Novice Seeking Lens Advice

Thank you in advance for your help!

I have a Rebel T3 (not the T3i; I have the lowest-end Rebel). I have the standard lens and an EF 55-250, which did not do the trick when shooting a local parade. I clearly need a different lens for distant shots. I also think I need a wide-angle for shooting school concerts. Given the variety of lenses, I'm a bit overwhelmed. I'm also not able to pay $1,000 for a lens.
I would appreciate any opinions on lenses you love and why.

I recommend the Canon 70-300.. not the 75-300. These are often available used for under $400
new is here;
http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …&InitialSearch=​yes&sts=ta
Wide angle I would go With Sigma 10-20 4.-5.6.. I own this lens and its crazy. It takes a bit to figure it out, but its amazing!
You almost have to leave the house with only the 10-20 and be creative. Its not for everyone, upclose parades it would kick butt.
http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …0_20mm_f_4_5_6_​EX_DC.html

Oh, BTW.. dollar for dollar the Canon 50mm 1.8 is the best deal out there.. Sales from B&H and Best Buy will often see this lens go for $99..

glasllyn wrote in post #16469128
Thank you in advance for your help!

I have a Rebel T3 (not the T3i; I have the lowest-end Rebel). I have the standard lens and an EF 55-250, which did not do the trick when shooting a local parade. I clearly need a different lens for distant shots. I also think I need a wide-angle for shooting school concerts. Given the variety of lenses, I'm a bit overwhelmed. I'm also not able to pay $1,000 for a lens.
I would appreciate any opinions on lenses you love and why.

If it's just reach you are after, then I would accept the argument for the 300, but if it's image quality, I doubt you would gain much with 300. My friend has the 70-300 and we did a comparison test between her 300 and my 55-250, on both cameras, her 650D and my 7D. In all of the test, both lenses wide open were very similar, but at f8, the 55-250 was the
clear winner!

if I were you i'd start looking at value primes. the canon 50 1.8 feels cheap, and it is, but it produces decent images, especially for the price. the sigma and 85 are both well built and produce great images.

the canon 50 1.8, the sigma 30 1.4, canon 85 1.8. all of these would work well for jndoor school plays although I'd imagine the 85 would probably be best so you have some reach. (although you say you want wide for the concert, unless you are front row you'll end up with the crowd in all the shots)

70-200 F4L NON is one of the best value zooms you can get.

i'm just guessing here as you don't really say what you don't like about your current gear, but hope I helped a little.

for longer shots, maybe a 70-200 F4L.

glasllyn wrote in post #16469128
Thank you in advance for your help!

I have a Rebel T3 (not the T3i; I have the lowest-end Rebel). I have the standard lens and an EF 55-250, which did not do the trick when shooting a local parade. I clearly need a different lens for distant shots. I also think I need a wide-angle for shooting school concerts. Given the variety of lenses, I'm a bit overwhelmed. I'm also not able to pay $1,000 for a lens.
I would appreciate any opinions on lenses you love and why.

Can you post a couple of shots to show why the 55-250 didn't do the trick? It's a great lens for the price, and should be really good for outdoor events like parades. There may be some other reason why you weren't satisfied with your results, but it's hard to make a more precise recommendation without knowing more about the problem.

As for the wide angle, your standard lens should be plenty wide enough for a concert. Again, a sample shot to illustrate the problem would be helpful. I suspect you may have tried to shoot indoors at a concert without a flash. In this case, depending on the lighting, you may actually need a faster lens, not a wider one, or you may simply need to add a flash to your existing kit.

So: some sample shots, and we can make recommendations accordingly!

If you need an upgrade to the 55-250, the 70-200mm f/4L would be my recommendation.

If you need something ultrawide, the Canon 10-22mm. As close as you can get to an L glass for crop sensor without being L.

dfbovey wrote in post #16469265
If you need an upgrade to the 55-250, the 70-200mm f/4L would be my recommendation.

If you need something ultrawide, the Canon 10-22mm. As close as you can get to an L glass for crop sensor without being L.

this is solid advice, maybe consider the tokina 11-16 for the 2.8 aperature if you will be shooting inside a lot.

first off how much are you able to pay? that will narrow things down quite a bit typically...

pretty much all of the ultra wide angles for crops are good lenses, so it comes down to how much you want to spend...although i don't think that lens would be my first choice for a school concert

i'd be interested in seeing how the 55-250IS didn't cut it for you as well...if it's reach alone then you must have been pretty far away from the parade...getting closer, if available is always cheaper than buying a longer lens...i wouldn't really bother going to a 70-300mm lens, or even going backwards and getting a 70-200f4nonIS...especiall​y if you're after reach

ceegee wrote in post #16469237
Can you post a couple of shots to show why the 55-250 didn't do the trick? It's a great lens for the price, and should be really good for outdoor events like parades. There may be some other reason why you weren't satisfied with your results, but it's hard to make a more precise recommendation without knowing more about the problem.

As for the wide angle, your standard lens should be plenty wide enough for a concert. Again, a sample shot to illustrate the problem would be helpful. I suspect you may have tried to shoot indoors at a concert without a flash. In this case, depending on the lighting, you may actually need a faster lens, not a wider one, or you may simply need to add a flash to your existing kit.

So: some sample shots, and we can make recommendations accordingly!

I second this.

It is all very well to say your shots weren't good and you need a better lens, but most often when shots don't turn out well it is down to the photographer and not the equipment, particularly when that photographer is new to the hobby. I don't mean that in a bad way, there is a lot to learn and understand and we all had to climb that learning curve.

The shots of the parade may have been unsatisfactory for many reasons which have nothing to do with the lens quality (the 55-250 should turn out good results). For example:

Did you allow for the longer focal length by using a fast enough shutter speed? You need significantly faster shutter speeds at 250mm than at 50mm.

Did you choose the focus point and place it where you wanted it, or were you using all the focus points and letting the camera decide where it thought the subject was? In a busy scene like a parade the camera would likely focus in the wrong place.

Was the aperture small enough to get everything you wanted within the depth of field? If you want a lot of the parade to look acceptably sharp you would likely need a small aperture - or you could prefer a large aperture and pick out one specific person and let the others be out of focus on purpose of course.

Are your exposures correct?

etc., etc.

It is far better to be sure that it is the lens that is the root cause, before committing more funds to a better lens which will still disappoint you, if it is your technique that needs improving. Like I say, we all start low and improve as we get more knowledge and practice. Even those of us who have been shooting for decades are still learning and improving.

Post some shots you are unhappy with, making sure that you keep the exif data in them, then we can take a look at your shots and settings and have a better idea where the problem lies.

To keep the exif data, don't tick anything that says remove metadata and be sure to use "save as" not "save for web" after resizing (don't use "save" unless using a duplicate file as it will overwrite the original). A 100% crop of where you wanted focus would also help, just use the crop tool to remove a small portion of the frame which you can post without resizing it.

This may not be sound advice but this is what I did. I bought a 15-85 for my every day lens. I have purchased two of these used. If you are patient, you can find them in perfect shape here or on Amazon for under $500.

Then I saved up for a Canon 70-300 L. This lens went on sale last year after Christmas for $1099. More than your current budget but well worth the wait if you can save up for it.

I second the new 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS USM, the "iii" version, and none of the other cheap 70-300 or (yack) 75-300. As I've mentioned before, an organization that tests lenses originally didn't believe the results they were looking at came from this lens. They thought they had switched the data from a much better and more expensive lens. (quote: In fact the data was so impressive that I was already wondering whether I had mixed up the RAW files with a (supposedly) better lens.)

They said they were "baffled" by how good of a lens Canon has given consumers, even including a UD element that is only reserved for higher-end lenses. On a budget, I doubt you could do much better, though admittedly I'm not up on Tamron and Sigma, et al.

Here is that group talking about the 70-300 4-5.6 III IS USM:

"The lens produced very good to excellent MTF figures. As to be expected the performance is best at 70mm with excellent center and border quality at all tested apertures. At 200mm and a little more so at 300mm there's a slight decrease in resolution but the results stay easily within very good territory reaching even excellent center figures at the respective performance peaks. Compared to true L grade lenses the contrast level seems to be a tad lower at 300mm. Nonetheless this is truly baffling for such an affordable lens."

there's no 70-300IS III version...there's only one version that's not an L...

What exactly didn't you like about the shots from the 55-250? It would kind of suck if you spent money on a new lens and still had bad shots because it wasn't a lens issue after all.

DreDaze wrote in post #16469628
there's no 70-300IS III version...there's only one version that's not an L...

Yes, that's the one. Not an L, but has L-glass elements to it that produce L-like results. The guy says he doesn't have a mint (like for an L), so this is a great performer that can be had for a song at Canon's "refurb" site (along with lots of good lenses and bodies).

So it's super sharp, has IS in two planes, and is totally consumer-level in price. I don't think people know how good this "cheap" little lens is yet.