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External Microphone and Lens Upgrade
SokrMan
Registered Users Posts: 4 Beginner grinner
Hello!
I'm a teenage photographer. I recently purchased a Canon T2i Camera along with the regular kit lens. I had a few questions about upgrades - what would the next lens up be? The original kit lens does not zoom out far enough, at least for me. Would it be the Canon lens that is 55mm to 250mm? Additionally, when I take videos with the camera, I hear the internal parts of the camera moving as part of the audio. I'm assuming to solve this I would need to buy an external microphone. What nice, basic, and fairly cheap external mic would y'all recommend??
Thanks!
Also! Please check out my gallery! All advice is appreciated. I'm trying to sell pictures to fundraise for my eagle scout project.
http://eaglescouts.prahan.com
I'm a teenage photographer. I recently purchased a Canon T2i Camera along with the regular kit lens. I had a few questions about upgrades - what would the next lens up be? The original kit lens does not zoom out far enough, at least for me. Would it be the Canon lens that is 55mm to 250mm? Additionally, when I take videos with the camera, I hear the internal parts of the camera moving as part of the audio. I'm assuming to solve this I would need to buy an external microphone. What nice, basic, and fairly cheap external mic would y'all recommend??
Thanks!
Also! Please check out my gallery! All advice is appreciated. I'm trying to sell pictures to fundraise for my eagle scout project.
http://eaglescouts.prahan.com
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For example, the Canon EF-S 55-250mm, f4.0-5.6 IS is a very inexpensive tele-zoom lens. While the optics are actually pretty good, especially if you stop it down a bit, the AF motor is relatively slow and sometimes the AF is inaccurate too. Build quality is entry level, so you really must not abuse or even bump this lens too hard; it really can snap the mount clean off the lens.
However, like I said before, in good light, when you "can" stop the lens down, it's a very lightweight lens of pretty good optical quality. I notice that your site includes a lot of images in the "Hiking" galleries, as well as a lot of images in the "Nature" and "Travel". This sort of activity may well indicate using a lens like the Canon EF-S 55-250mm, f4.0-5.6 IS. (Just be careful with it, if you choose that lens.)
What I use as a travel zoom, especially for a Canon crop 1.6x/APS-C camera body, is the Canon EF 70-200mm, f4L IS USM. The image quality improvement over the 55-250mm above is considerable, and it's a very sharp lens even wide open. Note that it's also f4 at 200mm, so you can add a Canon 1.4x teleconverter to get close to 280mm @ f5.6. It is a heavier lens than the 55-250mm, and it costs a lot more, but the image quality is (IMO) worth it. It's also weather sealed, which might be important to you in your application.
If I know that I need more length, I also have an older Tamron 500mm, f8 SP (55BB) (catadioptric, aka "cat" mirror lens) that works nicely for both distance/depth compression and some wildlife. It's fairly lightweight, so not too heavy to carry, but it's manual focus and only the single aperture. It also has some rather odd looking bokeh "donuts" with high-contrast backgrounds, and it's a bit delicate so you have to be careful in use.
Anyway, tell us more about your uses for the lens, and we can give you better advice on a lens purchase.
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I have this for my 5DMKII and it eliminates all IS and button clicking noise that travels through the body of the camera. In the audio world, $65 is in the fairly cheap category but the clarity is still very very good. For the price and options it has it is one of the best introductory level stereo external mics. The only problem it has is that there is no indicator light if it is on or not so you gotta remember to turn the switch off when you're done.
But, it still works even without batteries. It has more clipping without the battery, but if you manage your levels you can still get audio out of it.