What lens should I buy for a T3i?

[amskinner82]

I have a Rebel T3i and am interested in buying a new lens.  I have a two year old and need a camera that is going to be able to capture action with no problem.  What lens do you suggest for greates action but for a resonable price?  I currently have the 18-55mm  and the 75-300mm.

[ScottyP]

You have kit lenses that cover basically the entire focal range suitable for a 2-year old. The next lens will not be a new focal length outside what your kit lenses cover, but will give you better image quality and low light performance.

On a crop camera, for a little one, I really like 50mm. While it is perhaps a bit of an ordinary length on a full frame, it is a great 80mm portrait lens on a crop. Something like Canon 50mm f/1.4 is a good choice. It lets over 4x more light in at 50mm than your kit lens at 50mm can. It also has better image quality. And when shot at wide aperture it gives you beautiful blurred out backgrounds that make the baby (or other subject) pop out wonderfully, provided the background is farther behind the subject than the distance the camera is in front of the subject.

Have fun and take many pictures. My 2 year old turns 3 next week and the time is flying fast!

[ebiggs1]

"What lens do you suggest for greates action but for a resonable price?"

What is this, "reasonable price"?  What you have covers a great deal of photographic situations.  Except, low light, indoor shots.  So, obiviously, you need a faster lens.  And faster lenses are not usually cheap.

Your current lenses quickly fall into the f5.6 range so getting a faster lens is not too difficult.  Any lens with a constant f2.8 will help you.

The suggestion of a 50mm f1.8 or better the f1.4 version satisfies the low light and "reasonable price" but they can be more difficult to use on a "moving" 2 year old inside.

The EFS 17-55mm f2.8 will be an improvement over your current lens but only a little.  It remains f2.8 through out a big plus.

Both Tamron and Sigma make a similar lens in this range and may be slightly cheaper.

Have you considered a 430EX II flash?  It is light years better than the dinky pop-up flash on the T3i.

[RobertTheFat]

---

@ebiggs1 wrote:

"What lens do you suggest for greates action but for a resonable price?"

What is this, "reasonable price"?  What you have covers a great deal of photographic situations.  Except, low light, indoor shots.  So, obiviously, you need a faster lens.  And faster lenses are not usually cheap.

Your current lenses quickly fall into the f5.6 range so getting a faster lens is not too difficult.  Any lens with a constant f2.8 will help you.

The suggestion of a 50mm f1.8 or better the f1.4 version satisfies the low light and "reasonable price" but they can be more difficult to use on a "moving" 2 year old inside.

The EFS 17-55mm f2.8 will be an improvement over your current lens but only a little.  It remains f2.8 through out a big plus.

Both Tamron and Sigma make a similar lens in this range and may be slightly cheaper.

Have you considered a 430EX II flash?  It is light years better than the dinky pop-up flash on the T3i.

---

With the 17-55 f/2.8 you have to have external flash. The lens is so big that it casts a significant shadow in the light from the onboard flash. I learned that the hard way. (I learned it on a 7D, BTW. On the smaller Rebel it figures to be even worse.)