Canon Prime Lenses
Should I buy the Canon xsi (450d), Nikon d80, or an Olympus e-520 ?

Also, should I get a kit lens with whichever I buy, or a 50 mm prime lens ? I don’t currently have ANY lenses or Dslr/Slr cameras. My camera is a canon powershot a560.

When it comes to DSLR I would go for Canon or Nikon and not Olympus. They have simply more lenses and other accessories to choose from.
Canon has sold a huge number of cameras the last two years and I heard that they are having quality problems now.

Personally I own a Nikon that I am very satisfied with. My friends all have Canons that work well too.

Since Canon and Nikon both make quite good pictures my advice is to go to a camera store and try them. Do you feel comfortable with the controls? Is the camera’s menu structure logical? and so on.

When it comes to lenses you are probably best off with the nikon 18-135 kit since this lens is very versatile to use. If you want to invest some money into a real good lens you should consider this one: Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8 G ED (unfortunately in the 1600$ range).

Cheers,

Chris

Canon Prime Lenses

Canon 550d Camera Lenses?

I just bought a Canon EOS 550d and im just new to photography
I’m into taking photos of landscape, portrait, sunsets, buildings and also making videos
What zoom lens and prime lens should i buy?

Recommend Canon EF 70-300mm
I read nearly every review and discussion about the Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens, especially as compared with the Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS USM, and finally bought the 70-300 yesterday for my new Rebel T2i (550D). Particular concerns others have had were sharpness vs. the L, non-ring USM, and the extending, rotating lens barrel.

So far I’m quite satisfied. Shooting at f/8 I’ve gotten some very nice test shots, including fast AF lock and good sharpness at 300mm on a flying seagull (which fills my computer monitor width at 100%).

Sharpness at 200mm and 300mm seem about the same, but I like the extra reach of 300mm, either to fill the frame or to downsample for more sharpness. I think the biggest variable in the sharpness of my test photos is what part of the scene I lock focus on (as in a landscape with a lot of depth); I’d conclude from my best shots that the lens itself is quite sharp. I’m still learning the camera and lens.

The extending, rotating lens barrel seems minor vs. the much greater cost, less reach, and greater size of the L lens. While shooting seagulls the AF didn’t lock on plain blue sky and went blurry, so I quickly refocused on a building before looking for the next bird.

I found sample images most useful to me, so I posted some of mine so far at [...] (Google my name with Canon 70-300).

Canon T2i 550D experiments with prime lenses