which lenses?

[happygirl]

hi, i'm a "newbie" with the canon rebel xt. i need a lense that will enable me to do bird photography and also flower photography. is there one lense that will do both? what strength(ie., 28-300mm, 70-300mm,etc.) should i look for?

when birding in my back yard, i set my shutter speed on between 500 and 800. however, if the sun goes in, the camera indicates there's not enough light for this shutter speed. yet when i change the apeture setting, the speed isn't slow enough to stop the wings. what should i do?? (i'm still fairly new and learning).

thanks.

[CaptainTom]

what lens are you using now? minimum aperture, etc.

[happygirl]

i'm using the lense that came with the camera -- EF-S 18-55. does that help?

v

[Davidtxs]

What iso are you shooting at ??

[jeffkohn]

hi, i'm a "newbie" with the canon rebel xt. i need a lense that will enable me to do bird photography and also flower photography. is there one lense that will do both? what strength(ie., 28-300mm, 70-300mm,etc.) should i look for?

I think you want as much reach as you can afford, particular for shooting small birds. The 70-300 is a good, affordable starting point IMHO. Get the Sigma APO version and it even has some macro shooting capabilities (won't get you all the way to 1:1, but can do 1:2 I believe).

when birding in my back yard, i set my shutter speed on between 500 and 800. however, if the sun goes in, the camera indicates there's not enough light for this shutter speed. yet when i change the apeture setting, the speed isn't slow enough to stop the wings. what should i do?? (i'm still fairly new and learning).

Either raise your ISO setting, use flash, or both.

[happygirl]

uh duh, i just checked the camera and the ISO was set at 100. i reset it for 400. will that help?

thanks!!

[Davidtxs]

yep a GREAT DEAL lol go up until the noise is tooo much theres always NR software

[happygirl]

wow -- never woulda thought digital had film speed.

i was looking at the sigma 28-300mm F3.5-5.6 DG macro zoom -- it has a 10.7:1 high zoom ratio -- would that be good for birding? i'm actually not familiar enough with the terminoloy of the the F3.5-5.6 to know exactly what i'd be getting. i need to read more of my book. plus i haven't actually looked through that particular lense so i'm not sure if it will be what i need to bring the birds up close enough.

another question (i have lots!) -- my dog and i compete in agility trials and i've seen some folks taking pictures with a canon 20D and a HUGE lense. any idea what speed/light settings they might use? the trials are usually conducted in a covered horse arena. they use no flash (for obvious reasons).

thanks again

[CobyPhoto]

Most of those HUGE lenses you see in that setting are f/2.8 aperture lenses. I can say without too much worry of being wrong they are shooting at f/2.8, 800 - 1600 ISO with the fastest shutter speed they can muster.

That is the advantage of a fixed aperture lens...you can shoot it wide open at f/2.8 or stop it down when the light allows.

CJ

[happygirl]

ok, and here i show my ignorance --- what exactly is a fixed aperture lens?

hg

[happygirl]

I think you want as much reach as you can afford, particular for shooting small birds. The 70-300 is a good, affordable starting point IMHO. Get the Sigma APO version and it even has some macro shooting capabilitiesjeff -- so are you suggesting a 70-300mm is better than a 28-300mm? here again i'm confused and still learing about the first of the two numbers (70 and 28). sorry

how would the 28-300mm F3.5-5.6 DG macro (sigma) compare?

thanks

hg

[happygirl]

quote from JEFF - "I think you want as much reach as you can afford, particular for shooting small birds. The 70-300 is a good, affordable starting point IMHO. Get the Sigma APO version and it even has some macro shooting capabilities"

jeff -- so are you suggesting a 70-300mm is better than a 28-300mm? here again i'm confused and still learing about the first of the two numbers (70 and 28). sorry

how would the 28-300mm F3.5-5.6 DG macro (sigma) compare?

thanks

hg

[jeffkohn]

jeff -- so are you suggesting a 70-300mm is better than a 28-300mm? here again i'm confused and still learing about the first of the two numbers (70 and 28). sorry

how would the 28-300mm F3.5-5.6 DG macro (sigma) compare?

The first number is the shortest focal length the lens covers, the second is the longest. So the 28-300 covers from 28mm to 300mm, while the 70-300mm covers from 70mm to 300mm. It might sound like the 28-300 would automatically be the better choice, since it covers a greater range of focal lengths. But the longer the zoom range, the more of a compromise the lens is likely to be from an image quality standpoint, because of things like distortion, light falloff, or lack of sharpness/contrast particulary at the widest apertures.

I'm not saying the 28-300 lens is terrible, and it maybe be a good choice if you're looking to use a single lens for everything. But if you already have the 28-70 range covered with another lens (or even just 28-55, say for instance with the kit lens), then the Sigma 70-300 APO Macro DG is the better lens in my opinion. It has a larger maximum aperture in the telephoto range, greater maximum magnification in macro mode, and optically it's a great lens for the money providing excellent sharpness and contrast compared to other lenses in its price range.

[happygirl]

kewel. thanks!

[Cope]

If you want a 28-300, look at the Tamron. On Minolta forums it seems to be a bit better lens. Cameta Camera and Cord Camera are selling them on eBay for around $150.