Rentglass and lens envy

I’ve been curious to try out some other lenses and different ranges for my Rebel Xt. The problem is that unless you have a friend that owns one of these, its unlikely a store is going to let you wander around with hundreds of dollars worth of product for a few days. And that is assuming they even stock the lens.

Rentglass to the rescue. For $50 I had access to a Canon 10-22mm lens for a week (shipping included), and had a good experience with the service. However, there are some difficulties. The biggest is that it is only on a first come first serve basis, so it would be next to impossible to rent a lens for a specific event. The other issue is that almost everything is out of stock, they seem to be a victim of their own success. It still seems like a great way to try out a lens before you drop some cash one one.

While I didn’t get to try it quite as much as I would have liked, I enjoyed using a Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens. It gave me a lot to think about with regards to replacing the wide end of my range. The one thing I learned is that I don’t seem to rely as much on image stabilization as I had thought. I took quite a few photos in low light without really missing the benefits of IS. However, I think that is more of an indication that my current 17-85mm IS just does a really poor job at grabbing available light.

While I don’t hate my Canon EF-S 17-85MM f4-5.6 IS USM, there are things I’d like to change about it. It could be sharper, and it definitely could be faster, and yes, I’m jealous of the Nikon DX VR 18-200. I’m not exactly sure what the remedy is. The EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM is supposed to be an amazing lens, but at $1039.95, I’ll be saving my pennies for a while. It is also bigger, heavier, and I end up loosing range on the tele end. Perhaps the new Sigma 18-200 mm F3.5-6.3 DC OS lens will be a decent fit? Ultimately I don’t want to have a bag of lenses, I just wish Canon would make a decent competitor to the Nikon 18-200. A good 15-120? I’d jump on that.

5 replies on “Rentglass and lens envy”

  1. Yeah, always the dilemma. I went ahead and got lenses for specific purposes rather than an all-in-one lens. Overall I’m really happy with the image quality, but do suffer on speed and mobility… Probably only way to solve the puzzle is to just fork over the money. My future solution for speed and mobility is to get another dSLR body and keep the wide on one and tele on the other.

  2. Yup. My problem is I really don’t want to carry many lenses. I’m just now coming to terms with carrying two. I want to have my cake, and eat it too. Haha.

    On another look, I don’t think the Sigma 18-200 OS lens is going to be the answer either. Unless they make some major changes, it is going to be pulling even less light than my 17-85.

    Looking through my shots, I seem to be a wide angle sucker. The vast majority seem to be in the 17-25mm range. Given that, I’m probably better off picking up an EFS 10-22mm, then figuring out the rest of the range (maybe an EF 24-105mm) when I have enough money to do so.

  3. Yeah. If you go with the EFS 10-22, the Canon 28-135 IS could be a nice combo for the price. The Tamron 24-135 seems to have better reviews, and is even cheaper ($30 rebate on B&H).

  4. I rent from MJ Memories (based out of Wichita KS). They have a great selection of lenses (Canon only), great prices, take reservations, and has great customer service.

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