How to know what to buy with a limited budget? Lenses!!!

B://

I'm new at digital photography, I have a Canon EOS 20D, a really good camera, affordable I mean, hahaha, anyways, I want to know about lenses, your recomendations for a noob. I want to know about the best lenses for my camera out there, please help me out here.
I want info about Macro and Wide Angle EF-S lenses, about hoods, about flashes, about EVERYTHING that can come handy for my photos, and the main problem is that I don't know where to go to know all the details about all that, so thanks for your help.

Maestro

B:// wrote:

I'm new at digital photography, I have a Canon EOS 20D, a really good camera, affordable I mean, hahaha, anyways, I want to know about lenses, your recomendations for a noob. I want to know about the best lenses for my camera out there, please help me out here.
I want info about Macro and Wide Angle EF-S lenses, about hoods, about flashes, about EVERYTHING that can come handy for my photos, and the main problem is that I don't know where to go to know all the details about all that, so thanks for your help.

Try going to these sites. They have been good to me in the research I have done.

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Default.aspx

http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/index.html

http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/enjoydslr/p_3_001.html

http://www.photoworkshop.com/canon/index.html

I love macro shooting even though I do not own a macro lens. One day perhaps I will. Having said that, you probably can't go wrong with this macro lens, http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=47&sort=7&thecat=2

Sorry, though, I don't much about wide angle lenses.

claudermilk

Well, the simple answer to what are the best lenses is look at Canon's L line.

Now the real question is what would the best lenses for your use and budget be. So, first we need to know those two vital bits of information: what do you shoot and how much can we spend for you?

B://

Let me see my wallet for a second...
You know, the problem is that where I'm from (Guatemala), accessories and cameras aren't easy to get, and they're actually more expensive that how they sell them on the states.
I can order them by internet but my budget gets smaller by buying in that way, anyhow, I want to spend around $400 for a lens, and I want to buy a wide angle lens first, before the macro, or maybe a hybrid between a wide angle and a telephoto. I got the EF 24-85 f/3.5-4.5 USM, and I want to know what you think about it, is it good? what's the USM stand for?

Thanks for all your help, really,

Byron Mármol

ziggy53

B:// wrote:

You know, the problem is that where I'm from (Guatemala), accessories and cameras aren't easy to get, and they're actually more expensive that how they sell them on the states.
I can order them by internet but my budget gets smaller by buying in that way, anyhow, I want to spend around $400 for a lens, and I want to buy a wide angle lens first, before the macro, or maybe a hybrid between a wide angle and a telephoto. I got the EF 24-85 f/3.5-4.5 USM, and I want to know what you think about it, is it good? what's the USM stand for?

Thanks for all your help, really,

Byron Mármol

Byron,

I have the EF 24-85mm, and it's a very good lens, I'd say one of Canon's best consumer lenses. It's a bit soft wide open, but stop that puppy down and it's very sharp, especially on a "crop" camera.

My purchase recommendation is what I wound up getting, the Sigma 18-50mm, f2.8 EX DC. This is one of the better Sigma lenses and gives a good combination of wide to short-tele. I use this lens for interior stuff, events mostly, and for landscape and scenic. It's not bad for one and two shot portraits. It is a very versatile lens that spends a lot of time on the camera. The f2.8 aperture is usable with some UnSharp Masking (USM), not to be confused with the USM you ask about above.

Canon's USM stands for UltraSonic Motor, and it is used to describe three different motor designs from Canon (each of which is sometimes shortened to USM). The 24-85mm lens uses Ring type USM and is considered the best of all the Canon motor technologies.

Canon has 5 different lens focus motor technologies; AFD, MM, USM, Micro-USM and Micro-USM II:

"Autofocus Motor
Designation Description Notes
AFD Arc Form Drive Original EF Lens motor - compact but slower and noisier than USM lenses
MM Micro-Motor Compact cheap motor typically fitted to "consumer" lenses
USM UltraSonic Motor Ring-type USM lens - the fastest quietest AF motor with benefit of Full-Time Manual focus (see below)
Micro-USM Micro-USM Motor Cheaper form of USM (using micro-motor rather than USM Ring)
Still quiet but not as fast and does not generally provide FTM.
Mark II version of Micro-USM introduced in 2003"

ziggy53

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Thanks for all your help Ziggy53, you have been so good at me, thank you very much, and about the lens, I think it's a good lens too, but I didn't know how good it was it, and I'm going to buy that SIGMA you talked about, I'll be checking the whole thing, the technical information and all that stuff

Thanks for the motors' information, it's good to know how the AF system works, and to know that the USM is the best system from Canon, thank you.

Thanks, and check my site, leave a comment please. :D:D

www.guatemalajugandoconeltiempo.bizland.com