Should i get the Canon 450D with or without the kit ?

Question

I'm totally new to photography. I'm planning to get the Canon 450D. My friend told me to get it without the kit. He said, " Get the Canon 50mm f1.8 lens, it will teach you to become creative " Now i'm confused, should i get Canon 450D (Body only) 50mm 1.8lens ? I don't know what's the best to start with. Help please ?

Thank you !

Appreciate it !

Answer 1

Yep, using a 50 f/1.8 as your only lens would certainly force you to be creative. So would driving a bicycle down the highway. But I wouldn't recommend it.

You know, 50mm f/1.8 lenses used to be kit lenses with film cameras back when film was slow and zooms were optically poor. That's WHY all the camera brands had a 50mm kit lens. These days, in low light situations you can simply dial up the ISO setting. The image quality of zooms has come a long way, too.

What's more, 50mm on a 450D is only useful as a portrait lens - this isn't a suitable focal length for a walk around lens. With indoor shots, you'd constantly be backing into walls trying to get more into the frame. With landscapes, you'd be stepping backwards into ravines. With street photography you'd be backing into traffic. When people say that lenses should last a lifetime, this isn't what they have in mind. I still have a 50mm lens myself but I only use it for low light photography - perhaps 2% of my shots. For the rest, I mostly use a 17-55mm zoom.

People who tell you to use fixed focal length lenses and 'zoom with your feet' often also tell you to put all the camera settings to manual. For some reason they think everyone should learn photography the hard way. Personally, I think you'll get more enjoyment out of photography - and get better faster - if you take advantage of the technological developments of the last 30 years. I'd start with the 18-55mm zoom lens.

If you get into photography as a serious hobby, you'll probably buy additional lenses later on. The 70-300mm is a popular choice for a second lens. It's nice for sports, etc. Your third lens could be a dedicated macro for close-ups, a super wide angle for landscapes, the 50mm for low light photography, a fish-eye lens for fun... it all depends on your personal shooting style. The 50mm still has it's place - it's just not an obvious lens to start out with anymore.

Answer 2

The 50mm 1.8 lens is a great lens and you would need to be creative to shoot with it. By this I mean you have only one option as far as focal length (unlike the zoom len(s) you would get in the kit 18-55 and 70-200mm or so) This is both good and bad. The bad part is that you will find that you need to be very close to object to get a "close up". The 50 mm lens (really about a 75mm with the lens conversion of 1.6 on canon) puts you at a little bit more of a zoom then the human eye has.. So what you see with your eye is pretty much how your camera will see/take the image. If you want to get a "head shot" of a person you will need to be VERY close to their face to do so, about 2-3 feet from them. Many people do not like to have a camera that close to them (in their face). to shoot a mountain up close, you will need to get close etc.. you do not have the ability  (with that lens) to zoom in and out. BUT you do have a lens that will probably be VERY sharp in focus, and will work very well in "low light" (indoor normal room lighting is generally a LOW light situation) because the f1.8 is so wide, it should work well in normal room lighting and you probably will not have to use the flash much.. So if you are planning on shooting poeple and shooting indoors, then the 50mm lens is a great lens. If you plan on shooting sports/nature/landscapes then the lens may limit you some.  And yes you will find you need to be creative to work around some of those limits.

What ever lense you start with will likely be your lens of choice for a long time to come. Base your choice on what you think you want to shoot.  If you want to shoot sports lets say, with the 50 you can not walk on to the field / court to get a close up that shooting with the 50 will force you to do. If you want to shoot editorial/photo journal (street photography) the 50 might just be the lens as it will not be as obtrusive as a big telephoto would be, it if fast (f1.8 is a fast lens as it can take pics in low light) and it is probably very sharp, so blowing up and cropping images should not be too much of an issue.

What ever you get, experiment with the lens, shoot LOTS of images, look at them and think what could you have done better!  Then go out and shoot more.. try to shoot 100 images a day... or more.  You don't need to keep them, shoot look and keep the good, trash the rest. Above all, have fun.

Jeff

PS I shoot a Canon 400D with a 28-105mm f4 Image stablized (L series) lens most of the time and love it.  I shoot mostly people, but use that lens when on holiday too as it works well for most shots I tend to take. Best wishes.