Canon Lenses
I’ve been using a DSLR for a while now and I have to admit I just might have a little case of LBA (lens buying addiction)
(Saber saying: Stop buying Lens!)
my list of lenses/lense include, Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM, EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM, Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS, EF 50mm f1.4 USM, EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM Macro, EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM, a Lens Baby and of course my EOS 450D’s Kit lens the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS which I loaned to a buddy of mine.
(Figures and Gundams agree with me, this shot glass is a steaming piece of carp fish)
I also have a Bower Wide Angle Converter, which I picked up from a shop while going around Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco. this lens however is a piece of bantha foodoo. but will get to that later.
the EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM is a great lens I use primarily for special events or sports photography. I’ve used it on weddings before and it came in handy for taking pictures from the other end of the ailse or from the sidelines. I often refer to it as my stalker lens. ^^
At the end of the aisle at 70mm
from the other end of the aisle, HANDHELD with IS 2 and no Flash
EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM is my handy all around, carry everywhere lens, although I’ve now replaced it with the Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS, since the Sigma can do the job of both the EF-S 17-85mm and the 70-300mm. but still, the 17-85mm has been around taking beautiful shots of those precious moments I would have soon forgotten, if not for the pictures. In a way I’m probably just keeping it for sentimental reasons. ^^ On the other hand the Sigma is one heck of a lens, but I do have a couple of complaints. the darn focus ring needs a bit of getting used to. unlike the Canon ones, turning it with the auto focus engaded would grinding the mechnism against the auto focus motor. also doesn’t help that it can easily be mistaken as the zoom ring. thus I have to always keep in mind that it’s there. However aside from that minor nuisance, the lens is just perfect.
Esplanade the Singapore Durian with an old building in the middle. using the Canon 17-85mm set at 50mm IMO the lens’ sweet spot
The MG Sazabi using the versatile 18-200mm sigma set at full auto and maxed out at 200mm. mono eye led lights up because of the flash. ^^ Thank you Danny Domo Arigato Gozaimasu for reviewing the lens. m(_ _)m
EF 50mm f1.4 USM, is the lens I use primarily for portraits and low light photography. it takes really sharp pictures in low light even without a tripod because of its large aperture. f1.4 by far the largest aperture among all of my lens. its important to note however that although having a large aperture speeds up your camera, everything in the background and forground would tend to blur, leaving the eyes focused on the subject.
Since I would rather not blind my child, I take pictures without the camera flash. the 50mm set to a large aparture and high ISO would ensure the image would still look clear even in low light. this particular image was set at f1.6 at iso 800 at 1/800 second
Saber Duckie was also shot without a flash with the aperture set at f2 and ISO at 1600 shot at 1/80 second.
EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM and the EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM. I like to call them the Danny Choo lense (not a typo btw, those who use the Queen’s English spell the word this way). These are the exactly lenses Danny uses. and are the first two non-kit lenses I had. these are amazing lenses, great at what they were designed to do. the first is an Incredible macro lens I often use to take pictures of my gundams and figures. The second is a ultra wide angle lens for landscape photos or for capturing everything even in tight cramp spaces.
View of Tokyo from our hotel room in Akasaka, using the wide angle 10-22mm set at 10mm iso 400 and an exposure of 1.3 second.
the MG RX-78-2 Ver Ka repainted to real type colors. shot using the 60mm Macro lens at iso 400, the only problem with this lens is it shows my paint inconsistency and sprue marks with vivid clarity. ^^;
Finally the Bower DSLR Pro MC AF Digital Wide Converter with Macro 0.5x 67mm. for some odd forgotten reason, I needed a wide angle lens while in San Francisco, didn’t have the 10-22mm with me so I brought a over priced wide converter from a pain in buttocks bloodsucking lily-livered troglodyte tourist trap down at Fisherman’s Wharf. note for travellers: NEVER BUY CAMERA ACCESSORIES FROM THE SHOPS AT FISHERMAN’S WHARF, THEY WILL ROB YOU BLIND AND WILL NEVER OFFER A REFUND!!! two years after the incident I still want to strangle the shop owner for selling me an overpriced piece of shiet. although true enough the wide converter would help widen the field of view of your existing lens, however it also deteriorates the quality of the image
here is two images using the 50mm lens both identically set at f1.4 iso 400 1/25 second. first without the converter then another with it attached to the lens.
of course, true enough the converter does the job and widens the shot. however the image turns out less sharp.
here zoomed in you can still read the text on the box, with the converter on everything blurs out of focus.
anyway enough of my rantings. here ends my short review on the lenses I currently own. If anyone wants to know more about any of these lenses, just drop a comment and I’ll try to answer then the best that I can. until the next post here is a question I’d like to leave you with. given a choice would you rather buy a lens, a figure or a gundam! ^^
August 11th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Say I can only afford one lens for now, is the sigma 18-200mm the one I should get first ? Is it good for everything ?
August 11th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
that old building is our supreme court. well used to be, it moved to a new building now.
wow nice collection of lens. me just bought a EOS 100D (kit lens 18mm - 55mm) and is currently reading up as much as i can on DSLR and lens. ^^;
btw i have a n00b question, the shop keeper asked me whether i want to buy a filter to go with it? i have no idea what a filter do so i didn’t buy it. so marvin what does a filter do and is it a necessity?
August 12th, 2008 at 1:24 am
Saku, are you using a Canon or a Nikon? the sigma 18-200mm is a great lens to start after you get tired of the kit lens. but nikon has a lens with similar range but a lot more quiet and built better. canon on the other hand leave their users stuck with the 2 lens solution… in which case I wish I have known about the Sigma a long time ago. ^^
Gordon, if you buy a new lens I suggest getting the filter, it would protect your precious lens, but for the kit lens IMO you should just wore it out without the filter. although there are types of filter for other functions as well. if you like to learn more about filters and camera stuff, here’s a site I’d recommend to you:
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-lens-filters.htm
btw did you mean the Canon 1000D? didn’t know it was already available. congratulations on your new camera. ^^
August 12th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
omg I just had a look at cameras today and I so want one of those. That’s a lot of lenses O_O I might have to start saving money aside to get one. I’m pretty new to the world of REAL cameras, so I could use some advice XD I was eying up a Nikon today. Good for beginners? And I suppose if I had to choose between a figure lens or a gundam I’d go for the figure, but that’s cuz I have an extensive figure wish list and I’m still somewhat new to the figure collecting.
August 12th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Oops, sorry for the typo. yup it’s the EOS 1000D. it just arrived in singapore. got it at a bargain. ^^
thanks for the tips, i got your e-mail as well. will check the sites out. ^^
August 12th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Nice collection, there! Is the Lens Baby fun to play with?
And thanks for those tutorial links, as I am new, too…
Funny how people on the other side of the world can convince me to do things: I get a Danny DSLR the other week, and then a Danny macro lense a few days ago; I was alternatively eying a used 100mm f/2.8 macro as it is possibly superior, all things considered, but the variability of its going price at auction is surprising.
Getting a camera used though, I guess I should have expected it would be dirty; I should wet-clean the sensor soon but will probably hold it off for as long as possible because I’d want to economically do it myself and don’t want to kill it just yet…
August 12th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
hey marv, have you seen the canon dslr 16.1 mp and the sony alpha 14 mp, thats a hell of shot..lol
August 12th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Persocom I would suggest either the D40 or the new Canon1000d. although they say the color saturation on the Nikon is better, I prefer Canon cameras since they offer more features. also I don’t think nikon cameras have the live view function like the ones available on the canon 450d and the 1000d.
Gordon, let us know how it turns out. heard so much good things about the camera. and happy shooting. ^^
Nanu, if you have the EF-S 60mm macro, I don’t think you’d need the 100mm one. you’d probably be better off buying a all around lens like the sigma 18-200mm or the EF-S 17-85mm. btw just to let you know I got the DSLR a couple of years ago because of Danny too. ^^;
Ivan the Raging Otaku, I’m not sure which canon is that. must be one of the full frame models. ^^ was actually considering the Sony as an upgrade, but sticked with Canon since the lenses wouldn’t work on other brands. ^^
August 15th, 2008 at 3:05 am
I am using nikon d40 with stock lens 18-55mm now. You recommended Nikon 18-200mm AF-S VR DX based on your comments on Dannychoo.com.
August 17th, 2008 at 12:11 am
ooo I love the photo of the Tokyo night scene
August 17th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
glad you like it. ^^
October 2nd, 2008 at 1:36 pm
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November 12th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Marvin, I find no other suitable place to ask so I guess here is fine ^^; Well, ever since I saw that Acguy in a fish tank pic of yours, I fell in love with your macro lenses (and the camera to an extent). I grew up using canon so I don’t know other brands to point to. It’s also my first time actually looking at SLR; I’ve only been using P&S cameras this whole time and currently using the Canon SX100. I also don’t find camera reviews on different sites useful since i can pretty much understand the technical part but not so much personal user experience and preference. Playing with the camera at the store didn’t help too since there was no SD card inserted nor enough environment change to test stuff out >__
November 12th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Since you had your 450D for awhile now, what do you think of it? ^^ Any less apparent pros and obscure cons you noticed during your times of using it?
You said the live view is overrated… From what I picked up, Live view = using LCD to take pics and make adjustments. Why is this so glorified on SLRs? P&S cameras have been doing that for years and the viewfinder became a bit..obsolete ^^; (at least to non-photographers). I also learned that you can’t use Live View in anything past auto. Did that provide any complications for you?
For using the camera for what we do (the Gundam stuff), how’s taking photos for your reviews with the camera? Easier? Busier? You do have amazing shots though
argh, I thought I had a few more questions but this is it for now… I know which camera I want, just don’t know if I should buy it or not. From the looks of it, I might be picking it up with the macro lens then save up for wide angle. lens are insanely expensive! another reason that is holding me back. I want to be able to utilize them fully for burning my wallet like that O_O Okay… that’s it. Sorry for the long post ^^;
P.S I have to remind myself to not make that one emoticon…
November 12th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Hey Z, no problem about long posts. ^^
about the live view, it can only be used on the creative zones meaning it can’t be used when shooting auto and preset options like portrait, macro, landscape. old dslr don’t like using it because what you’d see on the lcd it not equal to what you see with the actual image and with the naked eye.
imo how good your photo would depend more on the lens than the camera. however with concern on the camera body your choices would probably be either the 450D or the 1000D. there isn’t much difference between the 2, except for the larger lcd screen and the faster processor. then again the .5 frames per second difference isn’t really a big deal. the difference in resolution isn’t a problem since you’d be resizing your images anyway. however if you don’t mind adding $100-$200usd for these features then why not.
however if you can’t afford to buy a lens just yet, the kit lens that comes with is a good lens, I’ve seen folks take some amazing shots with the default lens (bloggers like Gordon and Winterheim HDD).
taking photos with a dslr is a bit more time consuming than with a point and shoot camera, although its more rewarding since the images looks better.
hope all this helps, feel free to ask about anything. will try my best to answer them.
November 12th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Thanks for the info! Will be keeping them in mind. Hope you don’t mind another batch of questions ^^; It’s short this time around…
1. Any current or future potential concerns you might run into with this camera? (about anything)
2. I noticed you probably shoot only in “creative zone” now so how long did it take you to get used to adjusting shutter, aperture, and all that?
3. Easy to carry around a la Danny?
4. For the kit lens, how is it when used in Basic Zone’s macro mode? and compared to your macro lens? Just want to know that I actually “need” the macro lens for my macro shots if I were to get a SLR ^^;
That’s all for now. Again, thanks for answering my questions! m(_ _)m
November 12th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
1. The 450d and the 1000d only has 150,000 actuation. meaning the shutter open and closes 150,000 times before it gives up, this also means you can only take 150,000 pictures. after that you’d have to bring it to canon to have the shutter replaced. although from experience you’d sooner upgrade before you reach the 150,000 count. also these camera can use the EF-S type lens, which is good unforunately the EF-S lens can’t be used on the higher end full frame cameras like the 5D. or 1D
2. about using the creative zones, it took me a month before I gather courage to use them, I try to read books and browse the net for tutorials. although some who dive in to the creative zone right away.
3. not really easy to carry, but if you plan on carrying it around it would probably be best to use a all around lens rather than the macro one. however I think, Danny usually carries around a Ixy/Ixus 850 is. an amazing compact camera. got one for my dad over a year ago.
4. essentially the macro mode allows the photographer to come in close to the subject. however some lens have a minimum focus distance. meaning you can only come as close as the lens allows you to (usually 1.2 ft), moving in closer would mean your subject becomes blurred, with the macro lens the focus distance is a lot closer
hope all that helps. no need for the Dogeza symbol. lol ^^
November 13th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Wow. I’ve learned so much more asking you than reading reviews ^^; I didn’t know there was such a thing as acutuation. Now it’s kinda scary knowing how many shots I can take before it dies but you’re probably right, we would’ve most likely upgraded by then but who knows. I also need to consider the chances of me actually buying a full frame camera (the money LOL) in the next few years.
Looks like it’s set then. XSi it is for me. Now to wait for holiday specials xD. Since yesterday, I’ve already begun messing around in full manual mode on my camera to see if I can get the hang of it. Glad I asked you, Marvin! Your photos were great inspirations in helping me make up my mind!
November 13th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
sure thing Z, glad to be of help. and thank you
December 5th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
[…] decided on this lens after reading up on Marvin’s arsenal of Canon lenses. As a photo noob, I learned a lot from that page […]
February 25th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Hey Marvin, I’m not sure if this is a problem or not but would like your input. I haven’t used my macro lens (nor my XSi for that matter) since December. Not too long. Popped it back into my XSi and I noticed it doesn’t autofocus anymore (with switch on AF). I need to manual focus regardless of mode. Do you think the USM is broken? the lens have been always sitting in my bag, unmoved, untouched and in the same temperature during its inactivity so I can’t exactly say it became defective already. Setting is also on One Shot AF. Think I’m doing something wrong?
February 25th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
I think you are right. it would probably be the USM. canon usually have a one year full service warranty. you can send it over and they repair it free of charge or give you another unit. that’s strange though, I always thought the 60mm macro was quite sturdy.