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zippy
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Unknown
 
2014-12-16, 10:24

Hey there Camera Oracles! I have a question:
My 14 year old son saved up and purchased a Canon T3i with the 18-55mm Kit lens for himself about a year ago. He also has a Tamron 70-200mm lens from my old 35mm Canon. I would love to buy him a decent lens - one that he would want and need, but I am out of my depth.

Doing a little reading, it sounds like the $400 Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens would be a great lens. But it's more than I can afford at this time.

The $125 Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens is certainly more affordable... but is it worth it given what he already has? I don't know much about photography, but both of these lenses seem to fall within the focal length of his kit lens. So would either of them still be useful? Are they better quality? Does it mostly come down to the f/xx rating?

Or would it be better to save a bit and get something like the $300 EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM? At least this lens offers focal lengths outside of his current offerings.

Thanks!

Do you know where children get all of their energy? - They suck it right out of their parents!
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Dorian Gray
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Paris, France
 
2014-12-16, 10:48

The 50 mm f/1.8 and f/1.4 perform similarly, which is to say very well. The f/1.4 model has a metal lens mount and a couple of other niceties, but is hard to justify over the much cheaper f/1.8 model unless you have a specific need for f/1.4 (doubtful) or need a lens that will withstand professional (everyday) use.

A 50 mm prime lens differs from a kit zoom chiefly in being much faster (the lower f-number indicating a larger aperture), which lets in much more light and allows shallow depth-of-field (e.g. background blur). This is fun to play around with as you learn photography. But on a crop-sensor camera like the T3i, the lens has a fairly narrow angle of view. It would therefore be more useful as a portrait lens than a general-purpose walkabout lens.

Does your son like to photograph people, landscapes, still life, anything specific? The 10-18 mm is obviously an ultra-wide lens. Lots of fun. Often used to create dramatic compositions emphasising perspective and for that reason favoured by landscape and architecture photographers. The 10 mm end would feel very different from the 18 mm of his kit zoom.

You could also consider a macro lens. The 50 mm f/2.5, which I mention because it’s the cheapest option, is usefully faster than the kit lens, allowing some of the depth-of-field control of a 50 mm f/1.8. And of course it’s useful for close-focus photography of small objects like flowers, bugs, products, found objects in nature or the city, etc. Unlike the more expensive 60 mm f/2.8 EF-S lens (or any EF-S lens, such as the 10-18 mm you’re considering), the 50 mm f/2.5 (which has been in the catalogue since film days) is compatible with full-frame Canons. So if he gets one of those in five years, he’d still be able to use the 50 mm f/2.5.

… engrossed in such factional acts as dreaming different dreams.
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zippy
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Unknown
 
2014-12-16, 11:25

Thanks for the feedback Dorian!

As for what he likes to photograph, I think he enjoys it all... But he mostly ends up doing people shots. He volunteers to take photos at his Middle School events (assemblies, some sporting events), and he becomes the defacto photographer at family parties. I think he would really like to do more architectural and landscape photography and stretch his creative muscles though.

Sounds like a 50mm prime would be useful for the typical family events, but less useful for the school/architectural uses? Am I reading that correctly?

Do you know where children get all of their energy? - They suck it right out of their parents!
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Dorian Gray
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Paris, France
 
2014-12-16, 12:42

Quote:
Originally Posted by zippy View Post
Sounds like a 50mm prime would be useful for the typical family events, but less useful for the school/architectural uses? Am I reading that correctly?
I think so, yeah. I suppose the 50 mm could be useful for some of the school pictures, even sports pictures (with severe restrictions). The 10-18 mm may also be useful for large group photos or even the occasional environmental portrait (at 18 mm), but generally speaking the wide-angle zoom would not be great for photographing people.

It sounds like he could put any of these lenses to use (fast 50 mm, 50/60 mm macro, or wide-angle zoom). They would all offer genuinely different results than his existing lenses. Just a matter of choosing one that best fits the budget, then!

… engrossed in such factional acts as dreaming different dreams.
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Matsu
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Join Date: May 2004
 
2014-12-19, 08:29

I'm not familiar with Canon's lenses, but my feeling about most modern f/1.4 50mm designs is that they're not really better than f/1.8s, which are generally much cheaper and in some cases focus a little faster to boot. A lot of photographers I know use nifty-50s because they're more than good enough. There are two or three outstandingly good fast 50s, but they're huge, expensive, and in some cases manual focus and/or hard to find, everyone talks about them and tests them, and compares them online, and then goes out and buys and uses f/1.8s.

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Last edited by Matsu : 2014-12-19 at 08:43.
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Ryan
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Promise Land of Trustafarians
 
2014-12-19, 10:53

What about the 24mm f/2.8 STM lens? Compact, equivalent to a 40mm on a crop-sensor camera, reasonably fast, only $150?

Personally I almost exclusively use a 28mm f/1.8 on my *very* old Canon 350D and I just love it. I'm toying with the idea of picking up the 24mm STM for travel photography since it's so damn compact and a little wider, though I do wish it had a slightly wider aperture.
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Matsu
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Join Date: May 2004
 
2014-12-19, 11:24

I like Canon's AF pancake primes concept. I have no idea if they're good performers, but they're small and affordable, and probably quite nice to throw in a camera bag or a vest pocket, and that's a nice focal length (38mm equivalent) for street shooting.

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