A variety of lenses for the T2i

TheOpusFuller

TheOpusFuller

I know zilch about lenses. Wondering if some lens techies can fill me in on the following lenses.

Canon EF 35-105mm f/4.5-5.6 Zoom Lens
Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 Ultrasonic (USM)
Canon EF 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 Ultrasonic
Canon EF 100-300mm f/5.6 Macro zoom lens
Canon EF 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5 Ultrasonic
Canon EF 22-55mm f/4-5.6 Ultrasonic

Wondering if they are beneficial? What the price range for each of these is going for. How much would you pay for them, etc.

Any and all help is appreciated.

Thanks guys!
 
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Keeping in mind that I am not a camera-guy:

We used a 7D on our last feature-length, and I asked the DP a tonne of questions about the camera. He had a pelican chock-full of lenses, but didn't really seem to use that many of them, so I asked what would be a good set of "go to" lenses to buy. (I'm thinking about getting one, myself)

He recommended a fixed 50mm, and two others to bracket that. (35mm & an 85mm). He said that would cover the majority of setups - at least the kind of shooting that we were doing. The 50mm was the workhorse lens, btw.

Side note: That F/4.5 etc number - the lower that is, the better the lens.

That's all I got. :cool:
 
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Zensteve said:
Side note: That F/4.5 etc number - the lower that is, the better the lens.
Click to expand...

The lower the number, means the "faster" the lens, which means it takes less light to get a good exposure with those lenses.

F4.5 and higher are light hungry, and even with this great camera, might be a little too slow for video. I'd be leery of anything that slow for video.
 
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Thanks for the comments and feedback guys. Good to know. Like I said, I'm clueless when it comes to lenses and camera to an extent. I just purchased a t2i and I need to learn how to do things with the advanced options... There any guides out there?

Secondly, Who can help me with a blurring issue. If a car drives by it's blurred. Is that dealing with shutter speed?

God I wish I paid more attention in film school.

ALSO

what's the difference between the Canon 550d t2i and the Canon Rebel 550d t2i? I see some say rebel on the body and some don't... what's the deal with that?
 
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Yep, if you want to reduce motion blur you need to increase the shutter speed. You will then need to compensate for this by opening up the iris or increasing the ISO. For the most filmic motion, use a 180° shutter - e.g. for 25fps, 1/50 second shutter speed. (Ideally for 24fps you'd want a 1/48 second shutter speed, but the closest you can get is 1/50. As you live in a 60Hz country, you may have to change this to 1/60 if flickering lights are an issue.) As the shutter speed gets faster, you get a stuttery, strobing Saving Private Ryan effect, with minimum motion blur. On the other end of the scale, a 360° shutter (e.g. 1/25 for 25fps) will have lots of motion blur, and possibly a dreamy, ethereal quality.

The 550D is the name of the camera in Europe and Asia, and it's called the Rebel T2i in the US. I think a lot of websites use the names interchangeably partly for search ranking reasons.

I definitely agree with sonnyboo that you'll probably need some faster glass than that. You should be able to pick up a fast 50mm prime for $100ish. Remember the crop factor of the 550D's sensor (1.6x) effectively gives you a longer lens. This does have some advantages - your relatively inexpensive fast 50mm is nearly the equivalent of an 85mm, which would be much more expensive. Lens aberrations are also much more prevalent around the outside of the lens, which are being cut off by the sensor on the 550D. However, this also means you'll need shorter lenses than you would with the 5D MKII, especially when shooting in tight confined spaces.
 
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Yeah 550D and T2i are the exact same camera. I've not long bought the cannon 50mm F1.8 and it is Fantastic! The low light footage from this lens is unbelievable and it is so cheap! £99 for a lens that weights next to nothing and doesn't break the bank if it gets damaged. I'm currently using this and the kit lens.
 
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if ur shooting video:

id personally recommend having one zoom. like a 28-135mm
and the rest should be primes. a 50mm 1.4, an 85mm and 35mm are good to start with. personally, id want it a bit wider and id go for a 50, 85 and a 24.

these will cover all of ur basic needs. as u expand ur lens collection later on u can start adding lenses like 100mm, 16mm, a macro lens etc etc.

the other thing when buying lenses is that while general rules are good to begin with, eg the lower the f number, the better the lens... u later should aim to learn more abt each lens.

for eg, old manual nikons r some of my favourite lenses. the 50mm's come in 1.2, 1.4, 1.8...
now here the 1.4 may seem like a better lens than the 1.8, and in some aspects it is. but if u study the lenses, u realize that the 1.4 fully open has a little distortion. so u end up stopping it down to 1.8 anyway while the 1.8 fully open does not have distortion. so y spend money on the 1.4 when u can get the 1.8 cheaper.

id say go to vimeo, type in the lens ur interested in and ull get a bunch of videos that were shot with it. and select according to ur taste not whats being used the most.
 
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Remember, the smaller sensor of the T2i means that all standard lens sizes have a magnification factor of 1.6. A 50mm becomes an 80mm, for example. You can buy lenses that are adjusted to your sensor size, but they're pretty much useless for bigger cameras, and I'm really not sure of the price difference. So keep that in mind when people recommend lenses.

Good idea about looking up individual lenses on Vimeo. I'm going to go do that now...
 
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Wombat said:
Remember, the smaller sensor of the T2i means that all standard lens sizes have a magnification factor of 1.6. A 50mm becomes an 80mm, for example. You can buy lenses that are adjusted to your sensor size, but they're pretty much useless for bigger cameras, and I'm really not sure of the price difference. So keep that in mind when people recommend lenses.

Good idea about looking up individual lenses on Vimeo. I'm going to go do that now...
Click to expand...

yes but the 1.6 crop factor is very close to s35.

the main difference comes in if ur from a photography background.

so i wouldnt worry abt the crop factor. just buy the lens u want and dont get focussed on calculating focal lengths for a FF sensor.

:)
 
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Wombat said:
I found this little guide to be helpful.
Click to expand...

Very helpful and I got a lot of useful information about lenses.

There is one particular moment I want to dig deeper.

So you might ask: How can you achieve shallow depth of field when it’s bright outside? You still have to shoot at a wide open aperture and can’t change the shutter speed, but that’s much too bright on a sunny day, so you have to step down the aperture to get a correctly exposed shot. But then the shallow depth of field is gone again. What to do?
This is exactly where neutral density (ND) filters come in handy. ND filters reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor. This means you can achieve exactly the aperture setting (and DoF) you strive for using the correct ND filter!
source
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So, from one side we are getting a fast lens with wide aperture to get MORE light in. From the other side we limit the incoming light with ND filter. Why can't we mount a SLOWER lens, thus letting ENOUGH light in to get a proper exposure and not to use ND filter? Why does this turn DoF off?
 
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The camera will cut-out, leave you on a static screen, becoming completely obsolete.

We have a deadline that's four days away, just missed out on some stellar locations, it's a bug in every 2%, sometimes it's amendable, sometimes it's not. Lucky for us, we have a friend with a t2i, and with our lenses, there's nothing between them, just bad timing with the locations is all.
 
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