what's a good lens?

i have a canon rebel xsi and i was wondering whats a good lens for

Taking photos of bands in low light situations?

taking photos in a club?

taking good portrait photos?


Just 3 separate lens or some can be the same but ya please let me know ^.^ also if there are any good techniques for low light situations where you cant have a tripod.

Canon 50mm f/1.8

celloman808 wrote in post #9746922
i have a canon rebel xsi and i was wondering whats a good lens for

Taking photos of bands in low light situations?

taking photos in a club?

taking good portrait photos?


Just 3 separate lens or some can be the same but ya please let me know ^.^ also if there are any good techniques for low light situations where you cant have a tripod.

I'd go with the Canon 85mm f/1.8. More expensive than the Nifty Fifty, but better for Portraits and still a rock solid lens for low light... also better build than the 50.

Here's a typical user review of this lens from Amazon:


146 of 150 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
By Abdulrahman Aljabri (Jeddah)

Do you really need this lens?
The answer is most likely yes; since its price make it the best value for a fast canon prime lens. But before you make the $350 plunge here are few useful things to know about how it can be used. Keep in mind that I use this lens on the Rebel XT (1.6 factor), which means it provides me with an angel of view similar to 135mm on film cameras.

SHARPNESS: Yes that's one feature you can count on when buying this lens. This lens produces very sharp pictures. So much so that it will blow away your 18-55 kit lens (if you have one) and all other zoom lenses. Exception to that are the L-series zooms. The sharpness difference will be obvious even in the smallest of prints (4 by 6). If you can't envision such difference then consider this. Sharpness can be viewed as contrast between the edges of different color objects. Hence, the sharper an image the greater the contrast in the edges between such groups of color. This lens captures the contrast in such setting better than most other lenses.

SPEED: This lens is blazingly fast. As such you will have the opportunity to shoot at higher shutter speeds wide open (remember the inverse relation between aperture and shutter speed). More importantly you gain the ability to shoot in low light situations (concert for example) and still maintain a decent shutter speed for handholding. Here's the best part, if you're like most new people to photography, you probably plan to take self portraits. This lens will give you that ability, as you will be able to buy few clamp on lights coupled with 100-150W bulbs and start shooting at medium ISO speeds wide open.

ANGEL OF VIEW: Assuming you will be using this lens on a 1.6 digital format consider that you will be having a tight crop, more like that of a 135mm lens on a film camera (1.6*85=136). What does that translate to in practical terms? You will have to stand 6-8 feet away from your subject to be able to cover their head and shoulders at landscape orientation.

SPECIAL EFFECTS: Here are two special effects you will find useful in this lens depth of field and compression. To some degree or another every lens offers depth of field, which can be summarize as having only the subject of interest in focus and the rest of the picture blurred. This lens is unique in that it creates a very shallow depth of field in which the subject is truly isolated from the whole scene. Set the aperture to 1.8 and focus correctly and you can achieve such results. More importantly the lens quality of such blur (known as bokeh) is outstanding as there are eight diaphragm blades that control the aperture opening vs. 5 or 6 in many other lenses.

As for compression, since the camera is a telephoto it will compress everything in its sight closer together to fit in its sight. For example, if you are photographing a person, their face will look wider and their nose will look smaller or flatter. Keep in mind that unlike some of the longer telephoto lenses (300mm for example) the effect with this lens is subtle and pleasant

SIZE AND BUILD: Its size and weight are perfect! It balances my XT very nicely. So much so, that I can take pictures at very low shutter speeds with this combination (though I don't find my self doing that that often with this fast lens). All this translates to comfort and confidence when I am shooting with this lens. The build quality is excellent, I find no inherit weakness in the design.

If you plan to photograph friends and family then this is the lens. You will take sharp pictures with the right kind of effects for portraits like compression and beautiful bokeh. The lens is fast and designed excellently for maximum control and comfort. You won't miss a shot because of shake with slow shutter speeds and even if you do (that's a big if) you can put its speed to use by dialing a higher aperture. It's only draw back is that it has a pretty tight angel of view on 1.6 factor SLRs. I can't think of any other prime in the non-L canon line up that matches this lens (other than possibly the 50mm 1.4). Truly an incredible value, buy it with confidence!

Ps. By no means does this review cover all the merits of this lens. To name a couple, the lens offers precise auto focus and low chromatic aberration. Rather, I covered the features that were most useful for its intended purpose; taking pictures of people.

24-70 f/2.8 and 70-200 f/2.8

Club photos, are usually wide and usually need a little help from flash. So really any lens wider than about 24mm with a flash set on slow-sync

The band and portrait lenses could be the same. Probably 50mm f1.4, 85mm f1.8, or 100mm f2 depending on how close you will to be.

hsmoscout wrote in post #9747003
Canon 50mm f/1.8

I would go for the 50 1.4 before the 1.8 any day.

kingdaddy wrote in post #9747823
I would go for the 50 1.4 before the 1.8 any day.

+1 unless I was just plain broke.

bsaber wrote in post #9747978
+1 unless I was just plain broke.

Then consider me broke.

+1 for the 85 f/1.8. Good reach, nice and sharp wide open, fast accurate focus.

If you go with f/2.8 zoom lens you will likely need IS, unless you have a camera capable of ISO6400 (such as 5DmkII)

The 85mm is good for indoor portraits at say clubs but you won't get very much in the shot aside from 1-2 persons.

Besides the 50mm 1.8 sucks at focusing xD/xxD bodies have better AF systems though but the 85mm i have is better then the 50mm i have, by miles!

kingdaddy wrote in post #9747823
I would go for the 50 1.4 before the 1.8 any day.

+2.