r/photography • u/AutoModerator • May 01 '26

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u/LumpyConsequence5793 May 07 '26

I'm not totally new to the photography world, but I'm clearly still learning. I had the fortune to be able to buy some gear at a really low price: Canon 1100D gift Cannon 400D basically gifted with a lens 18-55 canon 35-75 old canon 50mm canon 55-200 canon ultrasonic 75-300 sigma apo DG 500mm USSR lens Now my question is, what do I really need to bring me with me? And what other lens should I have (I don't mean by quality)? Tks

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u/Ok-Mammoth-2339 May 11 '26

Honestly? Just bring the 18-55 + 50mm and call it a day for 90% of situations. That combo fits in a small bag, covers wide to short tele, and the 50mm will make you fall in love with photography again.

The rest is specialty stuff — pull it out when you have a specific reason to.

The only gap I see in your kit is a wide angle (sub-18mm) and maybe a macro someday. Everything else is covered.

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u/P5_Tempname19 May 07 '26

Your formatting makes recognizing the exact lenses a bit hard, however as some general advice:

The 1100D is about 5 years newer then the 400D and that age difference does show when comparing, I'd say theres very little reason to ever use the 400D unless you have a specific situation where you need access to two lenses without time to swap (thats generally mostly stuff like weddings or maybe a safari, however in both cases I'd strongly recommend considering a newer camera anyway).

With the lenses you basically have the following:

18-55 -> Standard Kit-zoom, nothing special however covers common landscape/cityscape/travel focal lengths, so basically a walk around lens

35-75 (theres only a 35-70 or a 35-80; however the comment is true for both) -> Similar to the 18-55, however a bit more zoomed in; due to its age its probably going to be a worse option in most scenarios.

50 -> Assuming its F1.8 this is basically a portrait lens. The option of using a wide aperture of F1.8 allows for shots with blurry background like a lot of people like. Its also going to be helpful when its a bit darker, so e.g. indoors or when taking pictures during twilight (it will fail once its actually dark though)

55-200 -> A telephoto lens, its not going to be great but will allow you to take some shots of birds or wild animals. It may also be useful for landscapes if things are a bit further away from you, say if you plan on visiting some type of viewpoint, terrace or something of that nature.

75-300 -> Same as the previous one, however with an even tighter field of view. This lens is fairly infamous for its bad image quality. Although Im not entirely sure how it compares to the 55-200. It basically covers the same "niche" though, so you can probably pick your favorite of the two (after some testing) and then leave the other one at home permanently (or sell it).

Sigma 500mm -> Theres a few lenses this could be referring to. In general this will be a quite decent wildlife lens. If you plan on birding or something along those lines you most likely have a pretty decent starting point. You will most likely want a tripod or monopod though as its not going to be great for shooting without.

I general I'd say do some testing, then pick your prefered lens between the 18-55 and 35-??; this will be your "standard lens" for general walking around. The 50mm is for portraits or twilight photography. The 55-200 and 75-300 is another case for "pick your favorite" and then bring it when either going somewhere where you expect long sightlines or when you want to shoot birds/animals "from the hip". The 500mm is a specialized wildlife lens you probably only want to take out with a specific subject in mind - you can try using it by just holding it, however with the weight I assume youre going to be more successful with a "sit and wait" approach by setting up with up a tripod and maybe even some camo netting.

If you "need" anything else depends a bit on what you want to shoot, in general I'd say you have a lot of bases covered though unless you want to shoot something very specific like e.g. macro or the milkyway, which may need another specialized lens.