Can't afford to waste $$ so which way to go (Page 2): You might try renting a prospective lens. LensRentals.com now has a keeper program where if you like it, they'll credit most of...

Mr PC Loc: Austin, TX

You might try renting a prospective lens. LensRentals.com now has a keeper program where if you like it, they'll credit most of your rental to a purchase. Truly try before you buy.

UGUSA

Mr PC wrote:

You might try renting a prospective lens. LensRentals.com now has a keeper program where if you like it, they'll credit most of your rental to a purchase. Truly try before you buy.

Good idea, thanks!

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

UGUSA wrote:

".......Take all reviewers with a grain of salt......"

Hmmm, then which yardstick do we use? I mean, we could look at various reviews and just choose which review we like the soudn of??

Ugusa, I will recommend a reviewer whose work you can take as a very professional comparison.
Look at ,"The Digital Picture", for any lens he has tested. I think you will agree his tests are honest and accurate and have little to do with his personal opinions or leanings. His comparisons are given against other lenses he has tested that he would consider a bench mark in that lenses particular category and only when appropriate.
There ARE good testers out there. ;-)
SS

UGUSA

SharpShooter wrote:

Ugusa, I will recommend a reviewer whose work you can take as a very professional comparison.
Look at ,"The Digital Picture", for any lens he has tested. I think you will agree his tests are honest and accurate and have little to do with his personal opinions or leanings. His comparisons are given against other lenses he has tested that he would consider a bench mark in that lenses particular category and only when appropriate.
There ARE good testers out there. ;-)
SS

Thanks SharpShooter!

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

UGUSA wrote:

Was into phtography (Canon A1's) back in the 80's ... (show quote)

It may not be the lenses. Kit or not, the 55-250mm is capable of producing sharp images, especially in the center. It could be your settings or technique. Maybe the shutter speed is too slow, or you're not holding the camera rigidly enough, There are lots of possibilities. Can you post a high resolution example of the problem? Be sure to use the store original option.

skiman Loc: Ventura, CA

UGUSA wrote:

The pics I'm most critical of are when I'm shooting, for example, kids soccer. Practically all of this is done at max tele, with the camera on auto everything, but set for "sports"

The problem might be Auto-Everything Sport mode and not the lens. I am a Nikon shooter but my 55-300 kit lens takes some pretty good football action shots in daylight. Try using shutter priority 1/500, ISO 200 with AF set to single point continuous, and focus on the body of a running player and shoot a few shots and see what you get.

UGUSA

SharpShooter wrote:

Ugusa, I will recommend a reviewer whose work you can take as a very professional comparison.
Look at ,"The Digital Picture", for any lens he has tested.

Just cruised through this review site for my particular lens and it's apparent from his test results that I'm experiencing exactly what he saw. Lousy sharpness at extended focal length. It appears that Canon replaced this lens with their "IS" version and I have their "IS II" version. He compares the two with emphasis on the increase in sharpness with the "IS" version.

In either case, this lens is an inexpensive intro into Canon's lenses and as such, one can't expect, as I did, great performance.

I have to get over my continual comparison of this digital technology with my old analogue!

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

skiman wrote:

The problem might be Auto-Everything Sport mode and not the lens. I am a Nikon shooter but my 55-300 kit lens takes some pretty good football action shots in daylight. Try using shutter priority 1/500, ISO 200 with AF set to single point continuous, and focus on the body of a running player and shoot a few shots and see what you get.

Exactly.

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

Yes, the Canon kit lenses are nowhere near as well regarded as the Nikon kit lenses.
So before you race out and spend any more money, next game, try this.
ISO 800
Focal length 200mm (backed off a bit the lens will be sharper)
F/5.6
aperture priority
solid photo taking technique.
If on a tripod, don't use IS.
If not on a tripod, do use IS.
Don't expect any shot slower than 1/400th sec to be supersharp.
IS is to help camera movement, not subject movement.

UGUSA wrote:

Just cruised through this review site for my parti... (show quote)

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

UGUSA wrote:

Was into phtography (Canon A1's) back in the 80's ... (show quote)

Kit lenses are actually pretty good - but with certain reservations. For best results, try to stay at F8 or F11. The are not built to last, but with careful use, they will last a number of years. Do not take them out in a drizzle or light rain, they are not weather sealed. You'd have to spend 2x to 3x more to get slightly better image quality. Many kit lenses are designed to provide great image quality to entice buyers to invest in a system. It would be really stupid to make lenses with crappy image quality on their consumer line - it would be such a disincentive.

If you need to shoot in low light, then you need to spend $$$$ to get pro lenses that have a maximum Fstop of 4 on a tele, or 2.8 (or faster) on a wider lens, and that max aperture does not diminish as you zoom out.

There are always reasonable lenses if you decide on single focal length (prime) lenses, and they will have larger max apertures.

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

UGUSA wrote:

Was into phtography (Canon A1's) back in the 80's ... (show quote)

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-254014-1.html

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

UGUSA wrote:

The pics always seem to come out soft and I want nice sharp pics even at full tele.

Full tele is asking the most of your equipment. You need a shutter speed at least as high as the focal length. If you're at 200mm, you should use 1/250 sec, for example. To get this, you might have to open aperture (which doesn't help sharpness) and increase ISO.

Another consideration is focusing at full tele. Are you sure you're focused on the exact spot you want to be in focus? I always use a single center focus point. I can get the exact spot I want in focus. My first SLR in the 1970's had this feature, and I still focus that way.

There might be a way to fine tune your lens, which is another topic. You'll find a lot through Google on that topic.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

UGUSA wrote:

The pics I'm most critical of are when I'm shooting, for example, kids soccer. Practically all of this is done at max tele, with the camera on auto everything, but set for "sports"

If you are shooting from the sideline, focusing can be tough zoomed all the way out. What AF point are you using? Center point? Have you tried standing slightly further away with a slightly smaller aperture (to increase DOF) and using manual focus? Futbol has a lot of change of direction more so than any other sport I can thing of, so maintaining AF can be very difficult. If you are just tracking one player (not all the action), you might try maintaining manual focus on that child. And zoom out a little bit so you can keep track of the action through the view finder.

emmons267 Loc: Arizona, Valley of the Sun

Great lens...I used it with the Rebel series body for awhile - Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Standard Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras.

GaryS1964 Loc: Northern California

I shoot soccer with a Tamron 70-300. I've been using this lens now for awhile and have learned it's sweet spot on my camera. As long as I'm in it I get good results. However if you shoot at max distance and your subject is still small in the frame you will never get really sharp images.

If sharpness at max distance is that important to you then rent a Canon 100-400 "L" and see if you get results that are satisfactory to you. If not keep renting lenses until you find the one that does give satisfactory results.

Canon has announced a new 100-400 but no release date has been given but the current version should start to drop in price once a released date is announced.