Better lens?

M

McNyat

Suspended / Banned
Messages
493
Name
Ciaran
Edit My Images
Yes
I mainly us the kit lens that came with my 550d (18-55is) and on ythe whole I feel that its not bad.

However I have tried some night shots on long exposures and some shots with some movement (ie kids playing etc) and they seem to come out soft even though I have tried all the recommended methods I have read and learned on here.

I once read that the kit lens was poor enough and that 'better glass' woul make significant improvements to this type of shot. Is this the case? If so what would you suggest? Something like 15-70mm zoom approx would be what I would be after.

I appreciate that this post is fairly general but I want to get some educated thoughts to see if I should investigate further.
 
Multiply the focal length by 1.6 that numb is the slowest shutter speed you can easily handhold, not taking into account IS. Let's say you want to shoot at 20mm. Multiply 20 by 1.6 to get 32. 1/32 should be the slowest shutter s
Red you shoot at to get a sharp hand held picture. IS will kick in and theoretically allow you to hand hold slower than that. If you have moving subjects, You'd want to shoot at 1/60 or faster. For kids running around, it would need to be 1/100.
 
Nothing wrong with the kit lens, I have had some great results with it.
Most of the problems are with technique, slow shutter speeds in particular are top of the list. A 'better' lens will not help in these cases! Try to improve your technique first, have a look in the 'Bootcamp' thread on here, lots of newcomers have found it very helpfull.
Maybe not what you want to hear, but it may help to avoid an expensive mistake!
 
McNyat said:
However I have tried some night shots on long exposures and some shots with some movement (ie kids playing etc) and they seem to come out soft even though I have tried all the recommended methods I have read and learned on here.
Click to expand...

How long are the exposures you are having problems with please?

If you double check your support; MLU; choice of aperture; shutter speed; depth of field; point of focus etc you will find the cause of the problem.
 
Last edited:
Just been thinking since and have asked myself the question...... what would the benefit be in buying a new, more expensive lens?

I feel that it has to offer something but maybe someone with more knowlege than me could help me out with this one?
 
McNyat said:
Just been thinking since and have asked myself the question...... what would the benefit be in buying a new, more expensive lens?

I feel that it has to offer something but maybe someone with more knowlege than me could help me out with this one?
Click to expand...

More expensive lenses may:
Give you better resolution (the kitlens is actually pretty good at this)
Give you better contrast/colour rendering
Give less optical abberations like chromatic abberations or distortions
Give you better build quality and weather sealing
Give you faster focus speeds
Give you better focal length ranges (completely depends what you're shooting. A wider angle will fit more of a landscape in, whereas for wildlife and stuff like that you need long focal lengths)
Give you a faster maximum aperture (the kitlens has a relatively small maximum aperture range of f/3.5-5.6, larger aperture lenses (for example a 50mm f/1.8) will let you get faster shutter speeds and thinner DoF for more low light and creative possibilities.

But all that depends specifically on the lens, they don't all get better in every more expensive lens if you see what I mean.

The kitlens is good at what it does, it provides decent image quality and a good general purpose focal range in an inexpensive and lightweight package.
Whether you would benefit from a more expensive lens completely depends on what you shoot and how you shoot it.

If you don't use good technique, money spent on better equipment is wasted.
 
Hi Adam,

Thanks for your reply and the info is much appreciated. I have since been speaking with a friend who has a few l spec cannon lens' and has offered to let me try one of them out over a weekend, which will let me see for my humble self if I notice any difference.

Cheers
 
I think you can borrow one lens to have try and then consider to buy which one
 
It sounds like you're having focus and subject and/or camera movement problems.

The acid test is take a picture of a static subject in good light. Use centre-point AF so you know exactly what you've focused on. See what you think then. Then take exactly the same shot with your friend's L lens and compare - same focal length, viewpoint, framing, same light and f/number, ISO and shutter speed.

I think you'll be surprised at how little there is in it in terms of basic image quality.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top