It's Just 3 Millimetres...

This is a post dedicated to the mum and dad photographers - the ones who do the family snaps and the holiday pictures and the wedding groups - after the pro has posed the bridal party. The people who take pictures because they want to see what is in the pictures - as opposed to the people who take pictures because they want to take pictures...

Not that we are knocking the latter - where would we be if hordes of us hadn't gone out on every Saturday afternoon and failed to find out where the pictures are...didn't stop us from getting new equipment and neither should it stop you.

But back to the modest family photographers. More often than not they like to take landscape pictures, and pictures inside the school assembly hall, and family groups. The one thing they need more than anything is a wider view of the world - and preferably one that is neither distorted, not expensive, nor hard to get. These are not customers for the widest fish-eye or the exotic rectilinear that costs as much as a TV set. These are the customers for the kit lens.

Canon makes two good options for Mum and Dad - the EF-S 18-55 f:3.5-5,6 IS II and the EF-S 15-85 f:3.5-5.6 IS USM. The first is kitted with a number of the entry-level bodies and the second comes out with the 7D. Of course they can be put on any small-frame EOS Canon, just as you please.

The real eye-opener is when you compare their viewpoints - as you'll see in the images. That 3 mm difference in the wide-angle viewpoint makes a world of difference in what you see. Of course there is a difference in the longer end - 85 mm vs 55 mm but I'll bet in most family circumstances that wide 3 mm will be more useful than the long 30 mm.

Of course there is a cost - greater weight and higher price - but this can be spread out over a long time - Canon lenses keep their value - and it would be great to see more pictures making more mums and dads happy.