[Joakes]

Hi everybody,

I have a canon 400D with the standard 18-55mm kit lens (not the IS version).

I have £500.00 to spend on new lens. I take mostly landscape and family (portrait) photos.

I was thinking about the Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 EX DC HSM Lens for my landscape shots and the cheap Canon 50mm 1.8 for portraits.

Am I jumping the gun though? Should I be looking to get a better everyday / walkabout use lens?

Any advice would be most appreciated!

Cheers

[Dabhand16]

Welcome to Pixalo Joakes

If at the moment you only have the 18-55 kit lens and you want to get a better all-round general purpose lens the Tamron 18-270 should be within your budget and will probably give you more use that the excellent Sigma 10-20. It will offer you more versatility. Alternatively there is a cheaper 18-200 version that might suit as well. Sigma also do 18-250 and 18-200 lenses.

I always think that 50mm is the bare minimum for portraits and 85-105 is better. However, there is no doubt that a fast portrait lens is an advantage.

Maybe a used 18-270 or 18-200 and a used 85mm f1.8 would satisfy most of your needs. The 10-20 is not essential for landscapes unless you want to use very close foreground interest.

There is no doubt that a good general purpose lens is a huge advantage. What you need to do is to work out how often you are wishing for a wider angle than your present 18mm and how often you'd like a longer lens. You might find that most of your needs can be met by an 18-200/270 that will also do portraits- albeit without the control over the depth of field that a fast lens will give you.

[clafra]

Let me maybe add the 50mm f/1.8 which will just blow your mind when you initially use it.

You will fall in love with the DoF you can achieve with it.

[brian wright22]

I would suggest the Canon 17-85 IS. Its a great lens for landscape and general family shots.

Later you can add more specific lens such as a very wide angle 10-20mm Zoom and for wild life a 70-300mm IS zoom.
Brian

[Des Gardner]

I think standard 50mm lenses are making a comeback!... so think hard.... think quality!

[Sonsey]

How do you like the range of the 18-55 you have now? If you find it wide enough for your landscape work then perhaps changing it for something with roughly the same range but with better quality would do the trick, the 17-40L f/4 springs to mind.

If you need the extra width then your original thought of the 10-20 and the 50 1.8 to cover landscape and portrait duties is a great choice, it's a combo I was very happy with (in my case along with a Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 for walkabout duties) for quite a while, you'll get great results from them.

[Joakes]

Thanks for all the great comments guys - certainly lots of food for thought!

For a walk about lens - any thoughts re: the Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM?

Cheers

[Sonsey]

Originally Posted by Joakes

any thoughts re: the Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM?

As far as I know that lens has only recently been released so views may be a little thin on the ground around the net, it is an update to a previous lens however and that one had decent reviews.

Certainly one to consider, try and get your hands on one at your nearest camera shop and fire off a few test shots.

[Dabhand16]

Originally Posted by Joakes

Thanks for all the great comments guys - certainly lots of food for thought!

For a walk about lens - any thoughts re: the Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM?

Cheers

The focal length range is good. I used the kit 18-70 that came with My D70s for over a year before I bought a Sigma 10-20 followed by a Sigma 70-200 f2.8. The 70-200 was a steal as it was wrongly priced - I could not resist it - but if that had not come along I'd have been happy enough with the 18-70 and the 10-20.