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Hi Guys, i need your help and advice.

I am looking to buy the Canon EOS 450D with 18-55mm Lens Kit. is this camera any good? i am looking to get this lens with this camera its the sigma 70/300mm F4/5.4 APO DG MACRO. Im relatively new at buying this type of camera so your help will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards
Massimo

The camera is great, no problem at all. The 18-55 is not really one of the greatest lenses, but as a kitlens will do fine.

I'm not sure about the 70-300, you may have to browse the web a bit to find reviews.

Do yourself a favour, and buy the grip to the camera too. That will give more stability and less skewed horizons when in portrait position.

Hi Massimo

The 450D is a great Camera i have the 400D and it is superb

I tested many lenses last weekend on my canon 400D(low end lenses ie Tamron 70-300, Canon 75-300 USM, Sigma 70-300) and i found that the Sigma and the Tamron are far better build quality and sharpness than the canon equivalent, even without IS i still got crisp images when testing the Tamron and the sigma, i bought the Tamron because i found that it is a tad sharper but the down side is that you do get alot of vignetting when taking into the sky, the sigma is a little soft in my opinion but that is just me. The Sigma and the tamron i went One to two F-stops down and they were crystal sharp(IMHO).

The Sigma lens is a very nice lens and you will get some really nice shots!

Good Luck

Hi,

I have a 400D. Really love it. And from what I hear the 450D is just as good. You won't regret it.

Thanks
Yoda

You cant go wrong on the 450D, its a great camera. But the Sigma 70-300mm is not going to complement the 450D . Its a very soft lens and you going to struggle to get some sharp IMG'S. If you have the money go for the Canon 70-200 ƒ4, a super lens. Good luck

Regards Nico Steenberg

Camera is great but kitlens not all to good
Build and lens is average.
But try to get the kit lens for free.

70-200 4.0 is indeed very good
Believe the ones without image stab are relative cheap these days
And with the 450 you can easily go up to 400 iso, so you can achieve
high shutter speeds to compensate for movement in the image.

Ditto bert, this lense will be actually give you a 300 mm zoom with the 1.5 crop factor and 420 mm with 1.4 converter. But your camera will loose its auto focus on the 2 times converter.

Thanks for all the advice. i was wondering if some1 can take the time and explain what to look for in looking for a lens. What does the following actually mean: 70-300mm? I'm Pretty new at this and i wanna purchase a camera (Canon 450D as money is limiting me) soon as i am going to the Kruger on the 13 June . I found a good price for the camera but now i wanna buy a lens.

Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards
Massimo

I have found this special please let me know what you guys think of it?
http://www.orms.co.za/product.php?a=view&product=1722

Hi Massimo

WARNING: This is a laymens answer.

I have been looking at prices recently (although the budget is not there yet) and this is a good special. About R1 300 below the norm.

I believe this to be a good buy within your budget constraints.

70-300 means that the lens will, within reason, bring the animals close enough for you to take a good photo. Obviously a 70-500 bring them a lot closer, but remember you operate within a budget. At the end of the day there will always be the one animal that is just a little bit to far for a decent photo, regardless of your lens. In my opinion a "300" is as good as we can wish for and remember that because of image size this is even better than a "300" in the old cameras.

The "70" means that you can still take nice photo's even if your sighting is up close. For the broader panorama shots you will use the 18-55 lens.

70-300 is in my opinium a good telephoto lens and the "IS" will help with blur as a result of camera shake, especially when you zoom to the "300" end. 18-55 is a good wide angle-to-standard lens without distorting to much as a result of the wide angle.

My bet is that in Kruger you will use the 70-300 for 95% of the time and the 18-55 for your landscapes, sunsets, etc.

The more expensive lenses will offer you mainly sharper images and more light, which mean you can take photo's in bad light conditions, but then they cost a fortune.

A last bit of advice: Look at the kit of the different forumites and then have a look at the photo's that they post. I have seen some stunning photo's from the same camera and lens that you are considering.

Greetings and happy "shooting"!

70-300 is the focal distance of the lens.

70 mm at it's widest end, which is...
Let's see, your eyes can be compared with 50 mm, so it's slightly zoomed in. At 300 mm you have zoomed in 6 times.

Now a little something pops up, which is called a cropfactor, which on your camera is a factor 1.6.
So your lens will behave as a 112-480 mm lens. This means that you'll not use it a lot for landscapes, but you have the 18-55 mm for that.

Hi Massimo

Maybe this will help you as well.

For your camera with a 1,6 crop factor.
If you look at an object at a distance of 100m
through a 70mm focal length lens, then the diagonal view will be 42m
through a 135mm lens 20m
through a 200mm lens 12m
through a 300mm lens 9m
through a 500mm lens 5m.

Likewise will an 6m object fill the viewfinder if the object is at 50m and through a 200mm lens.

Does this make sence?
(The above is approximate and rounded off)

Reagrds
Johan

Hi the camera is fine and the kit lens is also fine but for a tele lens I would suggest a 2nd hand canon 100-400 preferbly of more recent production date you will pick them up at a similar price to the sigma etc but they are far superior and more versatile.
search this forum and read all the articles the advise is good and reliable, check out the references they give, you wont go wrong.
Bazzlewazzle did some serious research on lens etc a short while back read all the posts you will learn a lot from all the replies

Hi the camera is fine and the kit lens is also fine but for a tele lens I would suggest a 2nd hand canon 100-400 preferbly of more recent production date you will pick them up at a similar price to the sigma etc but they are far superior and more versatile.
search this forum and read all the articles the advise is good and reliable, check out the references they give, you wont go wrong.
Bazzlewazzle did some serious research on lens etc a short while back read all the posts you will learn a lot from all the replies

Hey guys,

Just paid for my camera, I decided to go for the canon 450d with the 15-55 IS lens, canon 55-250 IS lens and a 4 gig card. Getting it delivered hopefully on Thursday/ Friday which gives me a week to play with it until i go to the Kruger . Hope that i got a good camera package here. Let me know what you guys think? I bought it from orms.co.za

smile "click click click "

The proof of the pudding lies in the eating.

We will wait eagerly for your trip report full of stunning photo's!

I am

Enjoy and try and get as familiar as possible in the next couple of days.