a good zoom lens for a newbie

any suggestions for my xti? i'm still learning & dont know a whole lot right now. how about used lenses? should i buy new or used?

What are you planning to shoot? whats your budget?

farrukh wrote in post #4032134
What are you planning to shoot? whats your budget?

nice general lens... tryigng to stay inder $200 for right now while i'm learing. I do want to be able to have a nice zoom for the pasture & things.

what sort of things do you want to shoot with it?

What lens do you have now?

Many who are new to photography think a "Zoom" lens is a long telephoto lens for taking photos of things far away. This is not true. "Zoom" just means "variable". You can have a wide angle zoom, a telephoto zoom, or even a zoom that goes from wide, all the way to telephoto.

Which do you want? What will you shoot? aHow much can you spend?

I think used lenses are a great way for a beginner to learn the basics and learn what suits them. There is lots of good "Zoom" lenses on ebay right now. Some are less than $100 and even come with some pretty good old film cameras attached to them.

msowsun wrote in post #4032175
What lens do you have now?

Many who are new to photography think a "Zoom" lens is a long telephoto lens for taking photos of things far away. This is not true. "Zoom" just means "variable". You can have a wide angle zoom, a telephoto zoom, or even a zoom that goes from wide, all the way to telephoto.

Which do you want? What will you shoot? aHow much can you spend?

I think used lenses are a great way for a beginner to learn the basics and learn what suits them. There is lots of good "Zoom" lenses on ebay right now. Some are less than $100 and even come with some pretty good old film cameras attached to them.

I currently have the kit lens 18-55mm. which i like but i want to be able to zoom into a horse or a cow or the moon?

Thats a tight budget. But no worries you can use your 18-55 for general shooting. You need reach for the moon or animals so you need a telephoto lens. in your budget, Sigma 70-300 APO fits well. I had that lens and it was quite handy you can checkout my gallery for birds and macro shots I shot with this lens. It also has semi macro ability for fun.

I would recommend any of the low cost "consumer" lenses by Canon, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, etc. Something like a 55-200, 70-210, 75-300, or 100-300.

Just be aware that these lenses on a 1.6 crop camera like your XTi will need a fast shutter speed in order to stop blurry pictures from hand held camera shake.

The Sigma 70-300 APO version would be a great start. Good bang for the buck lens.

msowsun wrote in post #4032278
I would recommend any of the low cost "consumer" lenses by Canon, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, etc. Something like a 55-200, 70-210, 75-300, or 100-300.

Just be aware that these lenses on a 1.6 crop camera like your XTi will need a fast shutter speed in order to stop blurry pictures from hand held camera shake.

how to i change the shutter speed?

msowsun wrote in post #4032278
I would recommend any of the low cost "consumer" lenses by Canon, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, etc. Something like a 55-200, 70-210, 75-300, or 100-300.

Just be aware that these lenses on a 1.6 crop camera like your XTi will need a fast shutter speed in order to stop blurry pictures from hand held camera shake.

how to i change the shutter speed?

Mr. Clean wrote in post #4032295
The Sigma 70-300 APO version would be a great start. Good bang for the buck lens.

I second that. I recently got one for $201 shipped from Amazon.com.

Note: the "APO" is important. Sigma makes another 70-300 that's not nearly as sharp.

-js

Sig 55-200 for $100 gives you continuous range from 18-200...I like this lens a lot...

another vote for the Sigma APO DG 70-300mm especially for the money