3rd party lenses compatible with the Canon Digital Rebel?

[Godsongz]

Anyone know of a good zoom/telephoto, somewhere in the 80-400mm range, that is compatible with the Rebel? Canon's lenses can be quite expensive and I've read on other boards where 3rd party lenses so far haven't been playing very nice with the Rebel.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Well, as usual, bring the camera down to your local shop to try. Tokina makes a decent 80-400 lens, you might want to check that out. I don't recommand Sigma lenses, heh, one of my few biases. Too much of a history of terribly reliability, and also known to have many incompatibilities with Canon cameras.

[Jason Dunn]

Is there a concern with getting sub-optimal results from other lenses? Canon talks about how their new lenses are specifically made for digital cameras, so I'm personally leery about getting a non "approved" lens - but this is something I don't know very much about and would certainly like to learn more if someone knows whether this is a valid concern...

[Godsongz]

Hmmm... I don't think I've ever even heard of Tokina. Will have to dig into that a bit, thanks for the suggestion yslee!

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

You're welcome, godsongz, I'm here to help.

Jason: Not always, it can be a bit of a hit and miss affair. Some lenses have been reported to perform better on film than on digital, but those tend to be fairly exotic lenses; for most lenses which I have used and seen the results from others, I do not think it is a big difference. Personally my advice with lenses is always to go down to a shop and test the thing, and since you're on digital, it does make the testing process much easier, and do remember to lug a notebook around if you want to know the results instantly!

[aroma]

Gosh, there are lots of other choices for lenses. The digital rebel should be compatible with any lens designed for the Canon EOS line. (Although the lens that comes in the Rebel "kit" is not compatible with other Canon EOS cameras.) There are quite a few manufactures that make compatible lenses. I would recommend looking at some of the Sigma lenses. They typically make a good lens and you can get a nice zoom lens in the $200 range. One of my first telephoto lenses was a Quantary that I picked up cheep from Ritz Camera, and it did a nice job for it's price. Canon lenses do typically have superior optics to most other brands, but depending on your needs, you may not notice the difference enough to warrant the extra costs. For the absolute best results, not much beats Canon's L series lenses, but these are typically over $1000.

- Aaron

[Godsongz]

Caveat Emptor though, the 300D will unhappily display an Error 99 and lock up when I try to connect my friends Quantaray zoom that he uses with his film EOS Rebel. Apparently all Sigma lenses manufactured before 2001 will also cause an Error 99. Most of those can be "rechipped" though to handle the new camera.

[aroma]

Really? I had not heard of this. I'll have to do a little research. (Full Discloser: I don't actually use the Rebel, I use the 10D) I haven't had any problem with any 3rd party lenses on my 10D. UPS just arived and I just opened my new Canon lense with a possible 1.8 f/stop. It's the fastest lense I've owned and I'm axious to get home and give it a whirl.



- Aaron

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Ok, I really do not like Sigma lenses, and as a Canon user, one should be very wary about them. For starters Sigma does not liscense the EF mount unlike the other 3rd party manufactuers, and reverse engineers the mount as well as the associated circuitary. The short of it is that new bodies can be incompatible with Sigma lenses. While Sigma should offer an upgrade program for their lenses, I do not think it is worth the trouble and hassle to upgrade what I consider the inferior of the three third party lens manufactuers (Tamron, Tokina, Sigma).

[mrwickham]

I'm on the 10D, however this statement was given to me, so I'll pass it on. A Canon Lens for a Canon Body. Although 3rd party vendors do a good job why bother? Sigma and Tokina are both great companies, however the EOS range is so large why add more confusion to an already tough decision (which lens to buy?)

Aroma - 1.8 very nice - I have the 50mm 1.4 and I must say that type of speed is great in low light condition and the bokeh is amazing.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Because 3rd party lenses are cheaper, and sometimes they come up with certain lenses not found with the original maker's range. Take Tamron's SP 28-75/2.8 Di XR. It sounds like a normal f/2.8 wide to tele zoom, till you see how small and light it is. Or the Tamron SP 24-135/3.5-5.6 lens. Or the Tokina AT-X 100-300/4.

[Suhit Gupta]

BTW, this may be slightly off topic, but at the past CeBit, there was a camera manufacturer saying that their new SLR lenses were firmware upgradeable. I wonder how that would actually help. Isn't the camera all the brains behind the lens? I mean, could the firmware upgrade technically make the lens focus faster or anything like that? Or are there lenses out there that truly do more...

Suhit

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Because now lenses and cameras communicate to each other electronically. The most extreme example is that of Canon's EF lenses. AF, stopping down of the aperture, etc are controlled electronically from the camera to the lens. Nikon's D chip reports the distance from the camera to the subject for help in calculating fill flash. CPU Nikkors are also needed to tell modern AF Nikon cameras what lens it is and what are its aperture ranges so the camera will know how much move the aperture control lever. Minolta's ADI system is similar to Nikon's D system too.

All these functions require a chip of some kind in the lens, as well as a bit of firmware. Which is also why Sigma offers a re-chipping program for its lenses so that they work with the newest cameras (usually from Canon).

[Suhit Gupta]

So it was actually Sigma that was touting their firmware upgradeable lenses. But the reasoning they gave was only to increase speed in communication between the camera and lens. Upon further questioning, it was obvious that the marketing dude had no idea and had only read a brochure or something. This is why I was so confused about exactly what he meant. Thanks yslee.

Suhit

[debbie.ipaqants]

Hi,

I bought my Sigma 28-200 AF lens back in 2001 for my analog eos 500N/RebelG. And i have to say that this lens works quite well with the eos 300D/digital rebel.

It is just that sigma lenses with a canon ef mount purchased before 2001 will give an error message on the 300D, i read on a german site that you can send in your lenses to sigma (sigma lenses off course) and have them upgraded for free(if i am correct).. http://www.sigma-foto.de/kompatibel_canon.html (you can translate this page with babelfish.altavista.com and select german to english)

But still, my lens works 8) the only this is the 1.6 magnification factor

good luck!

Debbie