Ugly Jake Loc: Sub-Rural Vermont

I as pleasantly surprised to get a Rebel for Christmas, with the kit 18-55, which is quite sharp, but not very fast. I need something to get indoor shots in low light of fast-moving grandchildren. Nifty Fifty or a 75? What say you, or what have you?

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Congratulations on the new camera. Fast lenses are great but until then you can raise the ISO a bit and still be without appreciable noise for some good photos.

Dennis

Ugly Jake Loc: Sub-Rural Vermont

I'll try that, Dennis - it goes up to 6400 ISO, so there's headroom !

heyjoe Loc: cincinnati ohio

i love the 70-200 2.8,i thing every shooter should have this lens,you can do portraits,sports, or what ever

Ugly Jake Loc: Sub-Rural Vermont

Yep, sounds good ! Thanks, Joe!

Judy1900 Loc: Brasstown, NC

If you are using the Rebel on automatic, set it for continuous shoot which should get you some good shots. Be careful moving the ISO up too high or you will have a lot of noise in your photos. 800-1000 is probably the max and still get some pretty sharp shots. Enjoy - it is a wonderful camera. I got the 70-300 lens and it works great but doesn't work that great for indoor shots of the grandkids unless they are far away and then you really have problems with the low light issue.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

A good start would be the Canon 50mm f/1.8, very inexpensive and only a 1/2 stop slower than the more expensive f/1.4 lens. If you later decide to upgrade to a more expensive lens the f/1.8 will sell used for about $25 to $40 less than what you paid for it new, so it is an easy investment to help you decide if a fast 50 meets your needs, its optical performance is very good.

jayro Loc: Fort Worth Tx

Check out Canon's 24mm f2.8 pancake lens for $149.00

MarkD Loc: NYC

I have two year old grandtwins so I know what it's like shooting them indoors. What I've found is that unless there is a lot of window light even an f/1.8 lens is often not fast enough without raising the iso so high as to have problems with noise. A better solution is bounce flash. This is a simple technique where you bounce the light from the flash off of a white ceiling or wall. It produces a much nicer and more natural light than direct flash on camera, and the flash will stop the movement. You need an accessory flash that tilts and swivels so you can shoot both horizontals and verticals.

Bill Emmett Loc: Bow, New Hampshire

Hi, For those fast grand-children you may want to look at Canons EF 24-105mm f3.5-5.6, IS STM. That lens is a good lens for both stills and video, with its STM focus motor. It will be cheaper than its f4 "L" quality superstar. Or, the EF-S 18-135mm f3.5-135mm IS STM, it also a good still lens and good video lens. At the low end both lenses are pretty fast, but you can adjust your ISO just a little higher and get great shots on your cropped Rebel. I use the EF-S 18-135 on my new 7D Mark II with great results.

B

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

Nifty fifty or the Yongnuo copy of it for $40.00.

And the other poster's suggestion to get a TTL speedlight to bounce flash is a good one also.

Remember, it's not just about the AMOUNT of light but the QUALITY of light that counts.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

Good suggestion; that's a good FOV on the T5i and a good lens.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

Except it's HUGE....lol.

I can't imaging chasing grandkids around the living room with that cannon...not to mention that 70mm at 1.5 crop is a FOV of 100mm....WAAAAYYYY too narrow for this kind of thing.

It would be like looking through a paper towel tube and trying to take pictures....no way.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Jake, I'll have to agree with the flash option. The pop-up will do the job if you're not to far away. But a good off camera speedlights is invaluable. The 600rt is an amazing light.
No lens is as fast as a flash!!
Fast lenses are very good, but for people shots they have a lot of limitation, but still, everybody needs one. The 50 1.4 was the staple of photographers for more than a few decades. But fast lenses can be very difficult to use well when shot wide open. Getting two people in focus at the same time is pretty tough. I find that I'm constantly recomposing on people.
I just demo'd the 50 f1.2 for a week. What a lens!! But whooee, you talk about razor-thin, wow!!
For existing light, nothing beats a fast lens.
And no, the 24-105 is not even close to fast enough for indoors without a flash!
I own the 50 1.4 for existing light indoors. Great lens. I've not used the nifty 50. ;-)
SS

Bill Emmett Loc: Bow, New Hampshire

It's very true, you'll need some sort of a "flash" to take those indoor shots. Considering you just got your Rebel yesterday, for Christmas, and have left no hint of what your budget, and experience is in photography, you may just want to keep it simple. There are many companies that make really good "flashes" for your Canon. One that comes to mind is Yongnuo. That is a Chinese company who makes an array of flashes and supporting equipment, and now lenses. The Yongnuo flashes have come a long way copying the great Canon products, but at less than half the price. In fact I use two Yongnuo flashes for my indoor, and fill light on many outdoor shots. If you get the right model you can trigger off camera flashes, from either a radio trigger or from your built in flash. There are many more companies other than Canon who make flashes that will operate on your Rebel. If you decide to buy something be sure to order a flash for Canon, since the hot shoe for Canon will fire a flash for Canon cameras. If you lack the experience, or have questions just post on the Hog, you'll get plenty of answers. If you want a good research site for Chinese flashes go to www.flashhavoc.com. That site reviews all the third party flashes. Good luck.

B