Canon 700D - Lens Advice

WillyWonkaBar

Hoping someone here might be able to offer some advice as I know very little about this. My partner is into photography as a hobby and is currently using a Canon 700D with what I think is a Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II lens.

She uses it primarily for landscape photography with the odd macro shots here and there. It does a pretty good job but looking to find a better lens or one that will offer something different.

Any advice on what sort of lenses I should be looking at?

Irishphotodesk

WillyWonkaBar wrote: »

Hoping someone here might be able to offer some advice as I know very little about this. My partner is into photography as a hobby and is currently using a Canon 700D with what I think is a Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II lens.

She uses it primarily for landscape photography with the odd macro shots here and there. It does a pretty good job but looking to find a better lens or one that will offer something different.

Any advice on what sort of lenses I should be looking at?

Most landscape pics are done with wide angle lenses, the lens you mentioned is a kit lens which was probably purchased with the camera, pretty much any lens should be an improvement on it.

Do you have a budget in mind ? There are lots which could be suitable, even non canon lenses like sigma, tamron etc

A lot of people might suggest a common walk around lens 50mm , if you are lucky you could find a second hand 50mm macro lens - the macro one to look for is a canon 50mm f2.5 macro .

If you have plenty of money you could buy top of the line 16-35mm f2.8 mkiii which is about €2k new, but it may not improve her images, that usually comes with learning, maybe a photo book on how to shoot landscapes or “understanding photography” I think is one that is heavily recommended.

Boredstiff666

With Canon sensors they give you a crop of 1.6 which means that whatever lens you have on your camera. You need to multiply it by 1.6 to find it's true equivalent.

For example a 50mm lens becomes actually a 80mm .... 50 x 1.6 = 80.

A 100mm lens becomes a 160mm lens. 100 x 1.6 = 160.

Most cameras and their sensors are based on 35mm film cameras. So a 35mm lens on a 35mm film camera would give you a 'true' image production when transferred through the lens onto the film.

A recorded image with no distortion through magnification or reduction from the lens.

So moving back to your Canon 700d. The sweet spot for landscape would be the 35mm equivent lens which because of the sensor is a 22mm lens. So 22 x 1.6 = 35.

So anything around 22mm to 25mm would be perfect for your landscape photography.

I used a 24-70 2.8L when I used to do landscape.

Here are a few.

https://www.wexphotovideo.com/canon-ef-s-24mm-f28-stm-pancake-lens-1560200/

https://www.wexphotovideo.com/canon-ef-24-70mm-f28l-ii-usm-lens-1529492/

https://www.wexphotovideo.com/canon-ef-s-17-55mm-f28-is-usm-lens-1012403/

CelticRambler

Boredstiff666 wrote: »

With Canon sensors they give you a crop of 1.6 which means that whatever lens you have on your camera. You need to multiply it by 1.6 to find it's true equivalent.

For example a 50mm lens becomes actually a 80mm .... 50 x 1.6 = 80.

A 100mm lens becomes a 160mm lens. 100 x 1.6 = 160.

Most cameras and their sensors are based on 35mm film cameras. So a 35mm lens on a 35mm film camera would give you a 'true' image production when transferred through the lens onto the film.

I suspect we're getting well out of the OP's depth here, but a couple of points:
1. Some Canon sensors! Canon make - and sell - plenty of cameras with full-frame sensors; even if the OP's partner's camera has the "cropped" APS-C.
and
2. all other things being equal, the 1.6x crop factor only applies to the size of the image, not the depth-of-field. So if you want an 80mm lens to shoot shallow depth of field portraits, for example, you still need an 80mm lens, not an "equivalent" 50mm.

@OP, as the recipient too many time of well-intentioned gifts relating to something I was interested in by people who had very little understanding of my hobby, my suggestion would be to be very careful about spending (what could be) hundreds of euros/pounds/dollars on a lens that isn't on your partner's wish-list. There's one lens that I would like to add to my collection at the moment, and only one. I'd be really annoyed if someone spent 4k on a "really good lens" for me that wasn't that one, leaving me trying to figure out how to get the 4k back so I could buy the one I actually want, without offending those who chipped in for my special treat!

Boredstiff666

CelticRambler wrote: »

I suspect we're getting well out of the OP's depth here, but a couple of points:
1. Some Canon sensors! Canon make - and sell - plenty of cameras with full-frame sensors; even if the OP's partner's camera has the "cropped" APS-C.
and
2. all other things being equal, the 1.6x crop factor only applies to the size of the image, not the depth-of-field. So if you want an 80mm lens to shoot shallow depth of field portraits, for example, you still need an 80mm lens, not an "equivalent" 50mm.

@OP, as the recipient too many time of well-intentioned gifts relating to something I was interested in by people who had very little understanding of my hobby, my suggestion would be to be very careful about spending (what could be) hundreds of euros/pounds/dollars on a lens that isn't on your partner's wish-list. There's one lens that I would like to add to my collection at the moment, and only one. I'd be really annoyed if someone spent 4k on a "really good lens" for me that wasn't that one, leaving me trying to figure out how to get the 4k back so I could buy the one I actually want, without offending those who chipped in for my special treat!

Sorry was just trying to explain about landscapes as that is what I was into as well.

There are lots of things to take into account with lenses and cameras. Probably the best thing to do is sneakily get her talking about such then go to a camera shop with her for a look around and tell her you are buying.

She will be putty in your hands for a long time afterwards.:)

Rikp2005

Maybe look into the EF-S 15-85mm is USM. This would be a great upgrade from kit lens, and give more reach at both ends. I shoot mainly full frame and my most used lens is the 24-105, and this would give about the same field of view on the 700D

pigeonhouse

I recently bought an Irix 15mm f/2.4 for landscapes, it's an amazing lens for the price. It's manual focus but you can set the aperture from the camera. I'm amazed by the quality for the price, their ND and CPL filters are great too, no colour distortion.
For macro, have a look at the Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro, the non L version is great for the price.