Digital Camera Gift Ideas

Canon EF S 18 55mm f 3 5 5 6 IS SLR Lens

Equipped with Canon’s Optical Image Stabilizer (IS) technology, the Canon EF-S 18-55mm standard zoom lens is ideal for just about any application. IS technology compensates for camera shake by providing the equivalent effect of a shutter speed up to four stops faster. This allows you to take sharp handheld shots even in low-light conditions–a must for sports and nature photography. The lens also offers an aspherical lens element that corrects for aberration, thus producing a topnotch image throughout the zoom range, and a circular aperture that exquisitely renders out-of-focus backgrounds. Despite its minimal size, weight, and cost, the lens expands the picture-taking possibilities any time slow shutter speeds are needed.

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars An OK lens, not a great lens
The AF is slow compared to Canon USM lens, is slow even compared with Pentax screw-driven lens.

The image quality is improved significantly over previous non-IS versions. The image quality is good for its price. But don’t expect too much, it is nowhere near other higher grade lens from Canon. Even Canon 50/1.8 and 50/2.5 Macro lens beat the 18-55/IS easily.

5 Stars Good value for money
This lens is a vast improvement over the kit lens that came with the Rebel XTi. Good low light photos and less noise. I would definitely recommend this lens for anyone suffering with the kit lens.

5 Stars Great basic lens
This is the lens that normally comes in the kit. If you need a new Rebel, get the kit! We ended up paying more for it separately. What happened was my old camera quit working. We thought it was the body, so we just purchased a new body. Nope. The lens was broken! So then we had to purchase a lens separately. This is a nice basic/starter lens and works great for general photos. I do a lot of animal photos, and it’s worked fine. The next lens up cost more than the camera! So if you just need a basic lens, this does work, takes nice photos, and won’t break the bank.

5 Stars Great, yet cheap little zoom lens
While Canon produces many fantastic lenses, they do offer a lower-quality line at a much cheaper price. Mind you, Canon does this to broaded their market-share and to potentially create loyal customers from this group.

I have been looking for a simple small lens to attach to my camera when I am not doing work for money. I read about the size and weight of this lens and was pleased by the many good ratings, so I decided to get it. I was not disappointed. After a month now, the lens performs as it was stated, smooth zooming, the USM is heard, but it’s nothing bad, and the IS works flawlessly.

I have had no problems whatsoever mounting or dismounting the lens from my EOS 30D body, which stores beautifully amongst my other gear due to its small size. My professional lenses are twice the size and not having to carry the extra weight is a godsend.

I do wish the lens was made from more robust plastics, but if they did, the lens’ price would be higher. I will merely try to baby the lens every step of the way so it will last the longest possible. All in all, this lens is worth the money you spend on it, which is why I rated 5 stars.

4 Stars Nice Suprise
I bought this lens just to have it as a back up to my trusty Sigma 17-70 lens. It has not left my 40D since.I picked up the 18-55 IS as a “USA White Box” lens(was removed from a kit by a retailer).It is light,easy to handle and very sharp.The auto focus is fast and accurate.My thinking was that this might be an temporary lens until the New Canon 15-85 came out. I don’t know that the new lens would justify the extra $650.00. The 18-55 IS does have its short comings,but I feel the image quality and price outweigh them. I team this lens up with the 55-250 IS (another amazing value lens)and a fast prime like the 28 f/1.8 and I am covered for a day of walk around photography.

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Opteka 35x HD Super Wide Angle Panoramic Macro Fisheye Lens for Nikon D700 D300 D200 D100 D90 D80 D70 D60 D50 D40 D40x D2HS D2XS series

The new Opteka High Definition

Canon EF 100mm f 2 8 Macro USM Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

This telephoto macro lens is capable of focusing to life-size (1X) without attachments. Although it replaces the EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens, it is a completely new design. It incorporates a ring-type USM giving quiet, high-speed autofocus. The full-time mechanical manual focus gives very smooth manual focusing. For the first time in a 1X focusing telephoto macro lens, inner focusing is used.The lens length remains constant and a long working distance of 149mm makes worrying about getting too close to the subject unnecessary. Also, during focusing the front ring does not rotate making use of front-mounting accessories like macro ring lites simple and effective. “Three-group floating” focusing construction uses three independently moving groups, which holds focusing-related changes of aberrations to a minimum giving excellent image quality all the way from infinity to life size.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars I use this for nature close-ups…
…but it’ll work for portraits. It’s as sharp as the more expensive a 24-70L lens and its color rendition is nearly as good. I’ve loaned it to budding photographers who have used kit lenses only and they can’t believe the image quality. Some of my best photos have come from this lens.

5 Stars Awsome Lens!!
One of my favorites. I tried the 50 and 100mm macros before buying the 100 and I couldn’t be happier. I take a lot of pics of flowers and bees and the extra reach of the 100mm allows me to get the good shot without scaring off the bees.

5 Stars What a great Lens!
Image from this lens is superior, deep and field come incredible and very sharp pictures. The macro allow you to take very small objects…almost every picture I take with this lens come out as high quality wallpaper.

It’s a little bulky but this is what you can expect considering the optics involved.

Highly recommended.

5 Stars My favorite lens!!!
First, I shoot with a Canon 40D and am an on-location photographer of families and children. I also love shooting nature and “things” – close ups of rust, the curve of a bench chair, dew on clematis, etc…

This lens is amazing for my purposes! At 2.8 I can follow playful toddlers around in a variety of lighting conditions and still get the shot. And for posed portraits, the bokeh is amazing, people have never looked so good! So overall, I prefer this lens to my 70-200 f4 L, even though I can’t zoom and have to move myself to compose shots. But the lower f-stop, the tack-sharp images, the ability to shoot macro, the weight (it seems lighter and less bulky than my 70-200), all tip the scale in the 100mm’s favor.

If you were considering the 70-200 f4 and decide to get the 100mm, you might want to consider picking up the “nifty fifty” 1.8 – another prime lens, and quite inexpensive too, but one of my FAVORITES, so versatile, I just love it. You can get wonderful dof effects by shooting things up close – the eyelashes of a child, an engagement ring perched on a newborn’s foot, the stamens of a lily….plus it lets you shoot group shots indoors with relative ease….

Anyway, back to the 100mm – a great investment, I use this lens all the time and it is fantastic.

4 Stars Great lens for the price!
I am an advanced amateur. I bought this Canon lens to round out my array of lenses for my Rebel XSi. I was interested in taking macro shots of bugs and other small objects, plus have the capability of a portrait lens. I haven’t had it for very long and I haven’t taken a lot of pictures yet, but it is impressive in its sharpness and accurate focusing. It focuses to .9 foot but you have to have a steady hand since it doesn’t have IS. Construction is solid (notice the weight) and all focusing is internal, so the barrel doesn’t move in and out. This is a great feature for macro images.

I recommend it highly but if I had the extra money I would go for the Canon 100mm macro lens with IS. That is the only reason I gave it a 4.0 rating.

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Sigma 70 300mm f 4 5 6 SLD DG Macro Lens with built in motor for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

70-300mm F4-5.6 DG Macro for Nikon… The Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 DG MACRO for Nikon has a built-in motor that allows autofocus with all Nikon digital cameras. These lenses incorporate a macro feature with maximum magnification 1:2 at the 300mm focal length. It is suitable for various types of shooting conditions. The 70-300mm F4-5.6 DG MACRO for Nikon is a telephoto zoom lens with excellent value for money and optimized for use with digital SLR cameras. This telephoto lens has a 1:2 maximum magnification at the 300mm focal length. It is ideal for portraits, sport and other types of photography. SLD (Special Low Dispersion) glass provides excellent correction of chromatic aberration. The super multi-layer coating reduces flare and ghosting. High image quality is assured throughout the entire zoom range. Hood (LH635-01) supplied.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Well worth the money.
I bought this lens as a birthday gift for my wife. We use it with our Canon Digital Rebel XT and it works perfectly. The lens has a very good picture quality and is very easy to attach/remove from the camera. Of course, it comes with lens covers for both ends of the lens and they are very good quality covers; actually, IMO, better than the lens covers that our Canon lens came with. They stay on well and provide great protection for traveling.

The lens has a switch on it to go from normal photography to macro shots. Overall, I was impressed with the quality and ease of use with macro photos with this lens. It is easy to take good quality macro shots with this lens (and trust me, I’m a beginner!).

Overall, I am very well pleased with this lens and think you will be too!

1 Star JUNK!!!
Save yourself the trouble. I purchased this lens to use for some basic shots around the house during the Holidays. First, every photo is very soft in the corners. You need to crop the edges away or darken the outer portions of the photo to be usable. More troubling, the AF motor stopped working after aprox 75 shots. Just stopped working and has only a faint clicking noise. Junk!! Going back after 2 days and 75 shots…

Bought the Nikon 55-200mm AF-S VR today for $50 more and it’s sharper, has better contrast and colors, and since it’s a Nikkor lens, it should make it past 75 photos.

You get what you pay for, get the Nikon…

5 Stars Holy picture taking batman!
Love this lens! I have a Sony DSLR and a Minolta SLR and I love that I can use the lens on both. Picture Quality is great. The lens is heavy, but what do you expect, it’s huge.

2 Stars Nice image quality, Autofocus stops working
Let me start by saying this is a great lens for the money as far as image quality and macro features and most reviews here are accurate. But apparently they didn’t have the disapointing problem I ran into. After only about 3 days of normal use the autofocus failed and would only turn in one direction. I sent it back for an exchange (Amazon did the exchange with no hassle) and the replacement worked fine for a few days of shooting high school football and wildlife. But then lo and behold, the exact same thing happened again! I don’t think it’s the camera (Nikon D40) as my 3 other autofocus lenses work fine, and I checked/ cleaned the contacts. The lens was used gently with no rough impact or banging, it just stopped working while shooting pictures. The lens seems to be clicking and struggling to turn in the other direction and appears to be draining the battery doing it, as the lo battery indicator comes on while trying to focus. Then I read a review on the web that said the motor on the Sigma might be too torquey for the plastic gearing, stripping it. I really like the lens’s image performance and thought about keeping it anyway, but unfortunatley am going to have to just return it, as 160 bucks is a little too much for a manual focus only lens.

4 Stars Sigma lens for Nikon DLSR
I bought this Sigma lens after much consideration. I have used a friend’s Nikon lens and it took beautiful pictures. However, being that I am a recreational picture taker and I shoot mainly my boys sports teams, I opted for a more economical lens. I must say that for my needs and for the money difference, so far, this lens has not disapointed me yet. I have shot amazing football pictures and I am very happy with it’s performance.

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Opteka 35x HD Super Wide Angle Panoramic Macro Fisheye Lens for Canon EOS EF

The new Opteka High Definition