shieldsadvert

After careful analysis, I am thinking of buying a Canon Rebel 550D, Tokina AT-X 11-16 mm lens and either a Tamron 18-200 or Canon 18-200 and wonder if this would be a good choice for an advanced amateur shooting primarily vacation and landscape subjects?
Also, I have two Contax/Zeiss lenses (50mm and 25mm) and wonder whether it would be worthwhile trying to use these with a converter considering the tradeoffs of using a converter?

mdorn Loc: Portland, OR

If you've already carefully analyzed your decision, stop thinking and go for it! :-) I think the Canon 18-200 would be fine for vacation shooting, but I'm not too sure of using it for "advanced amateur" landscape shooting. For this I'd get either the Canon EF 17-40L or the Canon EF-S 10-22mm. Good luck.

Sorry... don't know anything about converters. I'm sure someone will provide some insight here.

shieldsadvert

Thanks for your response.

Bill

Richard C. DeYoung

Have a look at the Tamron 18-270 lens. I have one and love it.

shieldsadvert

Thanks, I was thinking of that also but would like to see a comparison with the Canon 18-200.

victoria1

Have you considered the Canon 15-85mm? I've owned it for a couple of years and it is a well travelled lens. At 85mm, it is as sharp as the highly regarded Canon 85mm f/1.8, at f/5.6-f/8. I think it might be generally sharper than the 18-200. I find this particular lens also much used at 15mm. At f/5.6-f/8, it's sharp at this focal range and 15mm (24mm) is an excellent landscape setting. I read up on hyperfocal distances and get very sharp results with landscapes at 15mm.

I believe that the 17-55 is even a little sharper again, but it may be too short for a good travel zoom. 15-85 is an excellent zoom range and pretty sharp in good light and better with a flash. I've used it at a wedding, with flash, and the pix were as sharp as. The lens responds well to some sharpening in post.
The 18-200 is certainly longer, but the trade-off in image quality puts me off. More zoom, more compromises, by-and-large.

Isn't Canon about to release a new 18-135mm ef-s lens in late June? If you could wait to read some reviews, you might find this lens is the answer. I'm certainly interested in how the IQ compares to the 15-85.

shieldsadvert

Thanks, Victoria. Wasn't aware Canon made a zoom in that range or about the new ES lens. I'll probably wait until that comes out to make a final decision.
Bill

Dun1 Loc: Atlanta, GA

The Canon 18-200 lens is a good all around lens, however having said that is is not as sharp a lens as I would prefer. Depending on which convertor your purchase for the Zeiss lenses you may loose some of functions on the Canon Rebel.
I have a 24 mm 2.8 Canon lens that I have used as a wide angle lens, (Cause the 24-70 mm lens has never found a slot in my lens budget) that takes great sharp wide angle shots.

shieldsadvert

Thank you, that's very useful information. With a non-Canon lens on your camera, are you able to get focus confirmation? Do you also need to focus wide open and then stop down to the taking aperture with resultant loss of light in the viewfinder?

Regards,

Bill