and am opting towards the Canon EOS 400D - does anyone know what lenses are compatible with this camera? Does it have to be a Canon lens or do lenses have universal fittings? The reason why i ask is that I have found loads of 300mm lenses on e-bay that are a fraction of the new price but none are made by Canon - thanks! First let's get something clear. It's not the manufacturer that matters but the mount. Even if it's made by Sigma or Tamron, if a lens is specified to have a Canon mount then it will fit on your camera.
Other than that, even if you find a lens that sounds cool to you but doesn't have a Canon mount, chances are there are adaptors there that will help the lens fit. However, this practice isn't usually worth the effort since this way you will probably lose some of the lens' features (usually autofocus is lost, as the camera can't communicate with the lens on a different mount).
My advice is: don't jump to the biggest lens you can afford unless you know you'll stick to wildlife. Fast and long lenses are generally expensive, anything under $500 is probably usable only in bright light outdoors.
As for the camera choice, 400D is great for a starters, I would advise you to check out Pentax's K10D. For a little more you'll have a sturdy camera resistant to water and dust, more solid body. The loss will be in image quality at ISO over 600 and that is because the image in the K10D is made to be processed and used in editing, therefore there is less processing in the camera (400D's image processor makes a jpg image hardly usable in editing).
I worked with both cameras and eventually chose the Pentax (my advantage however is that I live in East Europe and here we have many private lens manufacturers that build amazing custom glass for Pentax mount, inexpensive but great quality). I can get non-canon lenses to fit, but often find a lot of the automatic features will not work. Seem fine in manual mode though. Here's a website that might help you decide if the Canon EOS 400D is your best choice. The right hand column has CNET editors choices. There are pages devoted to the digital SLR surrounding this link. I have a 400D canon camera and there are lots off Len's that fit not made by canon that are a lot cheaper and still work with the canon auto features, just make sure you read the description and check that they are compatible. You can use Canon EOS series lenses.
You can also use a lot of "made for Canon" lenses from brands like Tamron. You should be able to get full features on these. Please check reviews before buying. If there are no reviews, it is either very new or very bad.
You can also use lenses made other camera brands like Nikon, but then you would have to buy an adaptor and even then, some auto functions will not work and you will have to use full manual, IF the lens supports manual.
Your best bet is to go full Canon. Then you will not need to worry about adaptors and features. Opt of the "G" series lenses. These are specially made for Canon Digital SLRs and cannot be used on Canon Film SLRs. But they are great value for money.
You should also get the kit lens (18-55mm). It feel almost too light. The build feels cheap. But it is dirt cheap and the quality is actually quite good.
The 50mm standard lens is also a great buy. Though it is a fixed lens, the quality is astounding and it drops down to F2.8. If you want to buy a SLR camera, Okey you can buy but before that check options everything and guarantee period, because i dont know about this, my friend said this is a nice camera and best one, now he is using last 2 months. lots of reviews here that may tell you a bit more about this camera and also some good lenses a a fraction of the price elsewhere
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search?ie=UTF... when I have questions about lenses
I go to adorama.com
type in the name of the camera The 400d is a well specced easy to use body, but the supplied lens isn't very good. Apart from the poor build quality it is prone to finging around backlit subjects.
An earlier poster suggested the 50mm lens, this is a great wee lens, again not brilliant build but good optically this time.
A 50mm will make a good portrait lens on your camera (becomes an 80mm effectively) with a nice wide maximum aperture of f1.8 (throws the background out of focus)
However any lens that is referred to as Canon EF will fit your camera. There will be a conversion factor of approx 1.6x, so that a 300mm lens would actually give you 450mm or thereabouts.
This means if you are using a film slr camera and you want to get the same telephoto as a 300mm, you only need buy a 200mm, which may save you few bucks.
Canon would be my first choice for maximum compatibility, followed by Sigma, Tamron, Vivitar, so long as they are canon EF (or EFS) mount.
As your camera depends on electronic communication to control focus and aperture then I would opt for an electonic lens.
As a word of caution, usually the camera is secondary to the lens. No point having a good camera body and putting a cheap or rubbish lens on it. | 