Nicole,
Sadly, there's no one lens that does everything -- that's why there's such a huge range!
For nightscape work encompassing wide sweeping vistas of the Milky Way and a landscape at the same time, requires a wide angle lens. These are often in the range of 14-24mm, 16-35mm, 17-40mm and so on.
On your camera, because it is what's called a cropped sensor (1.6x smaller than a full-frame camera (35mm negative)), you take the the focal length on the lens and multiply it by 1.6 to give you the field of view that would be seen using a full frame camera. The focal length doesn't change -- what you actually see, does. To work out what lens you would need on a cropped body to give you the equivalent field of view on a full-frame camera, you divide by 1.6.
Example: Greg and Mike have had great success using the Samyang 14mm f/2.8 lens. They, however, are using full frame cameras. To get the same type of field of view using your camera, you would need to use a lens with a focal length of 14/1.6=8.75mm (9mm). A 9mm lens is something not really heard of, although, I'm sure they do exist. What is available, however, are 10-22mm lenses, of which both Canon and Sigma make. I have read on here countless times that the Canon version is not really good, and, also a bit slow at f/3.5. I believe the Sigma version wins that round, and, I think it's an f/2.8 lens. The Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens also gets rave reviews.
Assuming that you were to use the same wide angle lens for terrestrial/daytime work, it may be fine for landscapes, but, will be a poor choice for photographing people and other objects. The reason behind this is because the majority of wide angle lenses have some level of distortion. Photographing people with a wide angle lens (up close and personal) will make their noses look really big due to distortion. They are fine for photographing groups of people.
So, bearing this in mind, the one general purpose lens that I swear by, is the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM. It is a top quality Canon L-series lens and has the same IS (image stabilisation) as you have on your current lenses. This lens is attached persistently to one of my cameras when I'm shooting weddings, and, it can also double-up as a beautiful landscape lens.
Landscape example:
http://users.tpg.com.au/hqureshi2/atfae.html
Portrait example:
http://users.tpg.com.au/hqureshi2/bri.html
So, to sum up: perhaps the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 in Canon mount (it's available for Canon, Nikon and perhaps some others) and the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM as a general purpose walkabout lens.
I hope this helps!
H
Quote:
Originally Posted by frenchbluehour
Hi 
If to purchase just one extra lens for now, do you have a recommendation - useful for both - If possible  |