which would you get? I like the range of the 15-85, but I have not started reading any reviews on it yet.

17-55 2.8, IS, L optical quality....

for a $1,000 it'd be hard for me not to go for something like a sigma 10-20mm, and another lens...maybe the tamron to replace your kit...

i feel like it's only a matter of time until 15/17mm isn't wide enough for you

I absolutely loved the 17-55 when I had a 7D. I shot a lot of low light, so it was very important to have a constant 2.8. It is super fast to focus, focuses accurately in low light without hunting and is just screaming to be mounted on your T3.

If I was still using crop cameras, I would get the Canon 10-22, 17-55 and 70-200 2.8 IS.

DreDaze wrote in post #15787764
for a $1,000 it'd be hard for me not to go for something like a sigma 10-20mm, and another lens...maybe the tamron to replace your kit...

i feel like it's only a matter of time until 15/17mm isn't wide enough for you

The day will come that 15/17 is not wide enough (heck its already here) however I enjoy large prints and with the T3's 12MP its hard to get to large without stitching.

At this point I am also considering just renting a lens for my upcoming trip to see if I like it enough to pull the trigger.

Reading older threads there is a decent amount of love for the 15-85, stating it has great optics, I am not worried about speed. It just needs to have a good amount of IQ improvment over the kit lens to make it worth spending on.