Canon Rebel XTi

Bought this camera with the lens kit about 4 weeks ago, the day before our trip to China. Took about 400-500 shots, most of which turned out quite well. I must also state that this is my very first SLR camera and I am at still at the "point and shot" phase. After we came home I went back to the camera shop and bought a new lens for it. It is an EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM. The difference in the quality of the pics were imediately noticable, Of course so was the price of the lens. But one gets what one pays for. Needless to say I am very happy with it.

Now I am looking at a longer focal length zoom lense for the XTi. I read the review on two of them. One is a Sigma 18-200mm and the other is a Tamron 18-250mm. Both would be available early next year. Any thoughts on these two lenses?

Also I have another question. I took some shots at the 17mm focal length looking through two pillars. Both of them were "bent". I know that it is due to the lens construction or something like it. Somewhere I read that this may be corrected using some kind of software. Is it true? Thanks for any and all answers.

Regards,

Hi, congrats on your camera. I don't have any advice, a newbie myself, but I do know your responses here are proportionate to the quality of your question. Folks will want to see an example of the "bent" pictures, and will want to know the types of pics you wish for with your new lens purchase as well as your budget. Gain, congrats and welcome to this Forum. There are many excellent photographers here and most everyone is extremely helpful.

The bigger the 'range' of the zoom...the more compromises they had to make...so image quality suffers. You already have two lenses that cover the 18mm length...why would you want another? Look at a 70-200mm lens...or maybe a 70-300mm lens.

You think that lens is good...wait till you try a really good lens...or a great lens!

I suggest getting the 50mm F1.8. It's cheap but optically it's much better that your kit lens...or even your new lens.

Hello,

Here's a link that I put up with B&H catalog numbers for lenses that I recommend (sorted by the strength of my recommendation for someone just starting out):

http://dsnyder.ws-e.com/canon_2006/

Sorry, only Canon stuff here, but this may give you an idea. I use PTLens for barrel distortion correction. Seems to work pretty well, and the price is right.

If you're looking for something longer, I'd go with one of the 70-200, or 70-300 zooms. The superzooms like you mentioned are too much of an optical compromise, which is what happens when you try and squeeze that much range out of one lens. Besides, they'd overlap your new 17-85 too much. A good companion to your 17-85, would be the Canon 70-300 IS lens. Those 2 lenses would give you an imaged stabilized range of 17mm-300mm. Another excellant lens would be the Canon 70-200 f4L. Either one of these will set you back around $600.

Hi Everybody:

You guys are fast. I am not only new at the SLR level but also posting things and conversing on sites like this. Now my question: how do I post pictures to this site. Bear with me, I am learning.
Regards

Hello David:

Thanks for the PTlens info.
Steven