What lens should I choose?

[assr92]

my suggestion is keep it simple for the time being.

you can check out what others can do with their Canon 18-55 lens.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1552464@N22/

anyway, unless you already specialise in certain genre like sports, birds, or architectural, require using specialise lenses.
you still will be using 18-55 lens shooting 90% of the general shots, a new longer or shorter focal length lens may not justify the spending if consider the usage.

Thank you very much for that wonderful link i will certainly check that out

Different people have different type of style in which they shoot their photo. Everyone had different ways and methods that they like to compose their photos. What I like to do, and what I find pleasing might not work for you. If I tell you that I use a 85mm to shoot landscape, are you going to follow me? or if I tell you that I use a focal length of 10mm to shoot portrait to achieve certain effects that I want, do you want to follow me too?

I mean, no one know what you like and what works for you. That is why I say it is difficult for anyone of us to advise you on what to buy.

The only lens that I see that could fit into your category is the 55-250mm lens (pretty sharp, good range and could complement your 18-55mm kit lens). This lens don't sell too expensive nowadays and it is a really beautiful lens. I used it for quite some time and loved it... that is, until I was bitten by the BBB virus and got myself a 'L' lens.

So my advise is for your 600D would be,

1) 18-55mm
2) 55-250mm
3) Raynox 250 or 500D close-up lens filter.

You would be set for lots of fun. If you find changing lens a hassle, sell away your 18-55mm and get yourself a Sigma 18-250mm or Tamron 18-270mm, these two lenses are a good general purpose lens with excellent focal range.

Play with them for awhile then decide whether you want to go prime and get yourself a 50mm f1.8 etc.

Hmm i see i see, I will do a read up on that lens first before I do anything and of course to look thru my photo lib first haha! Thanks for ur input

In order not to waste $$ buying stuff that you regret, a good suggestion (like that a bro mentioned above) will be to rent the lenses that you think that you are interested in and try them out. There are plenty of good and reputable places to do so, and there are those that even have weekend specials with discounts (you can search in CS for more info).

YEAH! I will look up on that too!

Please read my questions as plain as they are. There is no need for getting upset or feeling offended, but it is important to clarify your motivations.
Shooting style includes the genre (e.g. landscape, portraits) as well the the way you want to capture it (portraits can be from head only to full body) and the distance (very close, from a distance, studio, outdoors, candid or arranged ...). There are many ways to create a picture and since you don't know what you want it is difficult to make recommendations. Also, what exactly do you want to enhance? Or: what is lacking in your pictures? What is it that other pictures make you "Wow!" ? Go deeper at this point, it has little to do with lenses.
The best way to enhance pictures is
1) Composition skills (The difference between creating an image versus freezing / snapping reality)
2) Basic skills about managing exposure (shutter speed, aperture, ISO) and using tools like filters
3) Post processing skills (Not everything can be achieved straight from camera)
[Long break]
4) Better lenses
5) Better camera bodies
The first three items make up for more than 80% of the final image. (Which explains why skilled people are able to use any camera to get simply great pictures.) At the moment you are discussing about the little maximum 20% which becomes less and less visible even to the trained eye when the picture gets downsized for Facebook & co. I seriously think you are trying hard at the wrong end.
If you need a wider lens, then Canon has a superb 10-20mm, Sigma has 10-22, Tokina has something in the same range and all fit your budget with a bit left over. For longer lenses you can use the Canon 55-250. Forget the 75-300 (still offered cheap sometimes). Most other lenses are out of budget as first hand. I haven't checked the 3rd party makers but I'm sure they have something equivalent. For reviews just use Google to get results from controlled test environments, user reviews tend to be biased for obvious reasons.

Oh no no, Im not offended or anything dont worry!! Just trying to make my case haha! Sorry if I sounded displeased or anything. I guess I am more into landscapes. Hmm sometimes I find that other people colours always seem much brighter and fuller than mine, I think is cause of my settings, haha.

Really appreciate you giving so much advice, will look into them!

If your interest is mainly on scenaries, you can consider the following:

- continue using with your 18-55
- consider investing in the following useful tools (if you dont already have them):
1. A sturdy tripod
2. Graduated neutral density filters + maybe polarising filter.


If you want to get more omph from shooting potrait, a 50mm f1.8 is a cheap way to give you the narrow depth of focus which you cant get with you existing kit lens.

Uh yeah, tripods, I am currently looking at them. You have any recommendations? Thanks!!

 

[alwaysjerricky]

Uh yeah, tripods, I am currently looking at them. You have any recommendations? Thanks!!

Sirui is definitely the most worth it. It is not that expensive as premium brands like manfrotto yet their quality is excellent as well. You can try them out personally at TKFoto. There are 2 types of tripods: aluminum and carbon. Aluminum is heavier and cheaper one (some say sturdier but I'm not too sure) and carbon is the lighter and more expensive one.

 

[fatbike]

Budget of 1k for me would be
$100 for 50mm f1.8 2nd hand
$100 young nuo yn560 lll(flash)brand new
$150 sirui 2004+g20 ballhead(more den wat u need)brand new
$650 70-200 f4(non IS) 2nd hand
$10 for a shutter release or u can even get wired/wireless ones online less den $10
So for 1k u can cover everything, at least dis is the max u can get from 1k,
But it's just me
Cheers n happy shopping

 

[Octarine]

Uh yeah, tripods, I am currently looking at them. You have any recommendations? Thanks!!

Similar to many other topics we have a sticky thread for it as well
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=384016

 

[rhino123]

Uh yeah, tripods, I am currently looking at them. You have any recommendations? Thanks!!

There a quite a number of tripods to look into. For a starter, I thought Canon gave out free tripod... at least in my time, and I find that tripod pretty good and stable... even after two years, I am still using the free one now and then. Anyway, the thing about tripod is that, you would need to know how heavy your heaviest setup would be, then read on the spec on the maximum weigh the tripod could take. Next, know your height and the height the tripod could go without extending the center column. See if that height (the tripod) is comfortable for you. Of course extending the center column of the tripod is useful, but most of the time I wouldn't advise you to do it, because it would lower the stability.

Either way, do take into consideration of the tripodhead too, which is of utmost important, because that is the part that actually link your camera to your tripod. And do take note of the maximum allowable weight for the tripodhead too. A simple formula (if I remember correctly) would be

"The total weight of your setup ({camera body + lens + addon accessories such as battery grip, external flash, etc} x 3)

and that would be the total weight needed for the tripodhead to carry.

Also take into consideration of the following,

1) Budget
2) Weight (very important)

Budget is self-explanatory so I wouldn't go into it. But weight of the tripod is something that you really want to look at, I mean, if you do not mind the heavy weight of your tripod, you can look at the aluminium alloy tripods that are selling cheaper, the other option would be carbon fiber tripods that are much lighter, but also more expensive, the third option was the Basalt material that Gitzo have (slightly lighter than the aluminum one and heavier than the carbon fiber but very stable too - I know, I am using one of them.)

As for which brand to look out for... there are plenty,

1) Fotopro (can get from artworkfoto)
2) Sirui (can get from TK foto)
3) Benro
4) Manfrotto (Can get from TKfoto or Cathay photo - who happen to be the distributor too).
5) Gitzo (Can get from TKfoto and Cathay photo)
6) Vanguard

As for the tripodhead, do looked into the different type of heads available, ballhead is the most common and flexible, I would recommend getting that, and if you are very into landscape, you could or might consider a panhead too.

The usual suspect for tripodhead is,

1) Sirui
2) Manfrotto
3) Gitzo
4) Martin
5) etc (too many to list)

I would go for Sirui tripodhead or Manfrotto tripodhead, they are not too expensive and very good.

 

[Cozer]

I shoot almost everything with just my tamron 18-200mm (landscape or portrait) but with a 1k budget maybe you could use the advise of getting other equipment u needed or upgrade to a better lens in range ?

 

[helenarobin]

This information is really helpful....thanks for sharing.

 

[IsenGrim]

If you are bored with your 18-55 and want something else to play with, get a 70-200. There are many versions. Look for one you can afford and chuck the rest. (but don't hesitate to figure out what's the difference between the versions)

If you want a bigger challenge, try a prime. Like an 85f1.8 or 135f2. These are a lot of fun but very tedious to use.