Lens choice!?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Staale Sannerud on October 1, 2009 at 10:55am

50 1.2 is probably massive overkill for most purposes. Take a look at the 85mm f/1.8, it is a high-quality lens at a reasonable price. Good for portrait use on a crop camera like the 20D.

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Permalink Reply by richard olson on October 2, 2009 at 8:17am

hi Kari. the one that is in every ones bag is the 28-80mm F2.8. the 50 1.2 is a strong lens! but it's limited. i love mine but
when it comes to the "go to lens" this one tops it! if you can swing a 24-80 F2.8 even better! next would be an 80-200 F2.8
these three and a 12-24 F4 and you have the "go every where shoot every thing" kit! but the 28-80 is the one thats on my
camera most of the time. and it's about the same price as the 50 1.2. hope this helps....Rick

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Permalink Reply by Bill Cavanagh on October 2, 2009 at 8:56am

Since you said you don't have a lot of money to spend my suggestion is the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS "kit" lens. On a 20D with the 1.6 crop factor that gives you 29mm to 88mm equivalent - which is modest wide angle to a good portrait length lens. This is a good flexible, sharp lens. The IS Image Stabilization makes it effectively faster, 2-4 stops, than the f3.5-5.6 indicates for portrait type work (not for sports). If you need to shoot from farther away look at a the Canon EF 28-105mm f3.5-4.5 which is 45-170mm equivalent. You lose the wide angle but gain telephoto. The other option for length is to get a second lens - probably the Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Image Stabilizer Telephoto Zoom Lens. These two give you full coverage from 29mm equivalent out to 400mm equivalent at reasonable speed, especially with the IS.

The reason toe get a 50mm f1.2 is if you need to shoot indoors without flash. Remember that on your camera, it acts like an (50mm x the 1.6 crop factor) 80mm portrait lens, not a normal lens. If you plan on shooting weddings you need to get at least a good speedlight, and probably put it on a frame that moves it away from the lens to combat redeye.

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Permalink Reply by Hemant Buch on October 2, 2009 at 11:38am

Kari, your wedding photos are already outstanding, so what do you use at the moment? If you're on a budget, I suggest moving away from the Canon lenses to third party. If you haven't got one already, I feel the Canon 50mm 1.8 should cover your needs adequately (its as inexpensive as they get!) and then I would suggest a Tamron 17-50 2.8 (about 400 dollars). Of course, if you need 1.2, you need 1.2, but as has been suggested earlier in this discussion, I would tend to think that it is massive overkill. If you have a good flash, like the 580, you don't need that fast a lens. But again, it depends on what you already have and what you think you need.

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Permalink Reply by Kari Wieringa on October 2, 2009 at 12:37pm

Wow - thank you all! So I am thinking 50mm is on the back burner for now. I am looking into some of these other ones you all mentioned.

To be honest I really only use my EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 that came with my Canon. But things just dont seem to be very crisp with it. I also own a signa but the signa lens I have just seems to not be compatible so I stopped using it.

I do want a lens that will work in low lighting situations. Especially if I do some indoor weddings! I HATE flash! I dont know how to use it very well either (I'm guessing this is something I will be forced to learn if I want to do weddings??)

Thanks for all the help!

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Permalink Reply by Bill Cavanagh on October 2, 2009 at 7:55pm

I got the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 for $290 (I got a factory refurb with full 5 year warranty). Now mine works fine (mine is the Nikon version) but some are noted for front focusing. You might want to see if it needs to get repaired.

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Permalink Reply by CameraClicker on October 4, 2009 at 6:57pm

I am assuming this was taken with your 18-55mm lens? Crispness looks OK. Most digital cameras do not sharpen by design. The intent is to avoid moir patterns. That leaves it up to you to do the sharpening using your favorite photo editing software. For some portraits, you don't want much sharpening, or you want to selectively sharpen since sharpening brings out the little wrinkles.

For this picture, the benefit of a faster lens would be to blur the background and hide the pontoon boat and the shed. This could also be accomplished by shooting slightly more to the right or by a tighter crop.

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Permalink Reply by Kenneth Selko on October 5, 2009 at 2:57pm

I own the 50mm f/1.4 and highly recommend it. I see you may not consider the 50 anymore. But if you do, the 1.4 gives a nice bang for the buck. I agree with Staale as well. The 85mm f/1.8 is a very nice lens too (but limiting if that is your only lens). Both are great portrait lenses for not a lot of money. If you need faster lenses, I would stay away from the zooms.

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Permalink Reply by Chattanooga State Digital Photog on October 24, 2009 at 7:26pm

If you are thinking about doing weddings and things of the such, I would look into the Canon 85mm f/1.2L Series lense. It is a very good lense even though it is really expensive. If you do not want to spend that much loo into the Canon 85mm 1.8 lense, it will have basically the same quality of pictures in all but the L series wil have better quality of build in terms of weather sealing, steadyness, ect.

Or if you want a wide angle zoom, I would look into the Canon 24-105mm f/4L Series lense. It has amazing lenses in it and has amazing quality in build. Either lense will help you with your photos.

Eith

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