What lenses would be best for a visit to Canada

[Crtm]

Hi All,

I had asked what I could buy with £600 from a photography point of view. Would I upgrade my 1100D canon body or purchase a new lens but what one do I go for when I already have the nifty 50, 18-55 and the 55-250 which in most peoples opinion seems to be a well rounded set.

One of the suggestions was to buy one or two FF lenses, the Canon 40mm f2.8 STM pancake lens was one of them. This was because if I ever upgraded my camera body I would have something to work with. I am sure all you experts will let me know if this is correct or not. :shrug:

It has since come to light that we are going to Canada to visit friends and family for 3 weeks next July/August . Montreal, Toronto, Niagara Falls and possibly if we have enough time and money a very quick visit to the Rockies which I know is about a 5/6 hour flight from both the above mentioned cities.

I wonder if any of you could suggest what lens/lenses would be best to take with me as I don't want to have to carry everything. If I were to purchase a FF lens or lenses which one/s would be best to buy with this trip in mind. I would need to make sure whatever I purchased I could get use of when I returned home.

I could stretch to around a £1000 if need be.

Any suggestions please.

Cheers Carol

 

[urdygurdy]

Are you happy with the nifty 50, 18-55 and the 55-250 you already have ??

Do these lenses limit your photography in anyway?

if the answer is no to both question then maybe its not time to buy a new lens and spend so much money.

If your goings shooting some serious wildlife then maybe a longer lens would help, if you plan to shoot tons of landscapes then maybe a wind angle 10-20 would help

hope that helps

Daz

 

[meonshore]

Well I wouldn't buy the 40mm pancake - too close in focal length to the 50mm.

I spent 3 weeks in Canada in 2003 (and would go back in a heartbeat). I shot a lot of landscapes and wildlife as I went from Calgary to Vancouver by car.

But when in the cities and large towns I spent most of my time with a walkabout lens on the camera. In my case a 28-70 or if I had been in possession of one at the time I would have used a 24-105. I was on a 1.6x crop Canon 10D (6MP) and a film camera at the time - EF-S didn't really come into the equation for me but my recommendation would be to consider the 17-85mm EF-s or the 24-105 L (depending on your medium term aspirations for a new body) and keep the 50mm for indoor or low light if you wanted to upgrade anything for the trip.

But I'd also suggest you have plenty of SD cards, and maybe a spare battery to make sure you don't miss any of the opportunities you have to shoot with the kit you already have.

As Darren says if you were looking to shoot any of the wildlife then you'd be better upgrading the long end of your lens line up in which case a 300 f/4 or a 75-300 IS might be on your list.

Personally I'd take everything over there and then be selective on what you are likely to shoot that day. Would hate to leave something back in the UK.

 

[rjbell]

I wouldn't bother with a 40mm either.

I wouldn't worry about FF lens just yet they are not ideal on a crop camera and upgrading will cost you a lot more than £1k, so just leave it in your money box and keep saving. Just go with the 18-55 and 55-200 both light weight and reasonably compact.

 

[Crtm]

Thanks for your replies, that settles it the money stays in the bank for just now. I have 3 batteries for the camera at the moment a canon battery pack that came with the body and 2 non canon batteries which are just as good. I have plenty of memory cards but will buy some new ones just before we leave or get them out there if I thought they were going to be cheaper. I also have a B+W circular - pol MRC, camera bag and cleaning equipment so pretty much have everything required.

Cheers Carol

 

[meonshore]

Carol,

Very sensible.

Only other suggestion then would be to consider a decent tripod and head *if* you were looking to take any landscape images and don't have that covered.

 

[Crtm]

Hi I have a tripod which a friend of mine has given me to use for the time being. I will probably purchase one in the foreseeable future once I have decided if it is what I want.

Cheers Carol

 

[Nod]

Not sure where your interests lie. If you're more into landscapes, a reasonably wide angle zoom would be my choice - a 24-70 f/2.8 should do the job; a Canon one if it can be sourced withing budget or a Sigma (tried and tested) if the budget's a little tighter. If you want even wider (and FF compatible), I would (and have) plump for the Sigma 12-24. Not the fastest (widest aperture) lens in the world but I'm usually using it at f/8 or f/11 anyway, so in its sweet spot and making the max aperture less important.

However, Canada's also great for wildlife and some of that might be a bit scary to shoot with even the long end of the 24-70 (and certainly with the WA zoom!) so something longer would be in order, maybe a 70-200 f/2.8 or even a slower 70-300. Careful shopping and 2nd hand might even get you a pair of zooms, have a look at Mifsuds, MPB, Ffordes etc for 2nd hand kit.

Good idea to buy FF lenses, not only in case you upgrade your camera body but also for future resale/trade in, crop only lenses seem to be dropping in value since so many people are switching to FF now it's within reach financially. If looking at Sigma lenses, the letters to look for are DG (FF compatible) and EX (their premium range). DC indicates crop only. In Tamron, I'm not sure they have a designation for FF but (IIRC) DiII indicates crop only. I think (but I'm not sure) that Tokina have borrowed Nikon's Dx moniker for crop only lenses.

Whatever you end up with, have a fantastic trip!