Anybody know anything about photography / cameras / lenses?

[Roy H.]

So, after finding a few great deals online, I bought my wife a Canon 60D for Christmas.  It's our first DSLR.

I've bought the following four lenses, basically as a starter kit:

18-55mm Canon lens
18-135mm Canon lens
55-250mm Canon lens
50mm Canon lens f/1.8

I'm going to sell either the 18-55 or the 18-135.  Any thoughts here?  My understanding is that basically she'd never use the 18-55 if she had the 18-135, right?  And the 18-135 would be the better "walk around" lens, due to its added range?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

(Also, if anybody is in the market for a camera, you should check out the forums over at http://www.slickdeals.net.  There have been some killer deals lately.  I've basically paid for the 60D by buying and re-selling various bodies / lenses.)

[FatKidsDad]

Roy;

You are basically correct that the 18-135 more than covers the range of the 18-55 and is therefore redundannt and unnecessary.

The same can be said for the 50mm...either of the two zooms covers it.

Even though there is some overlap between the 18-135 and the 55-250, it is worth having both to have the extra "reach" the bigger lens offers.

Between the 18-135 and the 55-250 you will have pretty much every focal length you need for all but the most demanding specialized uses.  Experience will show that she will use the 18-135 most of the time, and occasionally switch to the longer lens for things like getting in closer and tighter when shooting from a distance.  Think getting that closeup of the exotic bird in a tree, or shooting from the balcony at the Garden.

Before you make your final choice, just think about a couple of other things:

Are both lenses the same optical quality?  The OEM lenses are pretty consistent.  Some of the after-market lenses are excellent, others not so much.

Try them on the camera and pay particular attention to weight and balance.  If a lens is out of proportion to the camera and doesn't balance well, or is too heavy to carry around, she won't like using it, and may not be able to hold the camera steady and get clear shots.  This is sometimes a problem with the longer lenses, but not always.


One last consideration before you give up the 50mm is lens speed, which is expressed as the largest available aperture. The 50mm f/1.8 is pretty fast, meaning the largest f-stop the lens will go to is f/1.8.  The smaller the number, the wider the opening.  The wider the opening, the more light the lens lets in. The more light the lens lets in, the less time you need to have the shutter open to capture the image.  The less time the shutter is open, the easier it is to capture action without blurring, and the easier it is to get a good picture in dim light.

Sometimes, the bigger zoom lenses sacrifice speed to save weight and/or cost.  If your zoom lenses are f3.5 or less you should be ok.  If they are up around 5.6 or more you'll find yorself needing more light or a bigger flash to get good results.

The Canon is a great camera.  She's gonna like it.