T7i - Telephoto kit lens of bad quality

[ravinat]

Along with my recent purchase of Canon Rebel T7i, the vendor included two kit lenses - 1) 28-55 mm STM IS lens and 2) 75-300mm EF lens. 

The zoom lens has no IS and the image are bad. I overlooked the IS side of Canon as I came from the Olympus E-510 world, where there was IS on the body.

I am trying to look for 55-250 IS STM lens, which is supposed to capture good images. I need to get rid of the 75-300 mm. In the meanwhile, I have taken shots with a Tripod in bright light and the lens performs OK. In all other circumstances (hand-held, cloudy, indoor) it performs very sub-optimally. 

Two questions:

1) Is the 55-250 IS STM lens a good alternative, given budget considerations?

2) Till I get rid of the 75-300 mm lens, how best can I use it?

[ebiggs1]

"1) Is the 55-250 IS STM lens a good alternative, given budget considerations?

  2) Till I get rid of the 75-300 mm lens, how best can I use it?"

Number 1 is a 'yes'.  Nice lens.

Number 2 you already answered the question yourself. "I have taken shots with a Tripod in bright light and the lens performs OK."

I also suspect you will not see great results from the 55-250mm if the problem is you.  Are you asking something that the lens just can't do? If you choose a SS less than 1/250 the 55-250mil zoom will be difficult to get great results.

Likewise with the 75-300mil if your SS was consistently lower than 1/500 it becomes harder to get great results.

Keep this basic rule in mind. 250x1.6=400.  This means your SS should not ever be below 1/500. Of course rules are made to be broken and with practice you can do better at lower SS but this is a starting point.

[ravinat]

Thanks ebiggs1 for your response.

I have taken several airplane shots with 75-300 mm lens at 400 ISO and greater (went up to 1600 when the light was low) and also kept the SS at 300 or greater. Due to lack of image stabilization, the images are not sharp and I cannot use a tripod to shoot an airplane coming in at 250 KM/hr. 

I took several landscape shots with this lens and the image quality is so-so. I was hardly impressed. I did not consider the crop factor. I was trying to keep the SS at 300 or greater. Perhaps, I need to test the lens at SS of 500 or greater. 

Thanks again for your advice.

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

"1) Is the 55-250 IS STM lens a good alternative, given budget considerations?

  2) Till I get rid of the 75-300 mm lens, how best can I use it?"

Number 1 is a 'yes'.  Nice lens.

Number 2 you already answered the question yourself. "I have taken shots with a Tripod in bright light and the lens performs OK."

I also suspect you will not see great results from the 55-250mm if the problem is you.  Are you asking something that the lens just can't do? If you choose a SS less than 1/250 the 55-250mil zoom will be difficult to get great results.

Likewise with the 75-300mil if your SS was consistently lower than 1/500 it becomes harder to get great results.

Keep this basic rule in mind. 250x1.6=400.  This means your SS should not ever be below 1/500. Of course rules are made to be broken and with practice you can do better at lower SS but this is a starting point.

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[RobertTheFat]

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@ravinat wrote:

Thanks ebiggs1 for your response.

I have taken several airplane shots with 75-300 mm lens at 400 ISO and greater (went up to 1600 when the light was low) and also kept the SS at 300 or greater. Due to lack of image stabilization, the images are not sharp and I cannot use a tripod to shoot an airplane coming in at 250 KM/hr. 

I took several landscape shots with this lens and the image quality is so-so. I was hardly impressed. I did not consider the crop factor. I was trying to keep the SS at 300 or greater. Perhaps, I need to test the lens at SS of 500 or greater. 

Thanks again for your advice.

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Remember that image stabilization corrects for motion of the camera, not of the subject. At the shutter speeds needed to photograph airplanes landing, it's not clear that IS would make much difference.

[ravinat]

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@RobertTheFat wrote:

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@ravinat wrote:

Thanks ebiggs1 for your response.

I have taken several airplane shots with 75-300 mm lens at 400 ISO and greater (went up to 1600 when the light was low) and also kept the SS at 300 or greater. Due to lack of image stabilization, the images are not sharp and I cannot use a tripod to shoot an airplane coming in at 250 KM/hr. 

I took several landscape shots with this lens and the image quality is so-so. I was hardly impressed. I did not consider the crop factor. I was trying to keep the SS at 300 or greater. Perhaps, I need to test the lens at SS of 500 or greater. 

Thanks again for your advice.

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Remember that image stabilization corrects for motion of the camera, not of the subject. At the shutter speeds needed to photograph airplanes landing, it's not clear that IS would make much difference.

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Bob, you have to pan when you shoot airplanes and regardless of the settings there is minor camera shake and IS should make a difference. Even if you discount Canon's claim of 4 stops of IS, even 2 should make a difference, I guess. Am I missing anything?

[ebiggs1]

"...Canon's claim of 4 stops of IS, even 2 should make a difference, I guess. Am I missing anything?"

Yes I think you might be.  This is how it works.  IS in not a constant dead on fact.  It is a varying factor.  As you get farther away from that one stop of IS the effect also gets less and less helpful.  The IS never really stops working it just isn't as strong as you move away from 1 stop of correction.  Some people can make use of it even down to 4 stops but us mere mortals probabl'y can't.  Bottom line the better result with IS will be from keeping it closer to 1 or 2 stops if possible.

Some lenses have a panning IS setting.

[cicopo]

I shoot planes & have questions & advice. Planes are moving targets & the AF needs to be set to AI Servo & you need to do a half press on the shutter to start the AF so it can calculate how much (or fast) the plane is moving as you pan. If it has a prop the proper thing to do is NOT freeze the prop so 1/320 Sec is the MAX shutter speed that we use but prefer even lower. Jets use 1/1600 & higher, but for rotary wing 1/100 is the high side in most cases.

DO NOT rely on IS while panning UNLESS the lens has a panning mode. It will cause blur to the photos if it doesn't have a panning mode.

If you have been shooting the planes in One Shot mode the AF locked on the plane in it's position in the sky when you did the half press but the plane kept moving after you locked the AF on it.

[ravinat]

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@cicopo wrote:

I shoot planes & have questions & advice. Planes are moving targets & the AF needs to be set to AI Servo & you need to do a half press on the shutter to start the AF so it can calculate how much (or fast) the plane is moving as you pan. If it has a prop the proper thing to do is NOT freeze the prop so 1/320 Sec is the MAX shutter speed that we use but prefer even lower. Jets use 1/1600 & higher, but for rotary wing 1/100 is the high side in most cases.

DO NOT rely on IS while panning UNLESS the lens has a panning mode. It will cause blur to the photos if it doesn't have a panning mode.

If you have been shooting the planes in One Shot mode the AF locked on the plane in it's position in the sky when you did the half press but the plane kept moving after you locked the AF on it.

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Full disclosure : I have been taking airplane photos for the past 1.5 months. I wanted to get good at shooting fast moving objects and read a number of blogs. As I am very close to one of the busiest airports in North America, I can make any number of mistakes until I get it right. On a Sunday evening, I have a choice of at least 50-60 planes in 1.5 hours for me to practice.

There are all kinds of planes that land here and I am more interested in the Boeings and the large Airbuses.  I have tried a variety of shots (I normally go to the airport during the golden hour). My AF is set to AI Servo and my metering is center weighted - 1) Watch a few planes land and note a particular path where they will definitely show up and point the camera to that spot. As the plane lands, quickly focus and take a shot. This is a bit of hit and miss as sometimes, you do not get the full plane in view (SS between 250 and 400). 2) Locate the approaching plane and track it as it gets closer to your frame and take a shot. Keep half pressing the shutter to ensure that the camera is autofocusing on the approaching plane. The settings are the same as before.

The first couple of weeks, I got bad shots with this 75-300 mm lens and realized that my SS was below 300 and there was motion blur when I started examing the planes on my computer. Had to discard a number of photos. I went back and this time ensured that I I stay above 300 SS. I still did not get very sharp pictures though I had to bump my ISO to keep that SS. It appears that I have to find a way to keep this above 500 to get a sharp shot from the comments in this thread. I will try that and report back.  

PS: I have got some good shots of turbo props as my SS was under 350 and they are slow compared to a gigantic jet. My goal is to get sharp pictures of these planes and want to avoid the camera shake that you always have when you pan a bit with the approaching plane. This is where I thought an IS on lens could help, all other things being equal.

[cicopo]

IS only helps if the lens has a panning mode and if it does it's almost always mode 2. You can use a much higher shutter speed for a jet so before you blame anything (lens, technique or shutter speed etc) go earlier in good light & try 1/1600 & 1/2000 which will pretty much eleminate any chances of camera shake as the culpret. Unless you're trying for background blur there isn't a good reason to use a slow (& it needs to be slower than 1/400) shutter speed on a jet.

For a  prop plane on take off maybe 1/320 will be OK but not for landings or slow passes at an air show. I wish I had used 1/200 or even 1/160 as my max here rather than the 1/250 I did use.

[ravinat]

Thanks for that tip cicopo. Most of the blogs I read kept talking about the golden hour, which in hindsight is perhaps not great for photographing planes. I will go early and test the equipment and technique and get back to you.