Wife is going on a trip - cheap walk around lense for Auto mode on an XTI ?

The wife is heading to Europe with the mother in law and right now i have my uncles Canon Rebel XTI on hand as my 40D crapped out.

She is taking a P&S Nikon, but the quality is not great so i am going to give her the XTI and let her use it in Auto mode to take pics and they will be far better than the Nikon.

Right now i have 2 lense (which are my uncles as well)

Canon EF 50mm 1.8 (cheapo nifty fifty)

Sigma DC 18-200mm - http://www.dpreview.co​m …gma_18-200_3p5-6p3_os_n15

Sigma DC HSM EX 10-20MM fisheye http://www.dpreview.co​m …ews/sigma_10-20_4-5p6_n15

She will be taking just the camera and one lense and some CF cards.

Is the 18-200 good enough as a general walk around lense? She will be doing indoor and outdoor pics, Spain, Paris, Rome, Italy and such..

I had though do i get the 18-55 kit lense again or is there something else on the cheap i could maybe get that could be a better walk around lense for Auto modes ?

I would think the 18-200 will do fine. Just don't expect great focusing indoors. Why can't she take the nifty, as well?

Could give her the nifty to, i think it would be more when to use it, i guess I could tell her to change to the nifty when indoors and the other one when outside.

Just want it to be as easy as possible for her with the least amount of lense changing, or just tell them to use the Panasonic DMC-TS4 indoors. Not sure why but anything i have tried with this Panasonic the pictures just do not come out very clear or detailed.

I would give her both the 18-200 and 50 and just educate her, briefly, that if AF starts hunting to change over to the 50, with the 18-200 being the main go-to.

Also, while changing lenses is a PITA it's not as traumatic as some make it out to be lol.

Mathiau wrote in post #17364820
The wife is heading to Europe with the mother in law and right now i have my uncles Canon Rebel XTI on hand as my 40D crapped out.

She is taking a P&S Nikon, but the quality is not great so i am going to give her the XTI and let her use it in Auto mode to take pics and they will be far better than the Nikon.

Right now i have 2 lense (which are my uncles as well)

Canon EF 50mm 1.8 (cheapo nifty fifty)

Sigma DC 18-200mm - http://www.dpreview.co​m …gma_18-200_3p5-6p3_os_n15

Sigma DC HSM EX 10-20MM fisheye http://www.dpreview.co​m …ews/sigma_10-20_4-5p6_n15

She will be taking just the camera and one lense and some CF cards.

Is the 18-200 good enough as a general walk around lense? She will be doing indoor and outdoor pics, Spain, Paris, Rome, Italy and such..

I had though do i get the 18-55 kit lense again or is there something else on the cheap i could maybe get that could be a better walk around lense for Auto modes ?

Heya,

I'd take a wider lens. 18-55 is a good option. But the 18-200 since you already have it is fine, so I'd go there, if that's what you have.

Really, a 10-18 or 10-22 (non fish eye) would be wonderful and would be my overall preference, short of a wide prime (22mm would get my vote for APS-C).

This is where I'd take my EOS-M and 22mm F2 prime and call it a day.

Very best,

I spent 5 years in (West) Germany, in the '70s & '80s. If I were only taking a crop camera and one lens to Europe, that lens would most certainly be a UWA zoom. I used to have a 10-22; it is excellent, and highly recommended. The 10-18 is cheaper and smaller. Also take the Nikon P&S, in case she wants something longer. My guess is she'd never use the Nikon.

EDIT: I just discovered that the Sigma 10-20 is NOT a fisheye lens. Put that on your XTi, and send her off. That is all she'll need.

The 18-200, which you already have, is a great choice. It'll give her plenty of options. Personally I wouldn't recommend an UWA for a novice user, and I certainly wouldn't recommend it as the only lens on a trip like this, where photography isn't the main focus. IMHO a general lens will produce better results for her, and 18 mm is wide enough for the majority of circumstances.

ceegee wrote in post #17365584
The 18-200, which you already have, is a great choice. It'll give her plenty of options. Personally I wouldn't recommend an UWA for a novice user, and I certainly wouldn't recommend it as the only lens on a trip like this, where photography isn't the main focus. IMHO a general lens will produce better results for her, and 18 mm is wide enough for the majority of circumstances.

I respectfully disagree. I novice UWA shooter, who is at least familiar with framing and composition, will accidentally bring home more good photos of European cities and landscapes than a general tourist with an 18-200. The 18-200 may well get a larger variety of shots. That does not necessarily make those shots interesting.

And the 18-200 is redundant; the Nikon P&S can cover that range. Have her take the UWA Sigma 10-20, and the Nikon.

i agree, i feel like a 10-20mm would result in a lot of terrible shots...especially if she's using it to take photos with people in it...there will be lot of friends wondering why they look so strange

if she has no experience with the DSLR, i'd just let her take the P&S...

We travel to Europe frequently (stepdaughter lives in Paris), and my wife, who is not an experienced photographer, always takes only her T2i with the 18-200. I offered her to take any other lens that I have, e.g., the 15-85, the 10-20, the 70-200, but she flatly refuses saying that the 18-200 covers almost all she wants to shoot and that she hates changing lenses when traveling.

I understand the changing part, she just does not want to be bothered with that when in touristy places with crowds of people around.

Lbsimon wrote in post #17365796
We travel to Europe frequently (stepdaughter lives in Paris), and my wife, who is not an experienced photographer, always takes only her T2i with the 18-200. I offered her to take any other lens that I have, e.g., the 15-85, the 10-20, the 70-200, but she flatly refuses saying that the 18-200 covers almost all she wants to shoot and that she hates changing lenses when traveling.

I work in Europe and the US and travel back and forth quite a bit. I think I had 12 round trips in 2014.

I've carried my 16-35, 24-105 and 70-200 across with the FF 5D3 body, and I think I could live with just the 24-105. That's why I quoted your post, you mentioned the 15-85. I know the OP doesn't have that lens, but IMO on a 1.6X body that would be just about ideal since it gives that same starting AOV (24mm equivalent) as I get with the 24-105L on FF.

I looked at the stuff I shot in Europe in the last year, and while I have a few shots at 16mm (10mm for the OP) and at 200mm (135mm for the OP). the vast bulk are around 24mm to 50mm.

For the OP, my first suggestion would be to think about the 10-20, but I agree that it would be nice to have something a bit longer. The 18-200 is an OK choice, but really something that just covers the heart of the range like the 15-85 (or a 24-105 on FF) is ideal.

Also, IMO the 50/1.8 is going to be pointless. If low light situations arise, IS is going to be much more useful than a large aperture. I doubt a neophyte shooting auto mode will be able to deal with the shallow DOF, and even an experienced photographer is going to realize that they want more DOF than f/1.8 can offer in low light. In this scenario IS is the answer, not a fast aperture.

Completely agree with you. I tried various combinations of lens with me in Europe, and ended up with just the 70D and the 15-85. 15mm was wide enough, no need for the 10-20. Not much to shoot with a telephoto. Wide open prime, while theoretically good for poorly lit churches, are completely useless with a very thin DOF in huge spaces.

Now that I got the 6D, it will be the 24-105.

I suggested the OP to use the 18-200 just because he already has it.

Great feedback everyone, the idea of the 10-20mm is interesting, it was sold to my uncle from henry's as a fish eye lense, i had even questioned him when he told me he bought it but i never used it until he lent me his Camera and lense when my 40D took a crap.

i would love to get a 15-85, but wife would kill me, since myself i am between Camera's right now myself, saving for the next big purchase, otherwise i would buy one of those.

Maybe before the trip i get her to try out both lenses anyways around town and see how she does with both.