[kenricobam]

hi
im a newbie to this site and to photography
ive jus bought a canon 400d from ebay
i feel like such an idiot and assumed certain things like:
it came with a lens and
it was new
and neither of these were true
ive already read on this site that the refurbs are almost as good as new so thats
a little bit of a consillation
but, could anyone give me a bit of advise on some lenses
ive been looking at a tamlon lense ??
im going to india in september and want to go happysnapping
any help would be appreciated
thanks
kenric

[Dabhand16]

Welcome to Pixalo Kenric

If you start with the knowledge that to get a 'normal' view that most closely replicates you own eyes equates to a 30 to 35mm focal length, anything lower than this will give you a wider view, and lenses with a focal length over 35mm will bring you closer to the subject. The lower the focal length, the wider the view, and the higher you go magnifies to a greater extent.

A good general purpose lens (often referred to as a 'walkabout' lens) is the 18-200mm zoom. I'm not sure if Canon produce a lens with this range, but you can buy a Canon 17-85 from One-stop Digital for around £315. Sigma and Tamron make lenses with a bigger range - 18-200/250. Lenses with a stabilisation sytem can be advantageous when using the longer focal lengths, but they are more expensive.

Your ultimate choice of lenses will depend on what sort of photography you are going to do. If you like landscapes and/or architecture, a wide angle lens is best suited to these subjects. That is with focal lengths around the 17 - 40 mm, or even 10-20 for an extremely wide viewpoint.

For sport, action or wildlife, longer lenses of at least 300mm are best, and the popular 70-300mm zooms will be more suited, but even longer lenses are available too.

In your situation, I'd be looking at the 18-200/250 as the ideal general purpose lens, and as you progress in your photography, you can atart to add others to suit what you need.

[AQ]

If the camera has been well looked after it should be OK. You should give it a through check out by taking lots of pictures and seeing if they are alright.

What lens came with the camera - I guess the standard Canon 17 - 55 mm kit lens.

As for which lenses to buy lenses - The two key questions are.
How much do you want to spend
What sort of pictures do you want to take.

Finally enjoy India. It is a lovely country although it can be a culture shock if this will be your first visit. Where are you going to ?

[ChrisRabior]

A general purpose 18-200, 18-300, 28-200, 28-300 range lens (all around) would probably suit you very well.

How much can you afford to spend on a lens?

The cheapest is probably the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 (around $60). I once had a Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8-4.0 (around $75), and it was an excellent walkaround until I upgraded to my constant f/2.8 lenses.

[bain]

Well, new to photograghy!, camera with no lens !. not sure if it works!, .
1st get a lens in my limited experience this is what you need. As a walk about lens maybe a 17/85 IS usm depending on your budget ofcourse, nice one to start with i think.
Or the cheaper EF 50 mm f1.8 or the 1.4 mark one or mark two in which cost me £60 quid, it's a start , to taking photos.
as for the quality of the camera, only the photos will tell the story, GOOD lUCK

[Larne]

The EF-S 18-55mm kit lens that came with the EOS 400D is not a bad lens and you can quite often see people selling them for £30-£40 on eBay as most people want to upgrade. Of course the fact that most people are looking to upgrade should be an indicator but I used mine quite happily for almost a year before starting to splash out on a wider variety.

If you could provide an indication of your budget we can probably give some more targeted responses as there really is a huge range to choose from.

Anyway, welcome to Pixalo and I hope you enjoy your new camera!

[Gary Petersen]

We need to know your budget for lenses as Canon lenses can go from $80.00 to $99,000.00

[kenricobam]

sorry for the late reply and thanks for all the info everyone
i managed to send the refurbed one back for a refund
and have bought myself a new d400 for less and it came with a 18 to 55mm
im willing to spend up to £150 for mainly landscape photography
and some ppl have reccomended an 18 to 200mm
what advice could you guys give me about macro lenses ?

[stepheno]

18-200 is a good range for a walkabout lens. Tamron and Sigma both do very good ones for a couple of hundred. Macros are very good but, with all due respect, I don't think you need one just yet. Get used to your camera first.

Oh...and welcome to Pixalo

[fionaB]

echo waht stephano says, I have had two DSLR's now and STILL havent got a dedicated macro lens!

Fi