Flight attendant looking for best travel lenses for 7D

After reading everyone posts it has taken a lot of pressure off me trying to make the right decision - I really appreciate it. The 15-85 probably would work better for me since I do a lot of outdoor photography when traveling and some indoor photography - so maybe adding a prime would work for that. Yesterday I had come so close to purchasing the 15-85 and then had a melt down. I have done so much research and there is so many different opinions I allowed myself to get overwhelmed and went a little nuts yesterday. Thanks again.

I am planning on taking the train to Howth, Ireland tomorrow morning and will take pictures with the 7D and the 28-135 and post them instead of going through my last few trips and posting acceptable ones. I think I have decided to go with the 15-85 as my next lens and add another prime (I have the 50mm) for indoor shots as some have suggested. Since most of my shooting is outside.

Sorry for my behavior it was just such a bad day yesterday. My car broke down and I had to put it in the shop - so I sat home most of the day researching between the 17-55 and 15-85 and had my head spinning by the end of the night. And was just so frustrated when I pulled up the pictures I took from the first time I carried my 7D to London with me. Of course I was just feeling sorry for myself. I have decided today not to give up! I will learn this camera and the lenses if it kills me - plus going to sign up for some photography seminars here in Philadelphia and sign up for photoshop class this fall at the community college.

Thanks again for everyone's support it has been very helpful.

Jen

Carolyn,

Thanks for the tips! I am going to try this tomorrow while on my trip to Dublin. I decided to take the train to Howth and take pictures of the old coastal village. I will post them when I get back Sunday night. I am going to try doing what you suggested with shooting with the 28-135 - appreciate it!

Jen

Thanks for your help. I think I will go with the 15-85 and get another prime to go with my 50mm as suggested by other posters. Thanks again for your help!!! It is so appreciated. Feeling a little better today and not so crazy! I am hoping to order the lens today so I can get it in time for my London trip - we'll see.

Jen

THANKS!!! I just looked at this bag online and going to order it!!

Jen

Glad to hear that you have reconsidered and will give it another try. You have a unique opportunity due to your ability to travel the world. Not many of us have that chance so you should take advantage of your ability to travle the world and capture it. Don't forget to share your photos. Best of luck!

Look no further than the 15-85mm - its a great lens. The extra wide-angle (24mm equivalent) is fantastic. You will miss the wide angle with lenses over 18 (such as the 24-105 - I had one). I also had the 17-40 too - the 15-85 beats all.

T
--
Gone birding... http://picasaweb.google.com/timothyboucherbirder

JennaP said:

Carolyn,

Thanks for the tips! I am going to try this tomorrow while on my trip to Dublin. I decided to take the train to Howth and take pictures of the old coastal village. I will post them when I get back Sunday night. I am going to try doing what you suggested with shooting with the 28-135 - appreciate it!

Jen

Click to expand...

Jen - for what you want to do at this point, and for learning to use the 7D, the 28-135 is a great lens. Don't let anyone discourage you from making good use of it. It is not a "learner's lens", but has certainly served a lot of people well, and is capable of producing some really nice pictures. If you are having problems with blurry pictures, most likely it is you (sorry !) and camera shake, or your subject moving, and not having a high enough shutter speed to counteract those problems.

Please let us see some of your Dublin or Howth pictures. That would really help us here to help you. Don't worry that the pictures are not as good as you think they should be. Remember that we all learn from our mistakes, not our successes !

carolyn
--
Ranger a.k.a chammett
http://www.pbase.com/chammett

'elegance is simplicity'

JennaP said:

Thanks for your help. I think I will go with the 15-85 and get another prime to go with my 50mm as suggested by other posters. Thanks again for your help!!! It is so appreciated. Feeling a little better today and not so crazy! I am hoping to order the lens today so I can get it in time for my London trip - we'll see.

Jen

Click to expand...

Jen...

You have made a good choice with the 15-85. I have the old 17-85 EF-S, and love it for its versatility. I have several lenses covering those focal lengths or I would get the 15-85. So don't start rethinking your choice and let others confuse the issue for you. Assuming you ordered that lens, "you did good" !



carolyn

--
Ranger a.k.a chammett
http://www.pbase.com/chammett

'elegance is simplicity'

I notice others are mentioning focusing problems with the 7D I am wondering if this could be my problem? I put the 7D on autofocus and consistently the pictures that I took with the G9 were better than my 7D which has me so upset because I tried to only shoot with the 7D only occasionally taking out my G9. Now I am bummed because so many shots that could have been great including a seal and a sea gull fighting would have been better I am sure had I taken them with my G9. Now I am wondering if it isn't my 28-135 lens but my 7D itself? I thought if I took pictures in autofocus it would be easier to tell?

Jen

Picture with 7D





Picture with G9

Bronx,

You may be right - I ordered the 15-85 and I will see how it goes....

Thanks
Jen

Carolyn,

You are probably right - I will add the rest of my Howth pictures. I am looking through them now to add to my facebook. Of course the ones that I took with the G9 turned out better. It is probably me though since I am clueless with the new camera so it is probably me and not the camera's fault. Of course I keep seeing posts of others having trouble with their 7D and focusing - I am hoping it is me and not the camera since I can slowly learn how to fix me! (smile).

Thanks I am going to start putting some of them up - beginning with the Howth pictures and hopefully I will get some good feedback on what to do to take better shots. You are right though I do have a great opportunity - it is one of the reason's I want to become a better photographer.

Thanks
Jen

JennaP said:

I notice others are mentioning focusing problems with the 7D I am wondering if this could be my problem? I put the 7D on autofocus and consistently the pictures that I took with the G9 were better than my 7D which has me so upset because I tried to only shoot with the 7D only occasionally taking out my G9. Now I am bummed because so many shots that could have been great including a seal and a sea gull fighting would have been better I am sure had I taken them with my G9. Now I am wondering if it isn't my 28-135 lens but my 7D itself? I thought if I took pictures in autofocus it would be easier to tell?

Jen

Picture with 7D





Picture with G9

Click to expand...

well for one thing f/4 on the G9 gives you more DOF than f/5.6 on the 7D so a wider range of subjects from near to far would look sharp at the same time with the G9

1/125th at 100mm is a bit slow on the 7D (although with IS on it should be ok) so there might be a little bit of shake from hand-holding

i suppose at 1/125th maybe the boats rocking in the water might add a trace of motion blur???

the 7D shot looks ok at the small DPR size, hard to say how it looks viewed at full scale

you might need to adjust the microfocus to match you lens to the body (hopefully not at each focal length)

what focusing mode are you using? single point or all points at once?
ai servo or one shot?
etc.

JennaP said:

Carolyn,

You are probably right - I will add the rest of my Howth pictures. I am looking through them now to add to my facebook. Of course the ones that I took with the G9 turned out better. It is probably me though since I am clueless with the new camera so it is probably me and not the camera's fault. Of course I keep seeing posts of others having trouble with their 7D and focusing - I am hoping it is me and not the camera since I can slowly learn how to fix me! (smile).

Click to expand...

The depth of field is a lot larger with the G9 since it has a much smaller sensor and it is probably causing the difference. You have more in focus with the G9 versus the 7D even at f4 on the G9 and f5.6 on the 7D. What was the focus point in each picture?

Is this your first SLR camera?

There is a difference in depth of field between your 2 cameras, how much will look in focus. It seems that your 7D photo is focused on infinity because things far away are in better focus than the boats. And f5.6 at 100mm is probably "wide open" which means the aperture is as wide as it can be. Try using f8 instead or maybe f9. Use one auto focus point and have it be the center point so you can focus on what you want in focus.

Your G9 photo because its image sensor and focal lengths are much smaller and shorter, has naturally more depth of field. f4 from your g9 is more like f11 to f16 on your 7D which is large depth of field. This is why many that go from a P&S camera to an SLR say their old camera took better pictures and their new SLR isn't working right and everything is out of focus.

Your 28-135 lens might actually be a good lens, you just need to understand what an SLR camera is doing and how to use it to make good photos.

JennaP said:

I am hoping to order the lens today so I can get it in time for my London trip - we'll see.

Click to expand...

I hope you have a good trip,but I've read of this before and take this with a grain of salt. Take a camera that you know how to use well and know how to get good results from. The last thing you want to do is take a new camera that you are unfamiliar with (is this your first SLR camera?) on a big trip and come back with not so good photos. You shouldn't be learning a camera on vacation.

And using brand new lenses on a trip is another consideration. If you know how to test lenses well, that would need to be done so that you don't grab your new lenses and one of both of them has a big focusing error that isn't really well seen on the back of your camera but really comes out on a computer screen.

Consider taking just your G9 since you know how to use it and it seems to take good photos.

Lenses.... hmm.... like so many things a matter of preference and money.

A Sigma 12-24, a 24-70 (either the new Sigma EX DG HSM IF or the Canon L) and a 70-200 (Canon L or Sigma or whatever your pocket stretches to). Alternatively you could take primes, a 14mm f2.8, 28mm f1.8, 50mm f1.8 (which you arleady have), 85mm f1.8 and something a little longer. They will weigh less than the zooms and give results that are at least as good.

Bags... I just bought a ThinkTank Urban Disguise 35 with a shoulder harness. It will go over the handle on your cabin luggage and is small enough to go under an airline seat but large enough to carry a lot of kit. ThinkTank do a lot of bags specifically designed for air travel and so are worth a look:
http://www.thinktankphoto.com/categories/camera-backpacks.aspx

I would also get a Gorillapod Focus, I find the SLR Zoom isn't quite strong enough to hold a metal body SLR and a fat zoom onto a pole in portrait mode. ....and finally, a Benro C168 tripod, they only weigh 980g can hold 8Kg and pack down to 37.5cm. The head will add another 300-400g but not add to the length due to the reversing legs.

--
jase

Hi Jenna,

I see that you travel a lot (putting it mildly). You and the other DP members have identified a lot of good lenses, all worthy of buying. However you need to bear in mind your requirements.

My suggestion is that you stick with the lens that you have, for now. Learn your camera craft, and once you know where your current lens/lenses fall short, then start looking at alternatives to fill either all or some of your requirements.

The same applies to buying a camera bag. My preference is for a backpack/sling bag. However, my wife prefers an all in one bag that can double a hand bag (all be it a rather largish one).

As a suggestion take the gear that you want to travel with, and go to a specialist camera store, either in the USA or UK, and try out the bags (even if it takes hours). Personally, I have just bought my 4th bag. The other 3 are great, but in some way impractical.
--
Tomas

Hi Jenna,

My latest way to judge a lens is going into flickr, search for the group of the lens and see what people can capture with it. I'm kind of a noob with a 7D a 50mm 1.8 and a 18-200mm. I started to look for lens the way I'm describing and found out that love the results of the Sigma 30mm 1.4 and the Tamron 17-50 2.8 VC. So I'm selling my 18-200 to get this two.

I haven't got them yet so I don't know if my strategy works but I hope to find it soon enough .

Also, is my personal opinion that if you want to go on a trip and document your trip a PS will serve you more than well and you won't have to go thinking about apertures and stuff.

If you want to take nice portraits (wide apertures-> thin DOF), better available light (not landscapes) and explore your artistic side (composition and whatnot), impressive macros a SLR is must. But you must know what is your intended effect to know how to set up the shot. It seems that from the shot of the boats you still have some concepts to grasp but they come with study and practice.

By the way that lens doesn't give me a good vibe I think you'll readily see the difference in IQ with the 15-85. And for me landscapes are hard with low quality lenses and SLRs!!

I hope it helps!