I own a Canon Rebel EOS and I'm looking to invest in a new lens (well, just the one to START with.....all I can afford at the moment). We travel a lot and was wondering, can anyone recommend a lens that's good for travel shots, ie: architecture, landscapes, etc? Or is there a particular lens that I should purchase before worrying about my travel shots? I just use the standard one that came with the camera right now, which a friend suggested to me was a pretty cheap lens. Sorry if this is a silly question, but I'm all brand new to this, and I figured I couldn't find a better community to pose the question to:)
Last year when we went to disney my wife made me dump most of my kit from the carry-on... I went with an 18-250 and loved it... small compact(kit lens size) with a small KX body.... I also hid a 50 1.4 in my bag... shhhhh
I'm a Nikon user so cannot recommed a particular Canon model. But if you are looking to buy a first non-kit lens I'd suggest the same as Jordan . One which has a wide zoom range like 18-200 mm would be the best investment to start with. It will work for the majority of the situations that you encounter while travelling and even otherwise. And once you are comfortable then the next suggestion would be a fixed zoom fast lens with a wide aperture like f1.8 or f1.4 which is great for portraits. Hope that helps :)
Like others have mentioned, if you're traveling and want to travel light and want to be flexible, a good zoom lens will suit you well. It gives you the most bang for your buck because you can rely on a single lens for most situations. Granted, you may give up a little in the way of quality, but in most cases that won't even be an issue.
When I did a lot of traveling I used a 28-105mm. It served me very well and had enough range to give me decent landscape shots while still allowing me to zoom in a bit if needed. Canon doesn't make that lens any more, but you can still find a few zooms that are in that range.
So I'd probably look for something like that. A lens that will give you 35mm or less and at least 100mm zoom. That will cover most of what you'll likely be shooting.
i have a canon 20D (has the same 1.6x crop factor as your camera). i shoot with my 24-70 f/2.8 about 95% of the time. if i could only own one lens, that would be the one. however, i have to warn you that it's not ideal for grand architecture, like rome or new york city. but it's great for everything else -- super sharp, fast, and has a decent range. oh, and the only other bummer about traveling with it is that it's HEAVY.
@viranod@christiq@hmgphotos thanks for your posts, I too may travelling and have 3 lenses but looking for a wide angle and was going for the Sigma 24-70 but others are convincing me to go 18+. Will head to shops this week to play.
We have just travelled around the world for six weeks and we used a tamron 28-300 on our Sony for prob 98% of the time. Saved changing lenses and was able to zoom in to just about everything. You can get the different mounts for different bodies without too many probs. I still have the lens on and have used it for all my shots on 365
i like photos that have people, and i find that when i am in a foreigner country, it becomes more natural for me to get close to people, so i like to get really close to them. before switching to digital i used to use a Nikon manual SLR and my favourite lens is a 20mm; with a 35-105mm zoom, it was basically enough for most shooting requirements
but these days i become more and more fond of the ‘flat’ perspective of long focal length lenses, something longer than 200mm (for 35mm format)
I'm a Nikon user but I use either my 18-200mm or 28-300mm as a travel lens. Basically, when I'm travelling, I want a single, do-it-all lens which means a super zoom. They tend not to give as good image quality than either your primes or pro level lenses but they suit the purpose well.
There's a Sigma 18-250 lens that got some quite respectable reviews. Most important: picture quality wise it beats the Sigma 18-200 in almost all respects. I think the price difference of the two lenses is something around 50€. The 250 is a bit bigger and heavier (~ +150g), perhaps that's something to keep in mind.
Do you mostly want to shoot wide? Will you be shooting portraits too? The 24-70 is a great versatile lens, but I don't usually take it when I travel because it is so heavy. On my last trip, I brought 16-35mm, 50mm and 100mm and found I could have skipped the 50. The 100mm isn't small either.
I think if I was traveling I could easily make do with 16-35mm (because I do love to shoot wide) and 85mm. It's small and light and great for portraits too.
@cmontemurro yes, definitely looking for something versatile. I'd like something that would be good for portraits as well, although I'm not super brave at snapping candid shots of strangers, I'd like to change that though! Thanks for the tips:)
@pwallis when you go shopping, you might want to look at the tamron 17-50mm f/2.8. since you are using a crop body, this focal length essentially goes from ~26-80mm which is a very useful range, and fast enough for a bit of low light. around 400USD, i reckon. :D
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When I did a lot of traveling I used a 28-105mm. It served me very well and had enough range to give me decent landscape shots while still allowing me to zoom in a bit if needed. Canon doesn't make that lens any more, but you can still find a few zooms that are in that range.
So I'd probably look for something like that. A lens that will give you 35mm or less and at least 100mm zoom. That will cover most of what you'll likely be shooting.
but these days i become more and more fond of the ‘flat’ perspective of long focal length lenses, something longer than 200mm (for 35mm format)
All the above seems good advice.
Thanks everyone!!!! Looks like I have some shopping to do:) Can't wait!
I think if I was traveling I could easily make do with 16-35mm (because I do love to shoot wide) and 85mm. It's small and light and great for portraits too.