lenses choice

[bilko]

I like to stay informed with the market but one thing that has allways baffled me is the choice of lenses.
Probably talking canon here but i would think it applies to Nikon too.
Ok, so you get your New camera complete with 18-50/55 lens......Great, but what sort of shots would this lens excel at?. Portrait, landscape, still life?
So lets say that i don't really do sports shots as i rarely find myself at said venues. More animals, landscape, people, buildings, interesting things and events that one might happen upon.
Next question: One would presume that the afformensioned lense would not be enough to cover such a wide variety of applications/studies and that 2 possibly 3 more lenses would be preferrable.
i always tend to go with the smallest to largest zoom lense ie 50-400 ( for demonstration ) when window shopping on the pc. My thinking being that with such a large erm....Thing ( right word,zoom range?) that i am sure to be equiped with the right lense for all occasions.
My head tells me this is wrong as otherwise there wouldn't be such such a large array of lenses.
So; on a meagre budget and leaving fisheye and macro assside which 2 other lenses would you buy and buy?
Also a general guide to which lense excels at what would be good and perhaps your can't do without lense too.
thanks guys
Ian

[Mad Dave]

Im talking 135 terms here, so if youre talking dSLR, youll need to convert them.

Ive got a 28-80mm, purely for the 28mm end of the range, for landscapes. Ive also got a 35-135 which is really nice for portraits as its a nice sharp lens and allows me to get far enough back from my subjects and still crop in nicely. Ive also got a Sigma 70-300mm that I use for motorsports shots like this one:



That was taken at the 300mm end of the scale, as you cant often get all that close at race venues.

[simpo two]

bilko said:

More animals, landscape, people, buildings, interesting things and events that one might happen upon. So; on a meagre budget and leaving fisheye and macro assside which 2 other lenses would you buy and buy?

Let's slice this pie another way.
If you find that for some of your shots you can't get *far enough away* to get everything you want in, you need a wide angle. On a DSLR this is any lens below 35mm focal length.
If on the other hand you can't get *close enough*, you need a telephoto - ie anything above about 50mm.
If you want lots of both, it can't be done with one lens, which is why most people have 2,3 or more lenses. If you plump for a mid-range zoom (eg 28-80mm) you may find it does neither end of the scale to your satisfaction.

In short, the lenses you get should match what you want to do... I don't know Canon lenses so the following are not actual lenses, but I would head for roughly the following:
Animals: 70-300mm (telephoto zoom)
Landscape + buildings: 16-35mm (wide angle zoom)
People: c70mm (portrait/short telephoto) - keeps you out of their face and reduces distortion. For candid work the 70-300mm would do this job - you can pick people off and they don't know it = natural result.

[bilko]

great replies guys, thanks. Now all i need to do is start saving and resist the temptation of hp and cc unless of course they come down another hundred quid in the January sales