Cannon 60D everyday lens?

OwlLove22OwlLove22 Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
edited August 30, 2012 in Accessories
Help!!! I purchased a 60D and have a macro lens...Im a beginner and have a strong passion for photography...What lens would be an appropriate everyday lens? Using it for...low light indoor,kids playing and self portraits? :)

Comments

  • ziggy53ziggy53 Super Moderators Posts: 24,133 moderator
    edited August 29, 2012
    The Canon EF-S 17-55mm, f2.8 IS USM is an extremely nice standard zoom for Canon crop 1.6x/APS-C camera bodies, including the 60D.

    A more affordable, but a bit less IQ and no IS, is the Tamron SP 17-50mm, f2.8 XR Di II LD IF. Yes, there is a version with image stabilization, but I do think that the non-stabilized version is a bit better optically.

    Indoors, I highly recommend using a flash with a focus-assist light, and adding an appropriate flash modifier. The focus-assist light makes a tremendous improvement in AF speed and accuracy, and it improves your keeper rate.
    ziggy53
    Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
  • OwlLove22OwlLove22 Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
    edited August 29, 2012
    Thanx I appreciate the feedback what would u suggest starting at the lowest price but yet good quality to the best lens for what I'm looking for. It's my secondary lens and although I do want good quality it's nice to know what I can start at to work my way up
  • supermarvin76supermarvin76 Registered Users Posts: 42 Big grins
    edited August 30, 2012
    If you are looking for the absolute best quality for the absolute least money, I would suggest looking into a Canon 50mm f/1.8.

    If you are able to afford to spend more, I would suggest looking at the Sigma 30mm f/1.4. I recently bought this lens and I love it.

    It's been a while since I owned it, but if you are looking for a decent price zoom, I would suggest looking for a used Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8.
    "The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!" -Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States, 1945
  • ForceGhostForceGhost Registered Users Posts: 81 Big grins
    edited August 30, 2012
    supermarvin76 wrote: »
    If you are looking for the absolute best quality for the absolute least money, I would suggest looking into a Canon 50mm f/1.8.

    + Support. My primary lens and the bokeh and sharpness is fantastic!
    Kind Regards,
    Jordon.
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  • TommyboyTommyboy Registered Users Posts: 590 Major grins
    edited August 30, 2012
    I have five lenses for my 40D. I use the 17-55 99% of the time. It's an absurdly good lens. In my case, I would go straight to the 17-55 rather than start with a lower-priced lens and eventually buy the 17-55 anyway. YMMV.

    Good luck!
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  • supermarvin76supermarvin76 Registered Users Posts: 42 Big grins
    edited August 30, 2012
    I do believe the 17-55 is over $1,000. I still stick with the 50mm f/1.8 for now.
    "The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!" -Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States, 1945
  • DemianDemian Registered Users Posts: 211 Major grins
    edited August 30, 2012
    50mm 1.8 is nice but I wouldn't consider it a general purpose lens, especially if you use it indoors... you'll find yourself running out of space all the time.

    I'd second the Tamron 17-50 2.8... it's an incredibly good lens (and I think it can hold its own with the Canon zoom)
  • paddler4paddler4 Registered Users Posts: 976 Major grins
    edited August 30, 2012
    Hi owllove,

    well, you have already gotten conflicting advice, so i will add my own two cents.

    IMHO, 50mm prime is not a good general purpose lens on an APS-C camera. A 50mm lived on my film cameras most the time, but that was a different field of view. On a crop sensor, it's too long. A normal-perspective lens on your camera would around 30mm, so if you wanted a prime, it would be 28 or 35 mm. However, if you are getting a single general purpose lens, I think it is far more useful to have a short zoom, like one of the two Ziggy recommended. (There are a few others in that range as well.) A 50mm lens would be nice for portraits, etc., but if you have a 17-55, it would give you no advantage other than somewhat faster speed and correspondingly narrow depth of field.

    One thing to keep in mind is that if you are starting out, you may be better off with two moderately priced lenses, or one lens and other equipment, than with a single very expensive one. At B&H, between sept 1 and sept 30 (dates matter because of rebates), the canon lens is $1179, and the Tamron 17-50 non-VC is $424. You can buy a lot of equipment for that $755 difference. For example, you could buy a Canon 430EXII flash and Demb Flip-it bounce card--my standard for casual kid pictures--for $335, and still have $420 left over. I'm confident that you would do better shooting pictures of kids with that combination than with the better lens but no flash. And that $420 remaining is only a bit less than you would need to buy a Tamron 28-75, an excellent mid-priced lens that has been my go-to lens for kid candids for the past three years. Or, you could get a modest-priced longer telephoto, which is really useful for outdoor candid shots.
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