Best walkaround lens for T4i

Hi, i am looking for best walk around lens for t4i. I don't want to spend a lot, however I'm looking to get the best pics.. Currently I own 18-55mm,55-250mm & 50mm lens. A friend of mine suggested 28-135mm. What is ur opinion.? I'm beginner in dslr. I do not want to carry all the lens when I am traveling.. I mostly take site seeing , kids playing around or running both indoors & outdoors.. Basically overall use... Plz provide me ur best options... Thanks...

Super zoom lenses have notoriously poor image quality. It depends on your budget. If you're broke, the 18-55 kit lens will work fine. I've taken awesome shots (if I do say so myself ) with that lens. The Tamron 17-50 2.8 is a little nicer, the Canon 17-55 2.8 IS is even better if you can afford it.

I prefer wide shots when I travel, so I'd consider the Canon 10-22. But honestly, when I go out with only one lens, it's a fast, normal prime. Which for you would be a Sigma 30 1.4. And they're even on sale!

The 15-85 offers great range with good IQ. The 17-55 or 17-50 would give you speed in the range you have.

The 28-135 seems pointless to me compared to what you have. It's no better optically, it's no faster and the focal length range is funky on 1.6X. You will probably stll carry the 18-55 around for the wide end if you buy this.

Define "I don't want to spend a lot". if you give a budget, then better suggestions can be made.

Tamron 17-50mm F/2.8 non-VC or Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS are both lenses I own. The Tamron is great, the IS on the Canon is nice too. Ultimately the Canon is better but having only a limited time with it I am not as overwhelmed as I had hoped I would have been. Really meaning the Tamron was a great lens.

To be honest, I found the 18-55 kit lens to be a fine walk around lens. It isn't fast, but it gets the job done.

My sentiments are the same as the others in the thread. I would go with the Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 IS if you had the budget. If not, the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 would be a fine choice.

My vote goes to the EF-S 17-55. It was my favorite lens before I went FF!

Thanks for response...ok my budget is around $300 -$400.i saw in Craigslist 28-135 for $200(Dallas). So I thought this might be the bestshot. I was basically looking for sharp quality pic ...my friend said that 3rd party lens r not good quality... So I was like confused which one to go for.. Can some tell me what the setting for kids playing indoor (sharp quality) I always use automatic mode...

Thanks

Robin

I was very pleasantly surprised with the 28-135 that came with my 7D. I had planned on getting a 15-85 but now given how much I like the 28-135 I might just get a 10-22 to take care of the wide end when necessary.

I have had the canon kit lenses, Tamron 17-50, sigma 17-70, canon 18-135 and 18-200 and 28-135 the best all around lens I have and kept is the canon 15-85.....very sharp, great range, and great imag stab.

If you use the automatic mode, you don't have setting options. the camera does all the work. if that is what you continue to use, the 18-55 that your camera cme with will work fine. if you choose to do more creative stuff, like photography trying to blur a background like portraits, you will need to learn some of the other settings for more manual control. In that case the 17-55 2.8 lens would be a great choice IMO. Not sure if that fits your budget though. Buy used on something like this. They pop up in the FS section here.

The lenses you have now are pretty capable of making nice images... they are just the cheapest lenses Canon makes (assuming your 50mm is the f1.8 version) and lack in build quality, AF performance and some other features. But, they are capable and usable lenses that give you a wide range of focal lengths to work with.

The 28-135 IS is a good walk around lens and a definite step up from the build quality, AF performance of your . It's an older lens, originally designed for full frame. It's just not particularly wide on a crop camera like the T4i. Still, I like it a lot on crop cameras and find it very useful. It has very good image quality (hard to distinguish the IQ from the much more expensive 24-105L), decent mid-grade build, better USM autofocus, quite close focusing and can be found quite inexpensively on the used market. A lot of 28-135s were sold as kit lenses with 40D and 50D, so it's pretty easy to find a lightly used one on Craigslist for $200 or so. Canon had refurbs of the lens at that price in their online Canon Direct Store recently, too.

In some respects the newer EF-S 18-135 IS might be more versatile single lens option, but is likely to cost a little more, even used. It also lacks USM, though the latest "STM" version likely comes close in AF performance.

The most compact is the EF-S 15-85 IS... top image quality throughout and a bit wider than most walk-around lenses. It has USM.

Any of thse are a step up from your kit lenses in terms of build quality. The USM and STM lenses are a step up in AF performance.

There are also larger aperture lenses, such as the Canon EF-S 17-55/2.8 IS, Sigma 17-50/2.8 IS and Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC and non-VC (the non-VC is the cheaper and sharper of the two Tammies). The Sigma is an HSM lens (similar to Canon's USM), the Tamrons are not and will likely be a little slower focusing and possibly a bit less accurate (Tamron is updating lenses to USD focus, but haven't done so with these lenses yet). However with all these large aperture lenses, notice that the trade-off to get an f2.8 lens is that it's range of focal lengths is a lot more restrictive, which might make it a bit less versatile. Depends upon which is more important for your uses... the larger aperture (low light shooting and shallower depth of field) or a wider range of focal lengths.

You have one faster prime (50mm) for portraiture and low light, so might not need an f2.8 zoom, too.

As mentioned, I do use the 28-135. It serves as a backup to my 24-70/2.8 and sometimes as a loaner to friends and assistants. At the prices it sells for used, I consider it one of the best deals among Canon lenses and will take the 28-135 when I'm hiking, biking, etc., saving a lot of weight by leaving both my 24-70/2.8 and 70-200/2.8 at home. I usually complement it with a Tokina 12-24/4 ultrawide, though. That makes for a pretty compact and convenient two-lens kit covering a nice range. In fact, with a crop sensor DSLR this pair makes for wider range of focal lengths in two zooms than most film shooters ever owned in their lifetimes.

robienyshe wrote in post #15583006
Can some tell me what the setting for kids playing indoor (sharp quality) I always use automatic mode...

Thanks

Robin

Instead of wasting 200 bucks on a lens that is redundant with the two zooms you have now, buy a 430 EX II flash with the same funds.

M mode, servo focus if the kids are moving
Point the flash at the ceiling
F/5.6
1/200
ISO 400

This works nearly universally for pictures inside the house with no knowledge of the basics of photography required.

My favorite lens for crop cameras is the Sigma 17-70 2.8-4 OS. It has great image quality, focuses fast and accurate and the OS works very well.

robienyshe wrote in post #15583006
Thanks for response...ok my budget is around $300 -$400.i saw in Craigslist 28-135 for $200(Dallas). So I thought this might be the bestshot. I was basically looking for sharp quality pic ...my friend said that 3rd party lens r not good quality... So I was like confused which one to go for.. Can some tell me what the setting for kids playing indoor (sharp quality) I always use automatic mode...

Thanks

Robin

Seeing your budget, and reading your requirement, I would pick up a used canon 18-135, they are selling all the time from people's kits for under $300, the 24-135 is going to be to long on the short end(24mm) on your camera for indoor.

For kids indoors, there are several ways, I would start in av mode, ai servo, single point focus, and play with your iso setting until your shutter speed is around 1/400....to start anyway....

Here are a few 18-135 for sale here for around 250 new


https://photography-on-the.net …=1273538&highli​ght=18-135
https://photography-on-the.net …=1272969&highli​ght=18-135