wburychka
Leading Member
I think you are buying the wrong lens. If you had a full frame 35mm SLR, the 50mm F1.8 would be fine as a "normal" lens. With a 1.6 crop factor DSLR, however, 50mm is a short telephoto lens--a portrait lens, if you will. You may find youself forever walking backward in an attempt to get more in the picture--except indoors, of course, where you will simply never be able to get everyone in the picture. The F:1.8 makes it a better low light lens, not necessarily a better indoor lens.
Some have suggested only primes for reasons of personal development. I started with a Nikon F in 1967 with a 50mm F1.4. Took lots of pictures. Later I bought a 135mm and a 28mm. Still later I bought a 28-135, and after that, the other lenses almost never left the bag. I don't necessarily agree with the single focal length helping the learning process. If you don't have to constantly move and change lenses to get the right framing, you can better concentrate on other things, like composition, light, depth of field, etc. Zoom is the way to go.
The DSLR equivalent of the versatile 28-135mm range exists only in Canon's 17-85mm (which translates into 27-136mm in full-frame terms). I bought one, and it is the lens I use for 80% of the shooting I do. It is overpriced. It makes me mad that Canon doesn't include a shade for that price. This has become my favorite lens. The IS is quite useful. Zooms that start at 24 or 28mm are simply not wide enough on a 1.6 DSLR. They were designed to be true wide angle lenses for full frame 35mm cameras. At a 1.6 crop, they don't make sense.
Another choice could be the less expensive Sigma 18-125mm. No Image Stabilization, but that's OK. You should be using a tripod anyway. Tamron has a new 18-200 coming out this spring, and that could be an attractive alternative, too. Or, as someone suggested, find a deal on the 18-55mm "kit" lens. Point is, you need for the wide angle end of the zoom to be 17-18mm, and you need the long end of the zoom to be at least a short telephoto. That is why the Canon 17-40L lens fails the all-purpose test. Wide enough but not long enough.
Doubt the wide angle need? 24mm and 28mm on your camera take in an angle of view comparable to 38 and 46mm, respectively, on a full frame 25. Flip through some photography books--those that caption the pictures with camera, lens, and film settings. See how many published photos are taken at 38-46mm.
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Bill
20D/300D Bigma 50-500, Canon 100-400LIS, Sigma 70-300APOII, Canon 28-135IS, Canon 17-85IS, Canon 18-55, Popeye 12-24, Tamron 1.4x, Canon 2xII
