Need help finding walk-around lens for wife's XSI

[hector_flores1]

<p>I have been reading a lot of information here on this forum, about the different lenses there are for people just starting to get into photography. I just got an Rebel XSI for my wife and and now I need to find the best lens for her needs. She want's to take pictures of the grand kids 3 mos and 3 yrs old (inside low light conditions) family groups, landscapes and portraits. The lens must be light, she has small hands and can't handle much weight. <br>

I have a canon 40D with the following lenses we might be able to share, but I think she should have her own lens.<br>

Canon EF 28-135mm IS<br>

Canon EF 50mm<br>

Canon EF-S 18-55mm IS</p>

<p>My wife could be using the 18-55, while I use the 50mm or the 28-135mm is - Can you come up with a better solution? I have $400 - $500 for a new lens for her.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

[mark_pierlot]

<p>If you need a fast lens for lower light levels, a prime would be lighter in weight than a zoom. I would recommend the EF 35/2, the EF 50/1.4, the EF 85/1.8, or the EF 100/2; however, the latter two may be a bit long on a crop frame body.</p>

<p>A zoom lens that would be almost ideal for her needs is the EF 24-70/2.8 L, but it's way too heavy and well outside your price range.</p>

[Brad_]

<p>Tamron 17-50mm, f/2.8<br>

A great low light lens that also permits creative DOF control...</p>

[amol]

<p>The Tamron 17-50 is about $400. It's a great lens for general purpose work, it should work fine for landscapes and portraits. Also, it's f/2.8 constant, so that will help with low-light shots.</p>

[g dan mitchell]

<p>For her needs, the EFS 18-55mm IS kit lens is probably just about perfect. It is light and small, produces fine image quality, includes image stabilization. </p>

<p>Unless she has a strong preference herself for primes over zooms (and is willing to fool around with changing lenses) I'd recommend a zoom over a prime these days.</p>

<p>Dan</p>

[rainer_t]

<p>If you want a zoom ... get the Tamron 17-50/2.8 DiII... if you want a prime ... get the Sigma 30/1.4 DC.</p>

[mike_hitchen]

<p>What kit lens came with the XSi? If it came with one I would get a lens in a different focal range.</p>

<ul>

<li>Tamron 17-50 - very good quality (reviews say it rivals the Cnon 17-55 IS); f2.8 will be great of isolating the kids from background furniture but if you are in to post-processing this can be done later with some work. The lens lacks IS which I think your wife would appreciate when shooting lower light indoors</li>

<li>Canon 18-55mm IS - she can borrow yours unless you are likely to want to use it at the same time (sharing lenses is not a problem when you are likely to be both indoors) so you may not need a second version of this lens</li>

<li>Canon 17-85mm - about same quality as 18-55m but goes into telephoto range which gives creative opportunities in landscapes and useful for snapping the kids playing outdoors </li>

<li>Wide prime (24mm?) - she can zoom in and out with her feet (unless you have a lounge the size of the White House) and the the better quality of the lens may allow greater flexibility for cropping in post processing. But again usually lack IS. </li>

</ul>

<p>When shooting landscapes, you are likely to be 'doing your own thing' and sharing lenses is harder.</p>

<ul>

<li>17-85mm: as above</li>

<li>17-40mmf4L: Great quality for shooting landscapes (and indoor portraits) but lacks IS </li>

<li>70-300mmf4-5.6 IS: great quality for the price and good for shooting kids playing outdoors. I find myself using this as much as the 17-40 for landscape shots. Has IS but is weighty. </li>

</ul>

<p>My pick would be between wide prime and the 17-85IS. And she can borrow one of your for other work.<br>

It is worth noting that two of the situations you describe (portraits and landscap) are where camera support is most useful so if you get one lens and have money left over why not get a tripod or monopod? Given your comments about small hands and not wanting to hold heavy lenses this could end up being a good solution - Manfrotto have the 334B which can double as a walking pole when outdoors so with a quick-release head on it it can serve double duty.</p>

[edelson1]

<p>You've received a lot of sound advice. You do, however, have pretty broad requirements to be met by a single lens. You will be very hard pressed to find a single prime lens to handle situations ranging from lower light indoor to groups, portraits, and landscapes. A 28 mm prime (44 mm FF equivalent FOV) may be considered close to what used to be considered a "standard" lens on a 35 mm camera (generally 50 mm was typical, although I always preferred 35 mm for a standard walkaround lens, about 22 mm for a 1.6 crop sensor), but neither of these are great choices for portraits. For me, at least, thoughts of lower light work really bring the utility of IS into the decision making process. While you won't get the nice, shallow depth of field of larger aperture primes, you can still get decent separation from the background at F4 if you pay attention and give the subject a bit of room to step forward from the background. IS is simply plain too handy to pass on for a single lens solution.<br>

Given the need for flexibility and a good argument for IS, zooms are your best single lens solution. The 18- 55 mm IS is cheap and optically acceptable, but 55 mm may be somewhat limiting at the long end. The ever contentious 17-85 mm IS covers a terrific range, has excellent IS performance, and if you have no bias against PP, its 17-20 mm problems (barrel distortion and CA) can be easily corrected, even on jpegs (PTLens will work with jpegs and can be used as standalone if you're not using a photoshop plugin supporting PP solution, DPP offers corrections built in as well). The 24- 70 mm 2.8 is fast and sharp, but well outside your budget and is not the lightest solution to carry around mounted all day. The 17-40 mm is excellent (especially for a FF camera) but 40 mm is awfully short for a crop body, and you are stuck with F4 and no IS. In some ways, while optically inferior, the 18-55 IS would better serve you than the 17-40 mm lens.</p>

<p>Finally, you can simply let her use your 18-55 mm and see how she likes it (borrow it back when you need to go below 28 mm yourself), or seriously consider the 17-85 IS, which would fit her needs, and complement your current lens selection as well (yes, lots of overlap, but not in an all in one lens solution).</p>

<p>Henry</p>

<p> </p>

[yakim_peled1]

<blockquote>

<p>I have a canon 40D with the following lenses we might be able to share, but I think she should have her own lens.</p>

</blockquote>

<p><br />

<p>Why not let her try them and see what she likes best? BTW, you may want to consider a small flash or ST-E2, for its AF assist capabilities. Slow lenses and dim light often need assistance to achieve focus lock fast.</p>

<p>Happy shooting,<br>

Yakim.</p>

</p>

[hector_flores1]

<p>Thank you all for your assistance in selecting a good lens for my wife's camera, after reading all your resposes so far, I think I will order the EF-S 17-85 IS.<br>

Again Thank you so much for your time, this is a great forum.<br>

I will continue to visit often, to to learn about every thing related to photograpy.</p>

[hector_flores1]

<p>correction: related to photography</p>

[g dan mitchell]

<p>The 17-85, eh? It is an OK lens for certain uses, and it does provide a bit more focal length range than the 18-55 IS kit lens... but it is not exactly a stellar lens...</p>

<p>Dan</p>