Help me build a photoset!

[AmpedSilence]

So, on a recent trip to New Zealand; I finally realized the limitations of my setup.

I have a Canon Elan IIE w/ 28-200 Tamron lens (the old non-compact one) as a walkaround lens. I was shooting Provia 100 slide film. When I compared the picture that came out of that and my uber old Powershot A80; I was so disappointed.

The Provia/Canon set up had served me so well until i took comparing shoots and the Powershot came out about 10x sharper. Never had a digital picture be sharper.

I've been thinking of moving to a digiSLR for quite some time and this just further pushed my desire.

I would like to stick to Canon, since that is all that i ever shoot on and am really comfortable with the setup. I also really like the 30D. Now i just need lens.

suggestions?

 

[tdawg]

I'm a Nikon guy, so I can't specifically recommend any Canon lenses, but it will help if you tell us what you're looking to shoot (landscapes, sports, portraits, etc) as well as your price range. There really aren't even "must-have" lenses because not everybody needs the same lenses to capture the shots they want.

 

[ElFenix]

how are you scanning the slides?

and that lens isn't the sharpest.

 

[AmpedSilence]

To be honest, I love the range that my 28-200 provides me. I can go from landscapes wide angle to portraits length. I have a 200-400 for "sports", but that lens is god awful slow that i haven't used it for a long time.

Mostly, I shoot landscapes. And probably group shots.

budget? eh, i have no idea. I haven't bought ANY photo equipment for over 7 years (expect for P&S digitals).

 

[AmpedSilence]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
how are you scanning the slides?

and that lens isn't the sharpest.

I have a Epson 4490 Photo Perfection. @ 2400dpi; default settings. Though, I don't think that it is the scanner. the medium format film that scanned using the same settings was beautiful.

I know the lens isn't the sharpest, i just didn't realize how bad it was until i compared it to the digital.

 

[tdawg]

Well, an equivalent 18-200 lens for a digital crop camera for Canon will provide questionable quality. Your choices are Tamron and Sigma (I don't think Canon makes an 18-200) and most "all-in-one" lenses suffer in overall image quality. The Nikon 18-200 VR is getting some good user reviews, but that's not going to work for you.

Have a look around bhphotovideo.com or adorama.com to get a feel for lens prices in the focal length range you're interested in to figure out how much your willing to spend. Nice Canon lenses are going to do a decent job in thinning out your wallet, especially "L" lenses. Third party lenses can be pretty decent, but you have to do your research on them. Hopefully some of the lenses you're looking for will be available to test in a local photo store.

 

[AmpedSilence]

going through the sticky for building a lens set i like the tamron 28-75. It is getting decent reviews and it is a decent price.

I would probably compliment that with a Sigma 70-200 OR the Canon 70-200 (listed for $580, i can give a bit on the aperture).

and finally, add the canon 50 fixed that listed as "the dark horse" I think that brings my lens cost up to 1k and add the body of the 30D for a total set up cost of $2k (including things like cards, filters, bag, etc).

Thats quite a bit of a different price point then when i made my Elan setup; that cost me a total of $500.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: tdawg
Well, an equivalent 18-200 lens for a digital crop camera for Canon will provide questionable quality. Your choices are Tamron and Sigma (I don't think Canon makes an 18-200) and most "all-in-one" lenses suffer in overall image quality. The Nikon 18-200 VR is getting some good user reviews, but that's not going to work for you.

the nikon 18-200 is still soft compared to what you would get with more normal zoom range lenses.

if you want a lightweight travel kit with similar range and vastly improved sharpness i'd suggest something like a tamron 17-50 combined with a sigma 50-150 (that is about a $1000 lens combo, though less expensive than trying to cover the same range on film with the same f/2.8 aperture).

i've got the tamron 28-75. while it's a fine lens, it has no wide angle whatsoever on an APS-C body. so you won't want that as a mostly landscape photographer.

i pair the tamron with the sigma 10-20. that leaves a big gap between 20 and 28, which is where a lot of useful photography falls.



you might want to see if a local camera store will scan those slides for you with a nikon slide scanner.