Ideal for DSLR with long lens .....comfortable ...easily adjusted ....very pleased with this strap

I am a hobbyist at best. I have had my Canon DSLR for about 5 months now and I wanted a lens to take better photos of my kids. This lens does not disappoint. It excels at taking rather close portraits in low light. I then use a free photo editor that I found online to tweak them. It move super slow, though, so it's not suitable for pets (except the time I got lucky above) or sports. I highly recommend this lens. I haven't had it that long so cannot speak to it's durability.

I had a dirty internal lens. After some back and forth with Olympus, they had me ship it back for repair. I still had to pay extra for shipping a defective camera, so I won't give it 5 stars. Otherwise, it's a really nice camera.

BACKGROUND:Let me start by saying I'm a hobbyist photographer and I've been shooting with a Canon Rebel T1i (500D) for the past 10 years. I was heavily budget-constrained, so I rocked my OG Canon 50mm 1.8 (non-STM) version since 2010. For $150 at the time, it was a fast lens that was affordable to most novice DSLR photographers like myself.After recently getting back into my hobby after a couple years of being tied up with other stuff, I noticed my 50mm was producing softer images than I remember. It had never been dropped or otherwise abused, but it just seemed to be not performing the way I expected. The autofocus was reasonably quick, but very loud and lacking in smoothness and accuracy.BUILD QUALITY:Now that I had a little more money saved up, I decided to purchase the updated STM version of this lens and this is a MASSIVE leap from the old version. The build quality and finish, while still being mostly plastic, feels way more robust. The cheap shiny finish of the old version was gone in favor of a beefier, textured plastic. Also, the lens mount itself is now made of aluminum which fits very firmly against the camera body.PERFORMANCE:After testing it out I can say BOY is this thing tack sharp. With my old lens, I had to shoot at F/2.8 if I wanted anything with usable sharpness. This lens is producing razor sharp images wide-open and the autofocus is extremely quiet, smooth and accurate. It is still audible but you really have to listen for it. As far as speed goes, it doesn't seem much quicker than the old 50mm, but is way more accurate and reliable. The quiet STM focusing makes this usable for video, whereas the old version simply wasn'tJust keep in mind the manual focus still uses an internal motor to move the lens elements. With the camera turned off, turning the focus ring doesn't do anything. Also, on an older camera body like my T1i, turning off the camera wouldn't retract the lens barrel. Now that I've upgraded to a Canon 90D, I noticed turning off the camera will auto-retract the lens barrel all the way, making it suitable to store in a bag without damaging the lens.SUMMARY:If you're getting into DSLR photography and have a reasonably modern Canon DSLR body, this lens is a must-have. For $125 at the time of this review, it's even cheaper than the old lens (especially accounting for inflation), while out-performing it in nearly every metric. Prime lenses are the kings of affordable speed and sharpness, and this lens is right up there with the very best primes you can buy for under $500. If you aren't jumping on the mirrorless camera bandwagon, this is an excellent lens for both full-frame and crop sensor Canon DSLRs.

First thing to get out of the way is that if you need a DSLR mainly for photography (not videography) then you can't go wrong with this one. The thing that will make any difference in your photos/results is NOT the camera body; its your skills/vision/compositions AND the lenses you have. Save money on body, buy this cheaper unit and use your saving to buy a second lens (the 50mm f1.8 is a MUST HAVE).Now onto why i really like this camera:1. Obviously the price! Espacially when paying more does not get you much more. This is espacially true for people who are looking for their first DSLR. These camera and their accessories WILL get expensive. As i said, the camera body is where you can cut some corners without impacting your end-results much. Buying it during holidays saves you more with deals and packages floating around.2. Battery life: My first DSLR was a Rebel XSi. It was very good but the best part was battery life - outstanding! Later i upgraded to T1i and sold my XSi. The T1i offers higher resolution LCD screen BUT that also causes the battery to drain much faster. This T3 is infact sort of a clone of XSi - same resolution, same kind of LCD and yes, same great battery life!3. Light weight: Its also very light and won't cause any trouble even after a whole day of shooting/wearing this on your neck. If you pair it with a light-weight prime lens like 50mm 1.8 or 35mm 2.0 (i would highly recommend both) - the whole package becomes a light-weight amazing photos machine.4. Easy to use: Perfect for beginners and offers much room to grow/get serious with your stuff. If you are coming from a point-and-shoot, it can act like one where you don't have to worry about any settings at all.This is my 2nd body along with my T1i - notice that i did not call it a "backup camera" - it is infact one of my primary camera. I grab either one depending on which one has the lens mounted that i need at the moment.Final note: I was a Canon-guy and Canon was first to bring the affordable DSLR to market so i went with their product. If you are just starting, it might be worth looking at Nikon D3100 as i've heard that is a better entry-level camera. But if you already have a collection of Canon lenses (or like them more), this is your camera.

Just got a DSLR with 3 lens and this is just what I needed so I don't lose the lens caps.

For quite some time I was wanting to get a digital SLR camera, because I was sick and tired of the shutter lag that regular digital cameras have. Though I was happy with the pictures my Konica Minolta Dimage Z10 made - especially outdoors, I dreaded to make pictures indoors or trying to capture moving objects on picture (now you see me, now you don't).So I was contemplating for month which digital SLR I wanted and needed. Since this is my first camera of this kind and I'm merely a hobby fotographer, I didn't want to shell out several grands. But I wanted something that had enough "oomph" to it to justify the price tag. So I looked into the Canon Rebel XTi, Nikon D40, Olympus E30 and Olympus E50. The thing I didn't like about the Olympus was the fact, that it seems that I had to buy Olympus picture cards and they are kinda pricy.So I went back and forth between the Canon Rebel XTi and the Nikon D40. Then I looked into the XSi and read the repords on amazon.com and other sites, compared both Canon cameras side by side. After a week or two I finally decided to spend a bit more but have a few more extras with my camera.And I had a lot of fun in the last few days with this camera. I can take pictures with it, that come out clear and vivid even in lower light indoors. I would have had smudgy blurrs with my other camera under the same condition. Right now I am only using the Canon lens EF 50 f/1.8 II for it's higher sensitivity to light, but wait until I go on vacation to Northern Germany in 2 weeks and I will try out the lens that came with the camera. Can't hardly wait!In a nutshell: So far I haven't regreded my desicion to buy this camera!To see a few pictures that I took in the first couple of days owning this camera using this lens 

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens









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Used it for eclipse photography with my Olympus PEN and a 150mm telephoto lens, did the job very well indeed!