Canon 55-250 or 75-300?
Discussion
Evening all, first post in this section so apologies if this gets asked all the time - I did try the search function!
Long story short, I've owned a 450d for the last 18 months which shamefully just has the 18-55 kit lens and has spent all its life in auto mode. I'd now like to make more use of its abilities and the other half has shown a good eye for composition and would like to develop her technique now.
As such, I'd like to add a telephoto/zoom lens for taking wildlife and landscape photos plus maybe so sports shots. At the moment this is very much on a low budget, I don't want to be splashing out on L series lenses that sit gathering dust. Are the two below ok and which would be the best choice?
http://www.buyacamera.co.uk/xsearch.asp?RecId=CANC...
http://www.buyacamera.co.uk/xsearch.asp?RecId=CANC...
The missus is also studying a part time course which gives me access to student software prices. Is PhotoShop CS really worth the extra expense over elements for a real beginner?
Cheers for any advice!
Long story short, I've owned a 450d for the last 18 months which shamefully just has the 18-55 kit lens and has spent all its life in auto mode. I'd now like to make more use of its abilities and the other half has shown a good eye for composition and would like to develop her technique now.
As such, I'd like to add a telephoto/zoom lens for taking wildlife and landscape photos plus maybe so sports shots. At the moment this is very much on a low budget, I don't want to be splashing out on L series lenses that sit gathering dust. Are the two below ok and which would be the best choice?
http://www.buyacamera.co.uk/xsearch.asp?RecId=CANC...
http://www.buyacamera.co.uk/xsearch.asp?RecId=CANC...
The missus is also studying a part time course which gives me access to student software prices. Is PhotoShop CS really worth the extra expense over elements for a real beginner?
Cheers for any advice!
I'd take the 55-250 for image quality, though it may be worth testing in a high-street shop whether you really need the 300mm reach.
IIRC the 55-250 is a newer lens, I've seen it get some decent reviews, it's certainly a lot of lens performance for the money.
As for PS - if it's the first experience of PS then the 'full fat' CS version can feel like jumping in the deep-end
If you are new to photoshop and are wondering about the investment then trying elements as an introductory might be a good idea - also gives you time to decide if you actually want to spend hours tweaking photos on your computer.
(I'd add that I'm not sure how much of a difference in price you are looking at between Elements and CS, retail is around a £550 difference If the difference was a lot less then i'd jump in the deep-end of CS5 regardless 
)
IIRC the 55-250 is a newer lens, I've seen it get some decent reviews, it's certainly a lot of lens performance for the money.
As for PS - if it's the first experience of PS then the 'full fat' CS version can feel like jumping in the deep-end
If you are new to photoshop and are wondering about the investment then trying elements as an introductory might be a good idea - also gives you time to decide if you actually want to spend hours tweaking photos on your computer.
(I'd add that I'm not sure how much of a difference in price you are looking at between Elements and CS, retail is around a £550 difference
If the difference was a lot less then i'd jump in the deep-end of CS5 regardless ) Leeds220 said:
I can pick up PhotoShop CS 5 for about £165. Is it worth going in at the deep end straight away?
Is that a legit licence? No point paying for a licence if its not legit.Photoshop is HUGE. Will take a little time to learn the basics, I'd say download a trial of lightroom too and see how you get on with that also.
You can learn some basics of photoshop fairly easy.
Levels, curves, masks etc.
Leeds220 said:
Cheers guys, the bit of reading I had done suggested that the 75-300 struggled with image quality at the top of its range.
I can pick up PhotoShop CS 5 for about £165. Is it worth going in at the deep end straight away?
Personally I'd be running for my wallet for CS5 for £165 I can pick up PhotoShop CS 5 for about £165. Is it worth going in at the deep end straight away?
I think Elements provides a bit more of an 'explanatory approach' when editing images, saying that there are loads of free CS5 tutorials available (youtube and Adobe TV as well).
One point might be that CS5 doesn't have the 'asset management' that Elements includes - so elements will allow to manage your photo collection more. The separate package Adobe Lightroom arguably does this job for CS5.
Actually, if you are looking for software to review, sort, and do general editing to images (like boosting brightness, contrast, etc) then Lightroom may be the software to go for. It won't give the fine 'pixel level' editing that CS5 and Elements provides, but i've read that a lot of people find that Lightroom provides all they need for much of their photography.
Also, if you do end up getting CS5 then it integrates well with Lightroom.
flat-planedCrank said:
but i've read that a lot of people find that Lightroom provides all they need for much of their photography.
That's what I mainly use, and maybe using photoshop for few % of the photos. I would definitely START with Lightroom and THEN add Photoshop to it when needed.Hmm I really want to pick one of these up today ready for the weekend but Jessops and Jacobs are nowhere near the price in the link I posted earlier.
I don't mind paying a bit more for the convenience but am I right in thinking they won't price match or haggle on such a low value item? Or should I just MTFU and pay £75 more?
I don't mind paying a bit more for the convenience but am I right in thinking they won't price match or haggle on such a low value item? Or should I just MTFU and pay £75 more?
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