Carl Zeiss and Canon lenses

[ret]

Recently, I had the opportunity to chk out the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 Sonnar T lens [thats a mouthful] on a Sony A900 and boy, what a sharp lens it is .... in fact, it's amazing!!!!

Some of you will remember that I made a foray into the DSLRs with Olympus E520 but now I have upgraded to Canon 40D with 17-85 IS USM lens. Could not resist the falling prices of 40D with the 50D coming out, its Magnesium casing, 6.5 fps speed and it being a semi-pro model .... so far I m impressed by it

Now I want how are Zeiss rated wrt Canon lenses, especially the L-series and where can I find them in Canada? done online search with some stores and they seems to have the Zeiss for Sony

Also which other lenses should I be looking at? As I mentioned that I only have the 17-85 at the moment .... How are the Canon 50mm, 85mm and 135mm primes? which one would be more suitable for general and travel photography?

 

[Scaly piscine]

Cool, I'm just getting into wildlife photography - looking to get splash out on a Canon 400D or similar - haven't looked at the lenses properly yet.

I'm in quite a good location as there's an ecology park that's no more than 10 minutes walk away and various other locations within a short drive as well as a new RSPB reserve (Saltholme) being readied for January.

 

[ret]

Cool, I'm just getting into wildlife photography - looking to get splash out on a Canon 400D or similar - haven't looked at the lenses properly yet.

I'm in quite a good location as there's an ecology park that's no more than 10 minutes walk away and various other locations within a short drive as well as a new RSPB reserve (Saltholme) being readied for January.

I would recommend getting the 40D because its price is going down with the launch of its replacement 50D .... pick one up while its on the shelves

I am saying this because 40D is a pretty fast camera, shoots at 6.5 frames per second which can be very useful for shooting wildlife, sports, etc and it's tough too with its Magnesium body

As far as the lens goes, I guess for shooting wildlife, you will need a good telephoto lens like the Canon 100-400

 

[Scaly piscine]

Well thing is I've not actually used an SLR before, my current camera is a cheap 8 megapixel fujifilm with 18x zoom. From what I've read the 40D sounds a bit advanced for me - but on the other hand I kinda skip ahead at a fast pace anyway. The extra speed compared to other cameras sounds very tempting.

 

[ret]

Well thing is I've not actually used an SLR before, my current camera is a cheap 8 megapixel fujifilm with 18x zoom. From what I've read the 40D sounds a bit advanced for me - but on the other hand I kinda skip ahead at a fast pace anyway. The extra speed compared to other cameras sounds very tempting.

getting into SLRs is easy but it's an expensive hobby because you will need different lenses to get different results, different filters [which are expensive if you go for the ones from B+W, Heliopan, Singh Ray], you will need a nice tripod something like Manfrotto 190XPro, a nice head for the tripod, a good flash, CF cards [a 16GB Sandisk Extreme 3 can put you down by $200]

approximate budget:

- Body - $1000 onwards for advanced amateur or semi-pro ones like Nikon D90, Canon 40D, Canon 50D
- Lenses - a couple of good lenses can set you back by $2000
- Tripod and head - $200 - $300
- Filters - UV/Haze, Polarizing, ND - $500
- Flash - $300-$500
- CF cards - a 16 GB Sandisk Extreme card $200-$250, more if you take more cards .... if you go with one of those Extreme 4 cards then you will also need a firewire card reader to utilize its speed to transfer images to your computer
- Decent bag - $100-$200

 

[ret]

and not to forget accessories like extra battery, battery grip [if you want one]

if you are no a budget, you can start out with

an entry level body like the Nikon D40 and get that with the 18-200 VR lens, which gives you a decent range and that lens is rated well .... once you grow out of the body, you can upgrade to the D90 with its price gone down

same thing with Canon, get the XSi [450D] with new 18-200 IS lens or the 18-55 IS and 55-250 IS lenses

if you are going for either Nikon or Canon, get lenses with Image Stabilization. VR for Nikon and IS for Canon .... try to get the best lens your money can buy because lenses are for keeps, bodies come and go

and ofc even if you are on a budget you will still need the tripod, flash and other stuff that I mentioned in my last post

hope that helps

 

[Son Of Coco]

I just picked up a Canon 40D today and am looking forward to using it. Maybe even properly one day.

 

[ret]

I just picked up a Canon 40D today and am looking forward to using it. Maybe even properly one day.

I can assure you one thing that you won't be disappointed with it .... the bad part about owning such a camera is that now you can't blame the camera for bad pictures

btw, i m meaning to get this lens .... it's rated very highly and said to give amazing background blur

 

[Scaly piscine]

I'm kinda looking at getting a Canon 40D with a 70-300 IS lens at the moment, but liable to change - the 100-400 lens is over twice the price so I don't think it's worth it at this stage. The ~8.6x magnification I'll have strikes me as a bit lame tho. Doesn't feel that much better than the cheap camera I've got. Meh.

 

[ret]

I'm kinda looking at getting a Canon 40D with a 70-300 IS lens at the moment, but liable to change - the 100-400 lens is over twice the price so I don't think it's worth it at this stage. The ~8.6x magnification I'll have strikes me as a bit lame tho. Doesn't feel that much better than the cheap camera I've got. Meh.

you will need a lens for general photography too like the 17-85 IS or the 18-55 IS or you can get a prime like the 50mm one

PS for magnification you will need Macro lenses like EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM or ou can start with the EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro, which you can use for general purpose as well as Macro photography

 

[ret]

I got the 50mm 1.8 MK2 to get into primes and good bokeh .... the lens is pretty inexpensive so it doesn't break your wallet