lens required

[abhishek gupta]

<p>I do all kinds of professional photography like nature, interiors,people portraits.I have some budget constrain so I cant afford more than one good $800 lens.Kindly suggest me one good canon EF lens that can solve my problem.<br>

Currently I have a 18-55mm, 50mm and a 350D(Rebel XT)<br>

Regards,<br>

Abhishek.</p>

[rainer_t]

<p>-- "Kindly suggest me one good canon EF lens that can solve my problem."</p>

<p>What exactly is your problem?</p>

<p>I mean, you have a camera, you have two lenses (the 50 being the "EF 50/1.8 II" I assume). In which way<br>

do you find your equipment limiting. Without naming these limits, the only suggestion is to use what you have.</p>

[tommyinca]

<p>Check out EF85/1.8 and EF70-200/4L (non IS version). Both are very good lens and under $600.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Assuming that your current lenses are serving you in some way, the obvious place to upgrade is your older 18-55mm lens, which I presume is the NON-stabilized kit lens that came with your 350D. Ironically, the lens you have may not be too bad for portrait work as its main perceived flaw is a certain "softness" that can be a plus in portraiture. In any case you will want to keep it since it's worth very little as a used lens. A limit of US (?) $800 does put some constraints on you since that is at an awkward breakpoint between the ca. $500 "utility" EF lenses, and the roughly $1000 "L" lenses, especially in the ranges appropriate to your stated uses. There just aren't all that many Canon lenses in between $600 and $1000.<br /> The most obvious lens in some ways would be the EF-S 17-55mm IS f/2.8 lens, but it-again-is in the $1000 class. The EF-S 17-85mm IS (ca. $500) is a favorite of mine, but I'm not sure it's what you need, especially for things like interiors since it's slow (f/4-5.6). The new kit lens (EF-S 18-55 IS, $170 new outside the 'kit') is inexpensive and has superior optics to your existing lens, but is no faster, although the image stabilization is a worthy addition.</p>

<p>Two primes might serve you well. The EF 28mm f/2.8 is fairly cheap and is a good "normal" lens on your 350D (equivalent to 50mm on a film 35mm camera). The 135mm f/2.8 lens with "soft focus" (optional, it works as a regular decently sharp telephoto without the feature engaged) would give you a longer lens, is fast, and the soft focus option could be desirable for portrait type work on occasion. Together ($180 and $410, respectively) they would fall within your limit.</p>

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