Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Forward Observer]

Canon 50D.

I'm thinking one 50mm f 1.4 for those low light situations, and one more for shooting outdoors. I'm on a budget. I can't spend a whole lot - so it has to be reasonable. What do you recommend? I'm a total beginner with photography.

[SeoulnPepe]

Buy an older Nikkor 50mm f1.4 non-ai lens (30-50US) and buy an F to EOS adapter (20US on Ebay).

[Forward Observer]

thanks seoulnpepe, I just might do that. Any recommendations on the other lens? How many lenses do people normally have?

[ngocnam0903]

I have a 20-35/f2.8 L lens very good condition, and the wide lens for 50D, asking for $500 code UE

Normally you should have a wide lens, a lens for macro pic, portrait... it depends...

[paulf]

As a beginner and one who is on a budget, I can recommend the Tamron 18-250. This is a great lens with great image quality at both the wide and telephoto end.

[ngocnam0903]

As a beginner, i though you should not use Tamron, Sigma or Nokkor lens with the transfer mount (that so-call For lenses).

Normally Canon has establish two type of lenses such as L=Luxyry lens with provide wonderful picture and USM=Ultrasonic lenses which also provide other beautiful.

It depend on your wish, if you want to have a great picture, just use the fix lens such as Macro 100/2.8 USM, 70-200/f4 USM(or f2.8L)... 20-35/2.8 L, 14-70/2.8L.... that all a little bit expensive but it very fast and Great Canon Lenses

Cheer! Something to share with you^^

[AaronDiesel]

I assume what you're looking for is a general purpose do-everything "walkaround lens". You mentioned that you're on a budget. What's your price range exactly?

For a 50D with a 1.6x cropped sensor, the best walkaround zoom lenses are the Canon EF-S 17-55mm F2.8 and the EF 24-105mm F4.0L. New, those lenses go for about 1.0M Won the last time I checked. A cheaper option is the Canon EF-S 17-85mm F4.0-5.6 lens. If you want ultra cheap, it doesn't get any cheaper than the 18-55mm F3.5-5.6.

If you're a beginner, I suggest getting a walkaround zoom lens first and experimenting with it for a while to determine if you need a fast prime lens like the 50mm F1.4 and whether or not the 50mm focal length is right for the kinds of photos you want to take.

[doc_ido]

This probably won't help all that much, but it will depend on what things you want to take photographs of. Personally, I find fixed focal length lenses a little constraining for general photography (especially when you have to work in restricted space, which over here is all the time). Keep in mind as well that the 50D has a 1.6x field of view crop factor, which makes your 50 mm lens frame like 80 mm.

What do you mean by "low light" photography? I've found f/2.8 lenses to expose well at night, especially if you can fork out for image stabilisation, and the two-stop advantage in aperture may not be worth the loss of flexibility. Again, depends on what you want to photograph.

If you're on a tight budget, I've been really pleased with the Tamron 17-50 f2.8 XR Di II (around $400) but the Canon equivalent (the 17-55 f2.8 IS USM) is an excellent upgrade (around $900).

[Forward Observer]

To the last three posters, thank you for your help...