Just Got a Camera

Joined: 29 Dec 2006 Posts: 56

I just recieved a Rebel xTi as a gift....

It has the kits lens.

I'm looking at getting the battery grip, and a telephoto lens....

Anyone have any experience with any of the following lenses?

http://www.adorama.com/TM70300DEOS.html

http://www.adorama.com/SG70300DAEOS.html

http://www.adorama.com/SG55200EOS.html

Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 55

while i don't have any experience with these particular lenses, I would offer the following generalization:

Stay away from second party lenses. They are cheaper in every way from the Canon equivalent.

That being said, if you don't really plan on taking high quality images and just want to be able to zoom a bit more for snapshots, these lenses, i'd guess, are great.

Many on this forum will disagree with me and would swear by Tamron, Tokina, Sigma, etc., but I've played with many and they've all been cheap.

Hope that helps.

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:05 am

Dexypoo wrote:

Stay away from second party lenses. They are cheaper in every way from the Canon equivalent.

Sorry to be blunt, but that's a load of horsecrap. There are many excellent lenses in the Sigma EX line, and in the tokina AT-X PRO line. These are professional quality lenses by these manufacturers. I'm not sure how tamron grades their lenses, but there are a couple of absolutely legendary Tamron lenses out there as well (for example the 28-75mm f/2.8, which basically matches the flagship Canon 24-70 f/2.8L in terms of optics, and the tamron 90mm macro, which some people swear is better than the canon 100mm macro).

As a general rule, any lens under $300 is junk. Unfortunately this bracket is where Sigma and Tamron get their bad reputations - they do offer up a good sized handful of the $150 junk lenses. You can do great things with junk though. Just look at the holga crowd, for example. And if you're a playful amateur and you don't have limitless pockets, there's nothing wrong with using a $150 telephoto lens. You won't get fantastic optics, but you can still take fantastic pictures.

The exceptions to this "rule" are some of the fast prime lenses, like canon's 50mm f/1.8 ($100 or less, and built like a plastic toy, but fantastic nonetheless), a couple of sigma 30mm and 50mm lenses, etc.

Joined: 29 Dec 2006 Posts: 56

Yeah....limitless pockets and I aren't exactly buddies at the moment.

Don't really have $500 for a lens at the moment, basically just need something to tide me over for a year or so. Which of those three would be considered the "best"?

Joined: 13 Mar 2005 Posts: 68

I have the 19-35 tamron and the 100-400 tamron and im pretty happy with the performance. the price is right. eventually I will upgrade to some better glass but for now these are great.

Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 199 Location: Worcester, England

Have you considered a second hand lens, say off eBay.
You would probably be able to get a genuine Canon in good condition for a reasonable price.

Joined: 12 Sep 2006 Posts: 41

ncmoody wrote:

Have you considered a second hand lens, say off eBay.
You would probably be able to get a genuine Canon in good condition for a reasonable price.

Or maybe not, lots of out of control bidding.

Tee

Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 199 Location: Worcester, England

torphoto wrote:

Or maybe not, lots of out of control bidding.

Tee

Not something I have had too much trouble with, when it has occured I have just walked away and waited for the next one to come along.
I have had some smashing bargains in Nikon Glass off eBay here in the UK.