January and February

These are the first decent pictures i took with the Canon 500D in January and February, all taken with the 18-55 IS lens i discussed in the last post. Please comment and check out my other posts.

Lenses. Not a mug's game.

If, like me, you want to know a fair bit of detail about a product before you buy it then you research it before right? Is it reasonably priced? What's it got that other things haven't? Is it any good?

I'd pretty much decided on the camera i was going to get, the Canon 500D, otherwise known as the Rebel TL1 or the Kiss X3. Getting to grips with all the details and specifications about cameras had taken a while.  Lenses turned out to be just as complicated. What the hell is an f stop?! Surely a 5.6 is better than a 1.4, the bigger the number the better the thing surely? Nah. That'd be way too simple.

At first, being the naive photography newbie, my thoughts were something along these lines...

"Ahhh hell yeah i want that one, that's a beast!"

"Oh."

"Well this one is in my price range...

but its only £75! If its over £1500 less its got to be an absolutely awful lens, hasn't it? I might as well put a beer bottle on the camera." (This, the Canon EF 50mm 1.8 ii is actually a pretty decent, yet cheap lens)

Hmm, this lens business is confusing. So. Research. What makes a good lens? What would suit me? A half decent, not too pricey, all-round beginner's lens. Finding all this stuff out took me a good few hours. Without going into too much detail (maybe i'll post something that does soon), i got to know what makes a good lens and what i needed.

With nearly all new cameras you can buy, they're offered with a 'kit' lens. In the case of the 500D the kit lens on offer was the Canon EF-S 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 IS lens. Broken down all that spiel mean:

EF-S: the lens will fit cameras with both the EF and EF-S lens mounts, so can be used with more cameras than a lens for just EF mounts.

18-55mm: this is the lens' variable zoom focal length. Although it cannot really be classed as a zoom lens, the focal length can be adjusted. 18mm being its widest angle and 55mm being its furthest zoom.

3.5-5.6: this is the aperture range of the the lens at the respectable focal lengths.

IS: this stands for Image Stabilizer. With some brands of cameras the camera body has an in-built device that helps reduce camera shake when shooting. In the case of Canon (and Nikon), this technology is within the lens.

From what I'd found out about lenses, i knew that all this information wasn't anything to rave about. But it wasn't particularly bad either. I found some reviews online, and generally they were all fairly good. The main negatives mentioned were about the build quality and how fiddly the manual focus ring was to use. What i also found was that this lens was an upgrade from an older version that didn't feature the IS system. As well as including this useful system, reviewers who had used both lenses were extremely positive about how this new version had a much improved picture quality overall.

So here was a half decent, affordable (especially when bought as the kit) lens. Sorted.

This was around christmas time, and I'd seen all the deals online on, offering the camera and lens for about £20 cheaper than in the shops. But then i'd have to wait Christmas delivery times. And I'm impatient. So i took a trip to Curry's, who online had a good deal on the camera also.

So there i am, looking at the cameras, showing my interest and sure enough an overly friendly sales guy strolls over and asks how he can help. I explain what im looking for and eventually he goes to check if they have the 500D with the 18-55 IS in stock. They didn't. I've shortened what happened next...

Currys guy - "No we don't have the IS lens in stock. But we do have the 500D with the 18-55 non IS lens kit. I could do that for you cheap."

Me - "I think I'll leave it thanks mate, I'd rather have the IS."

Currys guy - "Na you don't need that, I'm a photographer myself, and it just so happens I've got both lenses. I find myself using the non IS one all the time, it takes much better pictures than the other."

Me (fairly amused) - "But isn't the IS version an upgrade from that one."

Currys guy - "No not at all, the IS version has the IS, but the non IS one has much better optics - (i bet he thought I'd be impressed by the words optics) - and i never get blurry pictures! I wouldn't get the IS. How about i do you a special deal? See how much my manager will let me take off?" (Please God keep your clothes on)

Me - "No thanks, I'll leave it."

So, after a very long winded post i draw two conclusions:

1. Never trust a guy who works on commission, always trust the research you do yourself. Just check as many different sources as you can and you'll be fine.

2. The 18-55 IS is a pretty decent lens that i was sure would be perfectly fine for a beginner like myself. And it is.