Atherton & District Amateur Photographic Society

Hi All,

Can anyone recommend a good all around zoom lens for my Canon 700D? I'm off to Rome in August and want a single lens that will do pretty much everything from landscape to Portraits.
I've been reading DPReview and they say stay clear of the 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 STM.
Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks Darren

What's your budget

No set budget really but I was thinking under £500

Darren, why does it say to stay clear of the Canon EF 28-135mm f3.5/5.6 IS USM?
I've had one of these and it was a great lens, a really big step up from a kit lens, nothing like an L series, obviously, but I think it's a great all rounder, it's not overly heavy and has a good sharpness. I used it on my 350D and 5D without a care, and the IS is great.

I'd suggest a UV filter and a circular polariser as well for Rome, when I was in Sorrento, the polariser just made the photos look like all the books I'd read before I went.

I had a 28-200 which was rubbish.

For £500 you can get the canon 24-105 f4L is usm for £470 new

Also phil he said 18-135 not 28-135

Hi Rob

I read the report on the 18-135 stm here

http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses ... mm-stm.htm

Seems he likes it well enough??

I got a sigma 18-200 os hsm £130
Does me fine.

Regards

Shsun

Don't necessarily dismiss lenses that get poor reviews, as the reviewers criteria may not be the same as ours. I use a lens that had indifferent reviews on technical assessments, including my own review for ePHOTOzine, but I bought two of them because the characteristic of the lens was just what we needed. The technical imperfections were irrelevant for our own photography. These are the lenses that we use routinely, ironically 18-135mm, but not Canon.

I have the Sigma 55mm-200mm zoom lens that I use and is priced is good
Alasdair

What brand would work well in the 18-135mm or the Canon 15-85mm dedicated cropped sensor 35mm equivalent of 24-136mm)

Thanks for all your help guys.
Darren newest ADAPS member

John wrote:Don't necessarily dismiss lenses that get poor reviews, as the reviewers criteria may not be the same as ours. I use a lens that had indifferent reviews on technical assessments, including my own review for ePHOTOzine, but I bought two of them because the characteristic of the lens was just what we needed. The technical imperfections were irrelevant for our own photography. These are the lenses that we use routinely, ironically 18-135mm, but not Canon.

Hi All @ ADAPS

Can anyone recommend a specific walk around lens under £500 for my cropped sensor canon 700D? Something that will work for travel photography. Eg. Canon, Sigma, Tamron etc.....

The lens I've been looking at is a Canon EF-S 15mm-85mm f/3.5-5.6 which looks great from focal length perspective but from an optical perspective I'm unsure if the quality is good enough.

I'm looking for the best possible walk around travel lens for a Canon cropped sensor Camera that does pretty much everything for under £500. I understand I'm not going to get the quality of the 24-70mm f/2.8 or 70-200mm f/2.8 L lenses. What is the best option for my criteria? Please help as I'm searching Ebay, Amazon, Calumet and YouTube reviews for my best options which is proving to be difficult.

The only lens I own is a canon 50mm f/1.8 II, which although is a lovely lens, is not quite good enough for travel.

Thanks Darren
Send texts to 07813525455

In general, I prefer marque lenses, so Canon lenses for a Canon DSLR. However, there are some excellent independent lenses and for your purposes I would suggest the Tamron 18-270mm zoom. It's very versatile, focuses close, has very good optical properties. The only disadvantage is slightly weaker edge performance to the more expensive lenses and a fairly restricted maximum aperture. I would use that and take a Canon 50mm f/1.8 as well for low light work.

Check out the lens on http://www.ephotozine.com and http://www.dpreview.com

Buy it at: http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/5777/T ... IVERY.html

The best lens you are going to get in that price range is the canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM for £470

http://www.digitalrev.com/product/canon ... MDEzNA_A_A

UK price is £550 - £799 so £470 would be a mega-bargain. Be careful you don't get hit for import duty, handling charge and VAT. Add that on and you might prefer to buy in the UK.

Sorry, didn't see your budget, I agree with Jared 100%, get the 24-105L, there is no other lens you could buy for that money that will give you that kind of sharpness, best glass.

I've had one for a few years and take all my portraits with it. It's a L range lens, nothing better for the money. Buy second hand, if you can find one, these are built to last.

Check for scratches on the lens, just because someone says they've always used a filter, doesn't mean there are none (get a good filter for it if it hasn't). However, you'd really have to try hard to scratch that lens. Check that the lens doesn't droop, ie, zoom in a tiny bit an point the camera downwards, if it slips fully open within about 2 seconds, there's something wrong. Check that the auto focus is sharp and doesn't make a crunching noise, suggesting there is sand or something in the mechanism.

If you want a play with one, give me a shout.

There are a couple of used ones on http://www.wexphotographic.com/search/d ... cat03=3236
- Condition 8 for £481
- Condition 9 for £540