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T3i + Sigma 17-70?

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@Lotheron: I didnt mean the 55-250 not sharp at 200mm. Its just the least sharp of all focal lengths for the lens. Basically... its weak point. That's all. The lens is damn fine. Just slow AF and slow in general.
 
DLeRium said:
@Lotheron: I didnt mean the 55-250 not sharp at 200mm. Its just the least sharp of all focal lengths for the lens. Basically... its weak point. That's all. The lens is damn fine. Just slow AF and slow in general.
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Yeah it's slow, that's for sure. I picked mine up new for $230 and for that price, you can't find a better 200+ lens. That being said, the 70-200 f/4 IS is on my list to replace it.
 
you can pick up used 55-250 for around $175 on CL or on the Canon forums. I just picked one up for $175 off the canon forums.
 
Woo. Got my camera today! Yay pants!

Pretty good in daylight, obviously. It has huge contrast though between shaded areas and not so shaded areas. I obviously need to get a lens besides the included one. I've found that the further reach of 55mm is really not far enough for me. In the view finder I am usually trying to zoom in to things that are probably in the 100mm+ range.

What can I say? I am a creeper. I'll get the nifty fifty and then probably wait a few months before I buy anything else. Of course, if I get a job then I'll buy something nice. 😉
 
Here's a picture I took a few minutes ago. 55mm, 5.6, 1/2500 of a sec I think.

http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/6155/img0041r.jpg

It was incredibly that it even focused. This person was at a street light near where I live and I was going to take a photo of them as if they were going to slowly accelerate. Unfortunately for me, they just hammered the throttle the whole way and they were tons of signs in the way. One handed I just instantly brought it up to my face and turned super fast as they passed by me. Just pressed down the button hoping maybe I'd get something... It focused just in time as they passed me no more than 10ft away.

Obviously it's not super clear, but I was impressed with just how it fast it focused because I was having troubles getting it to focus on what I wanted for a while. I was like, "Fuck. Now I gotta tell it which point on the 9 points to look at...." It was like that a lot when I was driving around and taking photos while stopped. The 18-55 is pretty weak sauce. I need to get a better lense for all the detail... (Which you can see is lacking in that photo)
 
Personally, I find the kit lens more than serviceable. Once you get used to the camera and tweak the settings a bit, you might get better results. Don't give up on it yet. 🙂

Regarding focus point selection, others might disagree but I've found that sticking to the center AF point on the Rebel line is generally a good idea. It's the only cross-type AF point so it uses both horizontal and vertical contrast to autofocus.
In theory, this wouldn't matter a great deal for most situations or until you are using a faster lens, but in practice I find that I get more "keepers" by sticking to the center AF point unless the situation precludes doing so.
 
BigSmooth said:
Personally, I find the kit lens more than serviceable. Once you get used to the camera and tweak the settings a bit, you might get better results. Don't give up on it yet. 🙂

Regarding focus point selection, others might disagree but I've found that sticking to the center AF point on the Rebel line is generally a good idea. It's the only cross-type AF point so it uses both horizontal and vertical contrast to autofocus.
In theory, this wouldn't matter a great deal for most situations or until you are using a faster lens, but in practice I find that I get more "keepers" by sticking to the center AF point unless the situation precludes doing so.
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I tend to do a lot of stuff where the focus point isn't the center, so that might be an issue. 😛 One of the main reasons I don't like the kit lens is that the focus ring is on the tip of the lens. It isn't on the part of the lens that is not moving basically. It's really small and thin. Feels funky and is hard to focus. (This lens has a ton more focus range in the low end than high. It's like like a log function)
 
TridenT said:
I tend to do a lot of stuff where the focus point isn't the center, so that might be an issue.
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Oh, I do too, but I just focus and then reframe the shot, almost like I would with a P&S. You can't do that in every situation, but for the most part it works fine.
It's just something I've gotten used to doing over time; I only use the other AF points when I know the subject will be moving and/or I won't be able to frame the shot like I'd want to otherwise.

And you are correct, the kit lens has awful ergonomics for manual focus. 🙂
 
Low light performance is atrocious with the 18-55mm. At f3.5, 18mm, ISO 6400 I could barely get much of anything in a dimly lit room. Once the lights went out mostly, forget about it. I deal with such low light situations I don't think you could ever get a good exposure.
 
TridenT said:
One time. It was set to that by default. I didn't know what the others did.
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AI servo will continue to focus on a subject even if it moves which is good for action but it does not let you focus and recompose

one time once it locks focus than it will keep it there until you hit the shutter button all the way down or let go

AI will switch automatically between the two or so it says but I normally stick to one of the other two as it seems pretty inconsistent to me
 
mchammer187 said:
AI servo will continue to focus on a subject even if it moves which is good for action but it does not let you focus and recompose

one time once it locks focus than it will keep it there until you hit the shutter button all the way down or let go

AI will switch automatically between the two or so it says but I normally stick to one of the other two as it seems pretty inconsistent to me
Click to expand...

Ok. It seems like one shot is what I'll want unless I am dealing with really fast objects in lots of light.
 
TridenT said:
Low light performance is atrocious with the 18-55mm. At f3.5, 18mm, ISO 6400 I could barely get much of anything in a dimly lit room. Once the lights went out mostly, forget about it. I deal with such low light situations I don't think you could ever get a good exposure.
Click to expand...

Lotheron said:
You aren't going to get good pictures indoors with the kit lens without flash. It goes up to f/5.6 at 55mm! Even with the IS, you're going to be sorely disappointed with the images you get in low light without flash at anything beyond wide
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Hmm, I think I said something about that... 🙂 If you want to shoot indoors, get the 50mm cause it's cheap and it goes to f/1.8 but also get a flash. The difference with a flash bouncing off the ceiling is night and day.

Oh and please don't use the flash that's on the camera. 🙂
 
Lotheron said:
Hmm, I think I said something about that... 🙂 If you want to shoot indoors, get the 50mm cause it's cheap and it goes to f/1.8 but also get a flash. The difference with a flash bouncing off the ceiling is night and day.

Oh and please don't use the flash that's on the camera. 🙂
Click to expand...

I can't use a flash for the photography. :/
 
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