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What lens should I buy apart from 18x55mm

Started Jul 25, 2015 | Questions
Evil Nemesis
Evil Nemesis Forum Member • Posts: 90
What lens should I buy apart from 18x55mm

Hi, I just got a Canon EOS 1100D AKA Rebel T3 (it came with 18x55mm lens) as my first DSLR. Now what lens should I buy for it? Is 75x300mm 3rd gen good enough for budget and experience?

Is that lens good enough for travel / landscape / zoom and night photography ?

Thanks

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Canon EOS 1100D Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM Canon EF 50mm F1.8 STM
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Canon EOS 1100D (EOS Rebel T3 / EOS Kiss X50)
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Lemming51
Lemming51 Forum Pro • Posts: 15,278
Re: What lens should I buy apart from 18x55mm

Hi, I just got a Canon EOS 1100D AKA Rebel T3 (it came with 18x55mm lens) as my first DSLR. Now what lens should I buy for it? Is 75x300mm 3rd gen good enough for budget and experience?

Is that lens good enough for travel / landscape / zoom and night photography ?

Thanks

Already a thread re the 75-300 III in the lens forum. Summarizing: NO. For your camera, the preferred telezoom is the EF-S 55-250 f/4-5.6 IS STM. or the mk I or II for a little less.
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Lemming51
Lemming51 Forum Pro • Posts: 15,278
oops, it's on this forum. =nt=
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Evil Nemesis
OP Evil Nemesis Forum Member • Posts: 90
Re: What lens should I buy apart from 18x55mm

Lemming51 wrote:

Hi, I just got a Canon EOS 1100D AKA Rebel T3 (it came with 18x55mm lens) as my first DSLR. Now what lens should I buy for it? Is 75x300mm 3rd gen good enough for budget and experience?

Is that lens good enough for travel / landscape / zoom and night photography ?

Thanks

Already a thread re the 75-300 III in the lens forum. Summarizing: NO. For your camera, the preferred telezoom is the EF-S 55-250 f/4-5.6 IS STM. or the mk I or II for a little less.
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Unapologetic Canon Apologist

Thanks, can you explain why is that? sorry but I'm newbie in lenses stuff.

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Canon EOS 1100D Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM Canon EF 50mm F1.8 STM
Lemming51
Lemming51 Forum Pro • Posts: 15,278
Re: What lens should I buy apart from 18x55mm
1

Lemming51 wrote:

Hi, I just got a Canon EOS 1100D AKA Rebel T3 (it came with 18x55mm lens) as my first DSLR. Now what lens should I buy for it? Is 75x300mm 3rd gen good enough for budget and experience?

Is that lens good enough for travel / landscape / zoom and night photography ?

Thanks

Already a thread re the 75-300 III in the lens forum. Summarizing: NO. For your camera, the preferred telezoom is the EF-S 55-250 f/4-5.6 IS STM. or the mk I or II for a little less.
--
Unapologetic Canon Apologist

Thanks, can you explain why is that? sorry but I'm newbie in lenses stuff.

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3875987
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Evil Nemesis
OP Evil Nemesis Forum Member • Posts: 90
Re: What lens should I buy apart from 18x55mm

funny I was actually reading that thread. Actually the guy from whom I bought the camera had this lens so I thought about asking here first. Thanks to DPReview users I'm glad that I didn't throw my money into garbage. I was gonna do it soon.

So that means we can't go over 250mm with this camera?

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Canon EOS 1100D Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM Canon EF 50mm F1.8 STM
Dareshooter Veteran Member • Posts: 5,842
Re: What lens should I buy apart from 18x55mm
4

Evil Nemesis wrote:

funny I was actually reading that thread. Actually the guy from whom I bought the camera had this lens so I thought about asking here first. Thanks to DPReview users I'm glad that I didn't throw my money into garbage. I was gonna do it soon.

So that means we can't go over 250mm with this camera?

You can go way over 250mm with the camera but largely depends on your budget. The other guys were recommending the 55-250mm lens because it's an excellent lens and you'd have to spend a lot more money to better it in that range.

Clive50
Clive50 Contributing Member • Posts: 693
Re: What lens should I buy apart from 18x55mm
1

I started with the T3 and an 18-55, got the 55-250 non STM strait away and was very happy, since last May I have now upgraded to a T3i (600d) and a few more lenses. Tamron 150-600 and a 50mm.

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(unknown member) Senior Member • Posts: 1,015
Re: What lens should I buy apart from 18x55mm
1

Another vote for the 55-250 STM. I'd target the STM version myself. The AF is silent, fast, accurate, has full time focus over ride, & a non rotating front element. If you ever want to attach filters. It's cheap, & light, & sharp as a tack. It's pretty much unbeatable in this FL/price range. Some shots from my M with this lens

Full res, so you can see just how crispy it is.

A bit of action......

And some wildlife.

selected answer This post was selected as the answer by the original poster.
SnappyChappie Regular Member • Posts: 434
Re: What lens should I buy apart from 18x55mm
1

Evil Nemesis wrote:

Hi, I just got a Canon EOS 1100D AKA Rebel T3 (it came with 18x55mm lens) as my first DSLR. Now what lens should I buy for it? Is 75x300mm 3rd gen good enough for budget and experience?

Is that lens good enough for travel / landscape / zoom and night photography ?

Thanks

Hello EN,

Well, to cope with all those situations you mentioned - travel, landscape, zoom (by which you must mean telephoto, far distance) and night (low-light) - then, no, the 75x300mm is not a good choice on your 1100D, as it could ONLY do telephoto 'well'.

[Notice: if you don't want to read all my waffle below (as i do go on!) then skip to the end paragraph for my humble opinion conclusion ]

If you're looking for a telephoto lens to compliment your 18-55mm then, as mentioned by others, the Canon 55-250mm (the II version or STM) tele-lens is ideal as it's fairly compact & light with a good zoom range and image quality. You can go longer but then it starts to get heavier. Your 18-55 can do the other tasks adequatly but not brilliantly - a tripod would help a lot for the landscapes and night shots.

If you want one lens to do-it-all then you find it most difficult to find such a lens as it doesn't exist! But there are some that get close, but all will be heavier and larger then your 18-55mm by varying degrees but you can still travel with them - and u wouldn't need your 18-55mm anymore. IMHO the Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM is an ideal one-lens-only travel lens as it has a good enough zoom length (even if it's not very long) - but more useful is the 15mm wide end which is good for landscapes and general use in many situations. People may also recommend the Canon 18-135mm STM lens as it has a longer zoom, but for me i never really got on with the feel of this lens and it's longer size than the 15-85 as i always wanted wider field-of-view.

If you still want even longer zoom and have only one lens then a "super-zoom" lens is the what you may need to replace your little 18-55 kit lens with. Superzooms start a little wide and go very long zoom and are usually of a good compact size and weight for travel but do sacrifice some IQ but will be on par with your kit lens and none will be ideal for night photography especially at the long end due to small apertures. Such lenses include Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS, the Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC Macro OS HSM (there is now an 18-300mm version of this) and the Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD LD Macro (there is now a 16-300mm version of this lens which looks VERY appealing i must say!).

If you want to do night photography / low-light photography then the best lens to use is a "fast" prime (non-zoom wide aperture) lens as they are the best way to get the most of the low light into the camera, and for your APS-C sensored camera the better focal lengths to look for IMHO are the 24mm and 28mm lenses. The new Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM pancake lens is the minimum to go for in terms of aperture size, and it's great for general use too and not too expensive the other one to look at is the Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM which has a nice wide aperture but is a bit more expensive. You can look at the new Canon EF 50mm 1.8 STM as it's cheap but you may find the tight field-of-view annoyingly restrictive, same with the Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 pancake.

Since you seem like a beginner with limited knowledge and money and wants to cover as many photographic situations as possible when on holiday my personal opinion would be to get one of the super-zoom lenses mentioned above - such as the Tamron 16-300mm, and one prime lens - such as the Canon 24mm pancake. Once you've played more with your EOS1100 and such lenses and saved some more money you can in the future decide which area of photography you'd like to improve more on and which lenses would better suit you. Have fun whatever you decide to go with!

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Evil Nemesis
OP Evil Nemesis Forum Member • Posts: 90
Re: What lens should I buy apart from 18x55mm

Thanks for such indepth reply friend. Now I know a bit more about lenses thanks to all those who contributed in this thread.

I think I'll go with 55-250 for now and later buy one with wide aperture. I wonder many lenses out there don't support wide aperture while canon s95 has 2.5 aperture (don't know if it's similar to a DSLR value).

I also heard about other lenses like portrait, macro and ultra wide angle but I think I don't need them as I'm also a digital artist.

Thanks alot again.

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Canon EOS 1100D Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM Canon EF 50mm F1.8 STM
Digirame Forum Pro • Posts: 41,857
Re: What lens should I buy apart from 18x55mm
1

I've been using the Canon 55-250mm IS (non-STM) lens for about 3-1/2 years. It's great for a first time telephoto lens. The STM version is even better.

Later I bought a Tamron 150-600mm lens. Even though I have now a more powerful telephoto lens in terms of reach, the Canon 55-250mm IS lens is still very nice because of its quality, cost and size. It's relatively lightweight. Here's a photo from the Canon 55-250mm IS lens and Tamron 150-600mm lens (I took them both at an air show last weekend). I'm showing you the results from a Tamron 150-600mm lens also just to let you know that eventually you can upgrade to one like that (for a reasonably affordable price). Plus eventually you'll want to upgrade your camera too (assuming that you are interested in doing that).

Canon 55-250mm IS lens (cropped a little to get closer)

Tamron 150-600mm VC lens

R2D2 Forum Pro • Posts: 26,551
Re: What lens should I buy apart from 18x55mm
1

+ 100 for the 55-250 STM.  Best bang for the buck.

And if you're looking for something for low light, the new (very inexpensive) 50mm STM is a real winner.

Have fun with your new toy!

R2

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karl mohr Senior Member • Posts: 1,678
Re: What lens should I buy apart from 18x55mm

I don't think anyone mentioned it yet, but Tamron has a SP 70-300mm Di VC USD lens that is pretty nice and inexpensive - any might even have a reasonable mail-in rebate.  I bought one for $449.00 a year and a half ago and got a $100 rebate.  If you go this route make sure you don't buy the non-VC version.  I also own and like the Canon EF 70-300mm IS, and the 2nd version of the 55-250.

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Sir Canon
Sir Canon Senior Member • Posts: 1,572
Re: What lens should I buy apart from 18x55mm

imo the 75-300 III is terrible for daytime photos. only thing its good at is astrophotography

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Evil Nemesis
OP Evil Nemesis Forum Member • Posts: 90
Re: What lens should I buy apart from 18x55mm
1

Finally got it after a long time. Thanks everyone for advice. Thanks you again.

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