What's a good starter lens to buy for a Canon Digital Rebel XT camera? :)?

Greetings!

Any help much appreciated!
I can save $100 or so by buying the body-only for a Digital Rebel XT, instead of taking the bundled 18-55mm lens, which I hear is merely "ok". I figure saving the $100 and putting it into a non-bundled lens may be a better idea.

Any suggestions appreciated! Don't break the bank!

You might use the liunk below for what you want if you havent bought the camera yet, the 17-85 is a great lens and usually goes for 500+ by itself. It is much better than the kit 18-55 (I have it, its good, but I know there is better, just cant afford it) and if you are buying at Ritz/Kits/Wolf camera, this is just a bit more expensive from this site w/ the 17-85 than Kits at $999 w/ the 18-55. B&H is a decent place too.

Look for detailed info and user opinions on cnet.com for the best advice.

My suggestion is to go for the kit lens.

since the sensor multiplier value is 1.6x for canon
that lens is actually an equivalent of about 28 - 80 mm

it's a good starting lens.

In future you can buy other lenses for more specific reasons.

I have a nikon d70 with the following lenses

50 mm f1.4
60 mm f2.8 macro
12-24 mm ultra wide
70-200 mm f 2.8 VR
and my oldest lens 28-70 f 3.5-4.5

all of the above are for specific purposes and not crucial for many situations.

and having one good all around lens is quite useful since you don't wanna carry around all that stuff and change it too often.

So go for the kit lens and when you get more money go for an all around lens like that with a lower f value. Which will give you very satisfying results.

For nikon a 28-70 f2.8 lens costs $1500 which is way too much for me after spending already a lot on the wide angle and the 70-200

Cheers

It depends what you want to do. The 18-55 is a good general purpose lens and a good place to begin if you don't have a specific type of photography in mind. If you want to take sports photos and don't mind spending north of $1,000, Canon's 70-200 f2.8 IS is excellent, useful even in the crappy lighting of high school gyms and night soccer and football games. Maybe you travel a lot, in which case a short, fast zoom such as the 17-40 might be your choice. Third-party brands offer similar glass for less money. So think about what you want to do.

So I've been researching this same question for about the past month and just recently decided to go with the kit lens. I've found through my research that you can't really get a good lens for the money you'll save getting the body only. I ultimately decided to get the kit lens--it seems versatile and you get it for a very good price (it's only an additional $80 dollars as compared to its actual price of ~$150).

One other option i did consider however was the canon ef 50mm f/1.8 lens. It's not a zoom lens, like the kit lens...but it's only $70. I've seen some sample shots online and they look very nice. I just like the fact that the aperature has a good range compared to the kit lens which is a f3.5/5.6.

I really hope this helps, I spent a lot of time researching the camera and lenses for it. Also, I found a good website from which to buy the camera. Beachcamera.com looked like it was the best option--the camera with kit lens sells for $650 (after the $100 rebate) and it has free shipping. I also checked reseller ratings and other forums and everyone seems to agree that the site is trustworthy. DO NOT get your camera from bestpricecameras.com or something like that, I read that it is a complete scam. The only problem I have with beachcamera is that it stopped selling the ef 50mm f/1.8 lens. But you can get the lens from amazon.com for the same price.

Good luck. My camera comes tomorrow...hopefully all the research pays off.