70D starting lens lineup, w/ questions

Hi everybody, a few years back I tried the world of DSLRs, but didn't have the time, patience, or money to get off the ground. Now I'm aiming to get a 60D soon, and with that comes the thought of what lenses to choose. For street and nature photography, so far I thought of:

Rokinon 8mm f3.5 fisheye - because it's a fisheye

Canon EF-S 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 - kit lens. General walk-around lens?

Canon 100mm f2.8 - for general object macros, and insects too

My only thought is that perhaps it's best to nix the 18-135, and get a prime lens (50-ish?) for general indoor/outdoor shots instead. I figure that by having the 100mm, it can take care of landscapes and close-ups, while the prime takes care of everything in between. Thoughts?

Also, back with my first DSLR, I used to continually swap out the lenses. I'm sure that's considered a terrible habit, but there were so many times when the 18-55 kit lens wouldn't reach something, so I swapped it with the 55-250 lens, and kept that one on until I wanted to take a picture of something closer. What is the proper way of dealing with these kinds of situations?

Thanks!

People have been pretty pleased the new STM lenses: 18-55;18-135 and 55-250.... all STM. I haven't tried any of them personally. You can see the lenses I selected in my signature.

The main 70D thread here has lots of great people: https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1324226

The ability to change lenses is one of the great things about DSLR's. Use the proper lens for the shot, as often as you can.. don't worry about it. The only downside to frequent changing, is the chance of introducing more dust and crap onto the sensor. This isn't a big deal, as it can be cleaned.

EF-s15-85 is an exceptional crop-body walk around lens. While a little shorter than the 18-135 on the long end, the 15mm wide end is much nicer. It's a very versatile lens, though not cheap.

A fisheye lens is a very specialized lens, for someone just getting into photography.

Switching lenses is perfectly normal for someone pursuing a variety of photographic "pursuits".

Yes, there will be some who will advocate choosing one prime/fixed focal length lens and then "zooming with your feet", and sure, there are times and scenarios where that can be a useful approach, and you can learn from that!

But one of the reasons why I switched to DSLRs was the ability to switch from a good quality wide lens for things such as landscapes and scenic photographs and then to a good-quality long lens for things such as birds and wildlife, and I have no regrets!

Of course, packing your whole "kit" can be cumbersome, and it can also be expensive, but...Oh Well!

I don't think you need a fisheye right from the start. A nice prime like the Sigma 30mm 1.4A will serve you better.
For birds, 100mm will be way too short. I'm afraid you'll need 300mm, or even 400mm if you're seriously into wildlife and birds in particular.

Thank you everybody for the advice, I really appreciate it.

I agree that a fisheye is a bit strange to start with, but it was on sale for $200, and the reviews were great.

Going with 1Tanker's suggestion, the 15-85 looks like a great one-and-done lens for walking around. The 10-22 also seems like the perfect companion for it.

Birds around Los Angeles are pretty used to humans (pigeons, peacocks, the occasional seagull). I just looked through a 5D w/ 24-105 though, and I do agree. At 85mm, it's almost like a slight zoom of what you can actually see with your eyes, which isn't much of an advantage. (I'm sure the 1.6 crop factor won't help much either.) Using a 70-200L though does seem like a reasonable distance for city birds.

(Also, another general question: it's fine to hot swap lenses, right? Half the time I turn off the camera before switching lenses, thinking the camera needs to re-calibrate with the new lens on.)

Hi Bud,

yeah as far as im aware you can hot swap lenses i do it on my 70D and never have an issue, so far anyway!

i've been eyeballing the 10-22 hard recently as I really enjoy landscape and architectural photography.