Which lenses and accessories for a Canon Rebel XTi?
The battery grip is incredibly useful *if you like the feel* – the battery life on one battery is good enough for most people, especially with the $15 3rd party batteries being great quality meaning you can have a few extra to swap, but for me, the camera doesn’t feel right without the grip. It really makes vertical shooting and all-around handling better. Anyway, as for lenses, I’d skip the 17-40mm since it’s too much of a compromise. Yes, it has a red ring, but as you see by the cost you’re paying more for that than the usual features of the L series. It’s only f4 constant, which is “ok”, but inside shooting suffers and that’s too much money to spend for mediocre all-around ability. You’d be better off with the 24-135mm IS lens. I don’t like zooms, though, so I recommend the 50mm f1.8 (the $220 difference isn’t worth the f1.4) and a Sigma 20mm f1.8, and then perhaps something in the 100-200mm range of your choice. It really depends on what you like shooting: if you’re a portrait pers
I have big hands and my Rebel XTi fits just fine in them, so I’ll second the “Reconsider the need for a battery grip” unless you think you’ll be away from power for 3 days at a time. First let me say “Yay! You included a 50 in most combinations,” but… if you’re doing indoor/outdoor shooing in a travel context, you may just want the 17-40. Its hotspot is almost unnoticeable indoors and its wide will do you great good in cramped quarters. Unless you’re doing nature photography, a strong zoom doesn’t buy you much and carrying around only one lens when traveling saves a headache. If you expect to take more interiors or portrait shots then the Speedlite (or flash of your choice)+50/1.4 would be good to have on hand with full expectation you won’t use it on-the-go for wides. It’s a very nice lens though. So I guess I’m saying either Option 1 without the grip or Option 4 with a spare battery. Also, be advised that certain DC museums are quite picky about photography — you may be taking a l
It would put it outside of your price range a little bit, but my favorite new lens right now is my Canon 10-22 wide angle. Particularly, if you’re going to be shooting buildings or if you EVER think you might do some landscapes, you want this lens, and it’s worth seeing if you can dig up some extra money for it from somewhere. The first lens I bought was the Canon 50 1.4. It’s a great portrait lens, but I find that I only very rarely actually use it. My walking around lens is a Canon 28-200. Obviously, there are better lenses out there, and if you’re somebody who wants to change lenses a lot and stick to primes you might be able to do better than that, but I find that this lens is very serviceable in almost all shooting conditions. Particularly since you say you’re going to be doing a combination of people and
