Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all,

I'm buying a rebel xt mostly for wildlife photography. I want to buy a good telephoto lens and a good macro lens. Does anyone have any suggestions? I looked at the "IS" series with the image stabilizing but someone told me the benefit was marginal.

What do you guys use?
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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."

IS is a good thing.. you gain up to 2 stops on the exposure.. hardly something I would call marginal when you need it. If all of your pics will be taken outside in the sun.. there is no need.. but in low light or indoors.. especially with moving subjects.. the IS is a good thing.

Now.. on to suggestions..
The 18-55 kit lens with the XT is crap.. dont waste your money on it.. the other one available as a kit is pretty good though (17-85 I think)

The 50mm 1.8 lense is a great bang for the buck.. sharp lens and very cheap (less than $100)

The 28-135mm IS is a very good every day lens (mine stays on the camera most of the time).. It is, in my opinion one of the best none "L" lenses that canon makes.

If you can afford it, I would also get a 70-200mm 2.8, the f4 is a great lense too.. but the 2.8 is one of the best lenses out there in my opinion (with or without IS depending on your budget)

The Sigma 70-200 2.8 Lens is a great lens as well.

If your plans include shooting lots of captive animals.. I would also look at the macro lens selection.

The biggest 2 things I can tell you that will help you with the Canon Rebels.. get a good book on photography and read it.. and get a flash instead of using the built in one..

www.dpreview.com has a forum specifically for canon lenses as well.. there are lots of debates on what is good and what is not always going on over there.. and there are usually a good selection of examples as well..
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photos.xtremecombatsports.com

oh.. on the long end.. The 100-400L Canon lens is hard to beat if you have a good copy..

The Sigma 50-500 is a nice lens too, not as sharp as the canon.. and falls off alot after the 400mm mark.. but still very usuable and has alot of range..
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photos.xtremecombatsports.com

I want to buy a good telephoto lens and a good macro lens. Does anyone have any suggestions? I looked at the "IS" series with the image stabilizing but someone told me the benefit was marginal.

IS/VR/AS (depending on the camera maker's name for it) is a great feature. It is especially important in long lenses, so I would make sure you get it in your telephoto, at least.

I would also recommend that you get a fixed focal length macro lens, not a zoom macro. Fixed focal length macros have much better sharpness. I don't know the canon macros, but I do know that the Sigma 105mm macro and the Tamron 90mm SP AF Di are excellent macro lenses as good as if not better than any of the Canon/Nikon/Minolta branded macros.
You should look for a macro lens in the 90-105mm range as they will give you the good subject distance needed for herp macros.

Try reading sites like pcphotoreview.com and photodo.com. There are extensive reviews/comparisons of lenses on both of those sites.
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Chris Harrison
Central Texas

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the advice!

I recently have taken some photography classes and I have bought, what I beleive to be, some good books that I'm reading. I also plan on reading my instruction manuals thoroughly.

Thanks again.
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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."

I believe the LS lenses are the superior lenses of the canon brand. most camera companies offer standard lenses and 'superior' lenses. My uncle is a big canon shooter (film, he despises digital) i would love to get a Canon 20D though. But for you id think the standard USM lenses would do fine, just remember on that camera the lense size in MM is multiplied by 1.6 i think. Good luck!

Stick to brand name lenses designed for the camera is the best piece of advice i can give, you can really see the difference betweeen a brand name lense and a 3rd party lense.
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-Doug Daly

"Dad, Can I scratch your Beard?"
"Did you finish your homework?"
"Yes"
"Well ok then."

0.1.0 Leucistic Texas Rat Snake (Elaphe Obsoleta lindheimerii)

The Tamron 90mm macro work great and doesn't break the bank as much as the Canon 100mm macro. I bought the 300mm telephoto and overall haven't been happy with it. You get amazing zoom but almost never a crisp shot, even with a tri-pod. It is a cheap lens though.

Get the 100-400L IS Its the awesome!

here is an example (i've retouched it with Photoshop):

https://webspace.utexas.edu/s681/webpage/Photo/FullSize/013.jpg

Great website for info http://www.fredmiranda.com

Christian