canon 450d lens options

Budget? If not an issue then obviously the EF 70-200 L f/2.8 ?

Eek

a swift google puts my budget at about half of that...

That's a good budget. The standard 18-55mm lens is a little ropey too but it all depends on how serious you're planning to take your hobby. When I first bought my 300d I made do with the cheap and cheerful Sigma 70-300, which was decent enough for what I needed.

The Canon version with the image stabiliser is a great lens but the IS won't help with fast moving action in lower light situations, so be aware of that if you're looking at nature photography where an instant makes all the difference.

The sigma i can get for abt 140 eur, (so stg 140 then in a week or so..) but i do like the IS function on the canon, though its abt twice the price unless i find a real sale bargain...prob won't be using for nature shots.

bit to think about, but suspect i will pay a bit more for the canon

thx for yr help

In your position, I'd stick with the 18-55mm for the time being and see where you get with that. You may even find you don't need a zoom. Have a play, think about the types of shots you'd like to create and learn more about using your SLR. Very easy to leap into buying loads of lenses (I did) only to flog them on ebay later...in fact I've sold one lens that I wish I'd kept ?

I did have a pentax SLR 20 years ago (good grief, was it so long ago?) but broke it and never got round to replacing it, so am kind of going back to a hobby i had before. Mrs SI thinks it important that i have a hobby, and get out a bit more...

have played with this one lens on holiday (abt 100 shots of the burj al arab from one position, at all hours of the day and night...) but maybe i try to get the hang of the functions a bit better first.

What type of photography do you generally do? With the sensor on the 450, you may well want something a bit wider.

Mainly:

buildings, some landscapes, 'things' - cars, ships, that sort of stuff, plus normal family photos

not too much nature, close-up stuff

would also like to using for sports photos, so need zoom that will also work on fast-moving stuff...

As mentioned on another thread, much will depend on whether you like carrying around a potentially heavy camera bag.

A friend bought the same camera as you and was "so so" about the lens that it came with. I lent him an old Sigma 24-70 f2.8 and he came back from Africa with some really decent images. One of the advantages of this lens was that it was faster (f2.8 compared to the f4-f5.6)than his kit lens. Another thing to remember is that you havent got a 35mm camera in your hand, even though it feels and looks like one. The sensor is smaller than a 35mm frame so all lenses on the 450D camera need to be considered differently as "effectively" each lens is more telephoto by roughly a third. To that end, camera shake will be more prevalent on a 105mm lens on the 450D than it will be on the full frame sensor cameras like the 5D.

The range of photography that you are after suggests that you would need, IMO, more than one lens......so where to start....

A decent lens is the Canon 24-105L IS. This sadly is only f4 although does have IS. There is a 24-70L without IS which is a stop faster at F2.8. The pro forums are very split on this later lens, some love it, others have not got on with it. Either one though would give you a good workhorse lens of good quality. New they are around the £600-£700 mark, second hand obviously less. This would work for your people and landscape photography although not necessarily your wildlife photos. For this another lens might be better at a later date when funds can afford it.

Other options include the Sigma range. I would though suggest that you err to the f2.8 zooms as these are quite good vfm.

Sigma make a really nice prime lens...the 20mm f1.8 and then there is also the Canon 50mm f1.8 (cheap and for the cost not bad) or the f1.4 which is more nicely built.

I know VERY little about DSLRs and am trying to learn. But we got the canon 50mm for Christmas and it's lovely for portrait shots. Sorry I can't be more technical than that, but I really like it. H also got a new kit lens because we found the one that comes with it wasn't especially great. He also got a telephoto but unfortunately I can't tell you very much about them! ?

Thanks peter.

am just beginning to realise that this is very different to my old pentax...

i think i need to work out how to use this thing properly first, get the hang of the manual features and editing software, and then decide how interested i am. strangely, it all seemed much simplier with a manual SLR 20 years ago.