2000 today

[espresso_addict]

I've just got my 2000th Geograph image, from a walk last September in the Berwyns that I'm only just getting around to sorting the photos from. It's almost exactly two years since my 1000th image, and I'm pleased that my 100th, 1000th & 2000th happen to cover Scotland, England & Wales

Comments

[3c66b]

What do you have at the moment? Just the 18-55 kit lens?

[espresso_addict]

Just the cheap one that was bundled with the camera -- it's labelled Canon EFS 18-55mm. I know it's had poor reviews, which is why I'm hoping that spending the money on more glass might improve my output.

[3c66b]

Right. Seems to me that what you're paying for with the Sigma or Tamron you're looking at there is the larger max aperture, and I'm not sure whether you're going to make the most use of that if you're mostly doing landscapes, where you'll want max depth of field -- unless you do a lot of low-light shots.

What are you finding limiting about the existing 18-55? The optical quality isn't all that great, but is that why you aren't getting on with it?

If you find you spend most of your time at the short end of the zoom, as I generally do for landscapes, then you might want to consider something a bit shorter. I have been using the Canon 17-85 for a walking around lens -- and still think it's the best general-purpose upgrade from the kit lens if you don't need a fast lens -- but I got myself the Canon 10-22 for Christmas specifically for landscapes (not at the price listed by Amazon, I hasten to add) and have been very pleased with it. I'm afraid it's not cheap -- but there's a Sigma 10-20 that's supposed to be almost as good and is

[espresso_addict]

Thanks for this, 3c66b. I'm keen to have just the one lens which will work well for both landscape and architectural shots. I do tend to end up doing a lot of work in low light, but spurred by your comment, Mr EA has had a look at the exif data and concludes that my poor results are mostly to do with the camera's default metering completely failing in compositions with lots of sky or with reflections. We're going to put the new lens idea on hold for now, while I try to get to grips with how to use the exposure compensation properly and how to handhold with longer exposure times. Also, I haven't yet tried adjusting the notional film speed, so that might be another way of improving the low light shots.