Advice Needed: $200 Adorama Gift Card For A New Lens (Rebel XT)

winterhk

My wonderful family has gifted me $200 to use at Adorama. I want to get a lens for my Rebel XT, as I'm a little bored with the 18-55 kit lens. What do you all suggest? I plan to keep the kit lens and am interested in expanding my zoom, but I also want high image quality
(which nothing seems to have in telephoto for $200).

So far, I'm considering:

Canon EF 55-200mm f/4.5/5.6 II USM

Canon EF 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 III USM

Am I missing a better option? :dunno Are there any AF lenses under $200 that have incredible image quality (zoom or not)? I've been perusing the site all evening and my head is spinning from reading reviews... And no, I can't afford L glass. :cry

Thank you in advance!

Nikolai

Winterhk,
Congratulations on the $200!

The only lens I currently own under $200 is 50mm f/1.8. If you add a few "twonnies" you can get that and an extension tube set, which would make for a great macro setup. Not that you'd be able to kick Brian's butt with it:-), but it would be a nice solid investment.

I cannot wholeheartedly recommend any lens longer than 100mm without having either IS on it or a nice solid tripod with a good head. Unfortunately, either one is more like a $500..$700 or higher.

When I started on the whole DSLR path 18 months ago I could also only afford the kit lens :cry . Then I got a $100 70-300 tamron and was extremely happy about having the "long glass"... A month later, after desperately trying to get anything remotely close to my prior camera results (Sony 828) I sold them both (along with the sony :cry ) and got 17-85 IS USM...

Since that time I got and sold a few lenses (my current glass lineup, accessories and lighting costs *way* more than my 30D body), but the one thing I learned was: good glass (and good light) makes all the difference.
Unfortunately, one simply cannot get a good glass in this price range.

At the time Shay Stephens gave me a very good advice: build your gear collection piece by piece, but get the good pieces. The aforementioned 50mm and extension set are such good pieces.
So are: good photo-bag; battery grip; extra cards; decent flash;...
Don't fix on the lenses only. You'll get them eventually. Save, or get something that you can get now yet will keep in the long run.

HTH

cwphotos

I agree with Nik here. I made mistakes early on buying the less expensive lenses thinking I could upgrade later, which I can. But I have since regretted those purchases and today dont own any of them anymore. My dad always said do it right the first time and that is what I subscribe to now when buying gear. It took me 6 months to save the money for my 17-40L but you know, it was worth it (and the lenses is comparibly "cheap" at around $600). I say save the gift cert and save some extra money and buy an L series lens when you have the $$. You will be so much happier you did.

winterhk

Thank you for the input. To tell you the truth, I'm even more twisted up now! I'm such a gear whore, with everything. Now, I'm thinking about throwing down a little more $$$ to purchase in the $300-$400 range but can't justify L money when i'm not doing pro work. The options are really expanded at that price. This thread has thrown me for a loop and has me really considering the Canon 28-135 IS. I've read great things about some of these lenses and others, I've heard nothing. Could folks chime in if they're familiar with any of these? My biggest concerns are image quality and flexibility (so no primes).

Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM Nice price, is it any good?

Sigma 18mm - 125mm f/3.5-5.6 DC Nice price, is it any good?

Tamron AF 28-200mm f/3.8 - f/5.6 XR Di Aspherical Nice price, is it any good?

Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 EX DG Read nothing, any reviews?

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Seems like a winner, is this the best for the price ($349 refurbed by Canon)?

Tamron SP 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di LD-IF Well-liked, but not great range. I really want to expand my range somewhat more form the kit lens.

Tamron 18 - 200mm f/3.5-6.3 XR DI-II LD Aspherical Lots of range for the price, read decent reviews too...

Canon EF-S 17mm - 85mm f/4.0-5.6 USM IS Very top of my range, maybe even too much. How good is the image quality (esp vs. 28-135 IS)?

I'd love to find that one lens that has excellent image quality (well, better than the kit lens), isn't more than $400 and ends up staying on my body almost all the time. I guess that's what everyone wants, huh?

sirsloop

winterhk wrote:

Canon EF-S 17mm - 85mm f/4.0-5.6 USM IS Very top of my range, maybe even too much. How good is the image quality (esp vs. 28-135 IS)?

I can tell you right off the bat, that this lens is a flop. Horrible barrel distortions, glaring CA, and mediorce build quality. Its an upgraded kit lens thats been awefully overpriced with the addition of IS. I have had very limited experience with the 28-135 IS... and it was mostly forgettable at best. Nothing about the lens really peaked my insterest, nor did anything really stand out as a problem. My boss has one and it never gets used. His Sigma 30/1.4 is mostly glued to his 20D, only to come off when the ef 70-300IS goes on.

Nikolai

Respectfully disagree

sirsloop wrote:

I can tell you right off the bat, that this lens is a flop. Horrible barrel distortions, glaring CA, and mediorce build quality. Its an upgraded kit lens thats been awefully overpriced with the addition of IS. I have had very limited experience with the 28-135 IS... and it was mostly forgettable at best. Nothing about the lens really peaked my insterest, nor did anything really stand out as a problem. My boss has one and it never gets used. His Sigma 30/1.4 is mostly glued to his 20D, only to come off when the ef 70-300IS goes on.

I have been using 17-85 IS for more than a year now and never experienced any of the issues you've described. At the time I was also using 28-135 IS and while I didn't have any particular issues with it, it turned out to be on the less convenient side of the wide-mid-tele spectrum (for me, that is, YMMV ). So I sold it and used the money as a part of payment for 10-22.

All in all, I'm very happy with my EF-S set (10-22, 17-85) and while I do plan to improve my gear eventually even in this range (I have already acquired some nice L glass in 70+ tele range), it's definitely the least of my photo-related outstanding issues.

FWIW...

Nikolai

Brian,
Once you narrow it down, check FredMiranda. Its Buy & Sell forum is extremely active. I purchased and sold 90% of my all glass over there, usually within days, or even hours.
Local Dgrin's own Flea Market is also a very good safe place, but the traffic is way slower.

sirsloop

try taking a photo of a building at 17mm with the thing. It'll look more like a purple edged banana with windows than an actual building.

Nikolai

Here you are

sirsloop wrote:

try taking a photo of a building at 17mm with the thing. It'll look more like a purple edged banana with windows than an actual building.

Building Shot at 17mm in "green" mode (5 min ago), small coarse jpeg straight from the camera (30D + 17-85 IS UM), no post at all:



Do you see banana?

winterhk

winterhk wrote:

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Seems like a winner, is this the best for the price ($349 refurbed by Canon)?

Thanks for all the input. After weighing my options, I bought the 28-135 IS. It seems like it'll do everything I want fairly well and only cost me $180!

Thanks again everyone. I'll post some testers when it arrives.