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General discussion

Help choosing a lens

by frances506 Sep 23, 2014 7:03AM PDT

Hi

It's my brother's 30th birthday in a few weeks and me and my sister would really love to club together to get him a new lens for his camera. The trouble is we know virtually nothing about cameras! The camera he's got is a Canon E0S 100D

We're going on a family holiday to (hopefully!) see the Northern Lights and it's his birthday while we're out there. We'd love to get him a lens that he could open while we're over there that would be good for photographing them. However, we gather from our (admittedly limited) research that his lens collection already has a couple of lenses that are pretty ideal for that scenario so our other thoughts are maybe just to get him one to fill any gap that he's currently got?

I snuck into his camera bag and I've compiled a list of what he already has:

- Sigma 30mm 1:1.4

- Sigma 20mm 1:1.8

- Sigma 50mm 1:2.8

- Sigma 70-300mm 1:4-5.6

- Tokina 18-55mm (Image Stabiliser)

- Tokina SD 11-16mm F2.8 (IF) DX

- Canon Ultrasonic 50mm 1:1.4

- He's also got 4 Lensbaby Optic Swap tools (single glass, pinhole/zone plate, plastic, double glass)

I went into a high street camera shop today and the guy suggested for the northern lights potentially getting a Sigma 70-200mm 2.8 which could go alongside the 70-300mm one he's already got as it'll be better with more low light or something? Alternatively he suggested upgrading the Tokina 18-55mm with one of these:

- Sigma 17-50mm 2.8

- Tamron 17-50mm 2.8

- Canon 17-55mm 2.8

- Sigma 18-35mm 1.8

Ideally our budget would be around the £300-400 mark but we could potentially get our parents to chip in too or make it a joint birthday and Christmas present so anything up to £800 we could consider if we were sure it was right.

Thoughts on his suggestions or alternatively any other ideas on this would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks!

Frances

Discussion is locked

4 Posts
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Seems you have very good lens now.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Sep 23, 2014 7:28AM PDT
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Lens
by snapshot2 Forum moderator Sep 23, 2014 8:07AM PDT

It looks like he already has the lens that Bob recommended.

Here is a list of all the lenses available from Canon:

http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/ef_lens_lineup

It looks as if he has all the lenses he needs.

How about a high end tripod?
It would be useful for photographing the Northern Lights.
Go back to that camera store and see what tripods he has in your price range.

...

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I second the idea of a tripod.
by MarkatNite Sep 23, 2014 11:39AM PDT

Seems to me a tripod with a ball head (so you can make quick adjustments), a couple of extra batteries, and a remote shutter release would be more useful for shooting the northern lights.

Having said that, if I were to shoot the northern lights, I would choose my Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 lens over either my Canon 17-55m f2.8 or Tokina 11-16mm f2.8, and I would absolutely not use a 70-200mm as that would be much too long/telephoto. Generally, you'd want wide, sharp and fast/bright. Although the Sigma isn't as wide as the Tokina, it is over a stop faster/brighter, and it's very sharp wide open.

HTH - Mark

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Tripod
by frances506 Sep 27, 2014 4:39AM PDT

Thanks for all your suggestions. We were pretty sure when we looked at everything he has that it was likely to be a pretty comprehensive list but it doesn't hurt to check.

A new tripod might be a decent shout. At the minute all he's got is a Camlink TP2100 which I think was pretty cheap and I've heard him complain before about it being a bit unsteady. We've been looking at the Manfrotto Befree range which comes with a ballhead attachment. It's a bit pricey but tbf it's nowhere near what we would've spent on a lens!

Also been potentially looking at a new lensbaby lens. Potentially the circular fisheye - http://lensbaby.com/lenses-circular-fisheye?utm_source=social&utm_medium=amandats&utm_campaign=cfe - looks like it might be quite fun.


Thanks again for all your help!

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