long time lurker, first time poster! New Camera

Thesmaz

Hi,
I new....to posting on this forum but I have been lurking for a couple of years. I actually found out about Dgrin from Advrider! I have been amazed by some of the photos that folks here take. I've been playing with a Casio EXP600 for a few years now and was ready to make the jump to DSLR. I told myself that when I got promotted that I'd get a much better camera. After months of research and going back and forth I finally pulled the trigger last week. I went with the Canon XSI w/ 17-85 IS USM, 55-250 IS, 50mm,grip and 430 EX flash. I almost went with the 40d mainly because of the physical size but after reading the manual I felt that it might be a bit much for my first DSLR. Everything just showed up today so I've spent the evening thumbing through all of the literature and charging all of the batteries so I'll be ready to start playing tomorrow after work. Anyway I look forward to sharing photos and having the "whipped" in the near future!

dlplumer

Thesmaz wrote:

Hi,
I new....to posting on this forum but I have been lurking for a couple of years. I actually found out about Dgrin from Advrider! I have been amazed by some of the photos that folks here take. I've been playing with a Casio EXP600 for a few years now and was ready to make the jump to DSLR. I told myself that when I got promotted that I'd get a much better camera. After months of research and going back and forth I finally pulled the trigger last week. I went with the Canon XSI w/ 17-85 IS USM, 55-250 IS, 50mm,grip and 430 EX flash. I almost went with the 40d mainly because of the physical size but after reading the manual I felt that it might be a bit much for my first DSLR. Everything just showed up today so I've spent the evening thumbing through all of the literature and charging all of the batteries so I'll be ready to start playing tomorrow after work. Anyway I look forward to sharing photos and having the "whipped" in the near future!

Prego and welcome to dgrin. I have the same camera with lots of shots from your glorious country. :ivar

ziggy53

Thesmaz wrote:

... I finally pulled the trigger last week. I went with the Canon XSI w/ 17-85 IS USM, 55-250 IS, 50mm,grip and 430 EX flash. ...

Thesmaz, congratulations on the new system and welcome to the Digital Grin.

Looking forward to some images.

Tee Why

Congrats.

dangin

congrats on your new camera! we look forward to more posts in the future.

Thesmaz

Thanks all, I hope to be able to get out and start learning the camera this weekend. I really want to be able to dedicate some time to mess about with the functions and just don't have the time during the week. Being lucky enough to be living in Italy for a few years will give me plenty of really interesting places to shoot.

Thesmaz

Question, what would be a good wide angle lens for the XSi? Being at the foot of the Dolomites and Alps I have a feeling that I'm going want as wide a lens as I can get (for an affordable price). TIA

eyusuf

canon 10-22
sigma 10-20
tokina 12-24
tokina 11-16

ziggy53

There are quite a few decent wide-angle and super-wide-angle lenses available for the Canon 1.6x crop cameras like the XSi.

You have the EF-S 17-85mm, f/4-5.6 IS USM which qualifies with around twice the "normal" field-of-view.

If you mean super-wide-angle lens then popular choices are:

Canon EF-S 10-22mm, f/3.5-4.5 USM
Sigma 10-20mm, f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM
Tokina 12-24mm, f/4 PRO DX

... with an excellent newcomer, the Tokina 11-16mm, F/2.8 ATX Pro.

I own the Sigma and I'm very pleased with its performance.

P.S. Obviously Eyusuf can type more quickly than I can.

Thesmaz

Thanks for the info! I was looking on Canon's and Sigma's website last night and had spotted those two lens but I'll have to check into the others.

eyusuf

i recommend the tokina 12-24. excellent lens, cheaper than canon, and has a very good build quality; not feel cheap and plasticky as canon does.

dangin

i have the tokina 12-24mm f/4 for nikon and can say it's a very nicely built lens. it's not super sharp but does get the job done.

eyusuf

dangin wrote:

i have the tokina 12-24mm f/4 for nikon and can say it's a very nicely built lens. it's not super sharp but does get the job done.

super sharp compared to..?

i think UWA lenses are never sharp like primes or even zoom lenses.

dangin

eyusuf wrote:

super sharp compared to..?

i think UWA lenses are never sharp like primes or even zoom lenses.

compared to nikon's new 14-24mm f/2.8. but the nikon lens also costs about 4x as much as the tokina.

eyusuf

dangin wrote:

compared to nikon's new 14-24mm f/2.8. but the nikon lens also costs about 4x as much as the tokina.

well, that's hardly a valid comparison though..:D

so the nikon 14-24 f/2.8 is sharper than these?
http://eyusuf.smugmug.com/photos/241637821_5fqvB-O.jpg
http://eyusuf.smugmug.com/photos/241637839_qruQ3-O.jpg

dangin

eyusuf wrote:

well, that's hardly a valid comparison though..:D

so the nikon 14-24 f/2.8 is sharper than these?
http://eyusuf.smugmug.com/photos/241637821_5fqvB-O.jpg
http://eyusuf.smugmug.com/photos/241637839_qruQ3-O.jpg

i can say from personal experience comparing landscape shots w/ another photographer who used a nikon 14-24mm and shooting at f/4 to the tokina 12-24mm on a d200 that i have shooting wide open (f/4), the other photog's images seemed sharper.

i'll say that i think tokina makes good lenses with good optics and pretty solid construction. however, they really ought to make some more full frame lenses. their current lineup includes only 1 full frame lens, the rest are cropped lenses.

dlplumer

I am very close to pulling the trigger on the Canon 10-22. Based upon my research, that is the best of these, although the Tokina is a close second.