Walk-around Lens Suggestions

I currently have a Tamron Autofocus 28-200mm f/3.8-5.6 XR Aspherical as my walk around lens for my Canon Rebel XSi. I really enjoy using it, but I am starting to get frustrated when trying to use manual mode and I can't stop down enough to get good shots without flash. The lens also sometimes causes the camera to decide to focus on the wrong aspect of a picture (this could be a camera body issue, but I rarely have the issue with my other lens). I would like to upgrade my walk-around lens and am looking for suggestions. I do not need professional level lens, but I would like something that has better glass, wider range of f/stops but still has a decent telephoto range at the top. I also have a Canon f/1.4 50mm for portraits, but because my camera isn't a full frame body, it won't get wide enough for everyday use. Any input, suggestions or other info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

The Canon 18-135mm EF-S f3.5-5.6 IS seems to be a pretty good lens but does suffer from soft corners, vignetting and distortion. And it's not cheap at $500.
For an appreciably better lens, try one of Canon's USM lenses, such as the 15-85mm EF-S f3.5-5.6 USM, which will set you back about $800.

 

Does this happen when the zoom is under 100mm? Or only at long telephoto settings? I would not expect the auto AF point selection (or Evaluative exposure for that matter) to work well at long focal lengths. Instead switch to just using the center point AF. The old "focus and recompose" game.

Kelly Cook

 

When in manual mode, usually aperture priority, I have it set on center point I find I usually have no issues. Its when using an auto setting that I notice the problem. It usually happens around 100 I think.

 

The lens I leave on my camera is the 18/55mm lens.
I think this is the lens I use the most and if I had to pick out of my small selection of lens, it would be this one.
I do have a 75/300mm lens but 2 of them, one is an after market one made by sigma and has a macro switch on it. but I find with that I need to more a little further away.
But this is really splitting hairs, so I will stick with my first line here.

 

Thanks! I appreciate you giving me some insight.