kit 18-55 and a 50mm 1.8 or 18-135 STM?

conzy

Hey, I have a budget of about €800 for a body and lens.

I'll be doing 50/50 stills and video. I have my heart set on a 650/700d. Initially I planned on getting the kit lens and a 50mm prime 1.8 as id like to have a fast lens. But this would leave me without any telephoto capabilities.

After doing some research the 18-135 STM lens seemed like a good option, its very versatile as it covers the kit range and extends into telephoto range. While also having the new STM focusing so it will be better for video.

So what would you recommend? Stick with the kit lens and the cheap and cheeful prime? Or "splash out" on the 18-135?

The 18-135 option is far more expensive and going for the kit lens would leave money for spare batteries / tripod etc

Thanks

frozenfrozen

Better to get really good lenses and work your way up through bodies, if you get a super nice L lens and a say second hand 600D for the same price, when you upgrade your body you will still have that nice lens, but if you go half and half on body and lens when you upgrade you'll have nothing to keep because you'll need a better body and lens. If you were going for 50/50 video and stills would a 5D be more appropriate? Second hand to fit your budget and then an L lens. Just how I would do it if I were starting out again, I went for a 600D and mediocre lenses and now when I eventually upgrade I'll have to splash out on a whole new setup

conzy

I can't see myself outgrowing crop bodies for the foreseeable future, I have a lot to learn! So I'm happy enough with a 650/700d body.

I see there is also a 700d with an 18-55 STM kit lens. Maybe I'm reading into these STM lenses too much!

But like you said having good lenses that will outlive the body is important, am I better off going with a kit lens for now and saving up and spending several hundred euro on a decent lens in a few months?

Nerro

Definately get a better lens.Like it was mentioned in previous post your lens will outlive body and it will give really good results.i would even go for 550D rather then 700Dor 650D if you dont wand 5D.I know one can argue but i recon its much better camera and you can connect external mic aswell for video.Second hand 550D and 17-40 L or 24-70 L would be on my shopping list.really wouldnt pay the extra for flip out touch screen or some other minor extras as correct me if i am wrong but all three cameras have the same 18MP sensor?

Rew

STM is a bit over rated (in my opionion) TBH, if your serious about video your going to end up using manual focus pretty quick anyway. Your probably going to out grow all of those lenses regardless. Id get the 18-135 STM as a general all rounder. Learn loads then make an educated decision down the road. You can get the 50mm 1.8 2nd hand for ~80 euro so you could probably get that in the not too distant future.

conzy

haha this is like the motors forum when someone asks for hot hatch recommendation and the answer is M3 or M5

The 18-135 STM is pushing my budget a fair bit and its not an "amazing" lens. So for now I might stick to the 18-55 and the 50mm prime and save up for a decent lens

Either that or I go body only and buy the older 18-135 IS used on adverts or somewhere

bobblehat

I think the 18-55 and 50mm will serve you better all round. Depending on what sort of video your planning on shooting, if your shooting for example a short film you'll probably need a wide lens, the 50mm prime lens, because of its really wide aperture you can get a really shallow depth of field which can look really cool. Also its an amazing portrait lens with the same shallow dof can really add a lot. Its not too bad either in some low light conditions, if often used one at a gig or show of some sorts that you cant use flash and got great results and its because of the wide f1.8 aperture, on the 18 135mm the lowest is f3.5 and I think you'd only get that at the wider end of the lens it would probably change to f5.6.
Anyway, thats what id do if I were you!!
hope it helps.

condra

For the body, personally, I would get the cheapest used 550d you can find, because they're full HD and very affordable. Basically the same sensor as the newer ones. Also a nifty fifty of course.

You could get a 550d and a 50mm 1.8 for a total of around 430 euro and get shooting proper serious stuff straight off.

Aside from the Canon 50 1.8, the 40 2.8 is great value.

In saying all that.... Samyang for video!

The newer Samyang primes offer insane image quality, for a low outlay, at the expense of auto-focus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYAf3M1MABY
They also have very smooth focus rings, so are amazing for video work.
As far as still photography goes, manual focussing sucks for wildlife and kids, but is fine for posed portraits, landscapes, macro, products, etc..

Best of luck.