« Best Widgets for your Wordpress Blog | Main | Canon EF-S 10-22 f3.5-4.5 USM - Lens Specifications »
Best Lens for Canon 40D (or 30D, or Rebel)
By admin | May 18, 2007
Here are a few thoughts on the best lenses to purchase for the Canon 40D, listed in the order of purchase:EF-S 17-55 f2.8 IS - This first lens purchase was a very close decision between the EF-S 10-22 (listed below). On the downside, the price is going to up the cost of entry by a few hundred dollars, which hurts. Also, my preferred subject usually centers around a wide anger perspective. Despite this, I feel I need to start with a more rounded everyday lens with a focal length range more in the middle. On a 1.6X crop body (the only cameras compatible with EF-S lenses) the effective focal lengths is 27-88mm. 27mm will do in a pinch for some landscape shots, and 88mm is long enough to have some reach for taking portrait photographs. I wish that the reach was slightly longer, but I understand that there are limits and I wouldn’t want this lens to be any bigger than it already is. The EF-S 17-55 has gotten excellent peer reviews for sharpness and contrast. Lots of people are expressing that, build quality aside, the image quality is on par with other L-Series mid-range zooms. It is unique among all mid-range zooms, L-series included, in that it has a constant f/2.8 aperture and image stabilization (IS). Honestly, image stabilization is the biggest reason that I want this lens first. I am going to look forward to the freedom of being able to boost the ISO a little, turn on the IS, and take available low-light pictures with no tripod. Coming from shooting Velvia 50, this is quite a boost in sensitivity. If image stabilization is worth 2 stops, and I try shooting at ISO 400, this combines to give me 6 stops more sensitivity compared to film!
EF-S 10-22 f3.5-4.5 USM - Anyone who owns a 1.6 crop body from Canon (20D, 30D, Rebel) needs to consider this lens. Before its introduction, the lack of a truly wide angle perspective (wider than an equivalent 24mm) was a serious detriment to those of us who love wide angle landscapes or still life. The 10-22 very effectively fills this need, providing an equivalent 16-35mm focal length range. This is as wide as I could ever want, offering dramatic compositions and the ability to take building interior shots as well. From my research and from peer reviews, the image quality is as good as you can expect with this class of camera. Any wide angle lens struggles with capturing fine detail at infinity and this is simply the restrictions of working with wide angle lenses, and why it is important to have interesting subjects in the foreground and middle ground to showcase detail and texture. I know that the image quality would be higher coming from a 5D body paired with either the 16-35L or 17-40L, but this body is in another class that is out of my price range. I have to keep reminding myself of all of the great pictures that I have seen both on the web and in print taken with this exact setup. The image quality should be all that I need.
Pages: 1 2
Topics: Canon |