Which lens?

Hi all,

Having just acquired the best bit of kit I'll ever have, the Canon 5D MkII, I would like some advice as to the most suitable lens for my needs. I am mainly a portrait fan, especially newborns and children. I already have 2 primes 50mm 1.8 and 85mm 1.8. I'm looking for a zoom in a reasonable price range and wondered what advice you can offer.

Thanks x

[Pops]

Might be a good idea to say what exactly you want the zoom for. Wildlife for instance would require a min of 400mm.

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by Gina

Hi all,

Having just acquired the best bit of kit I'll ever have, the Canon 5D MkII, I would like some advice as to the most suitable lens for my needs. I am mainly a portrait fan, especially newborns and children. I already have 2 primes 50mm 1.8 and 85mm 1.8. I'm looking for a zoom in a reasonable price range and wondered what advice you can offer.

Thanks x

I would have thought you already have a good choice in the 85mm for portrait shooting.

You have a top class camera there, a cheap lens will not make the best of it.
My advice is wait save up some more until you can afford quality glass and buy either Canon L lens or my favoured brand is Sigma EX lenses (for Sigma best lenses always go for the EX range, their equivalent to the L prefix on Canon) both give optical excellent results Canon probably the better built for heavy pro use.

Patrick

Thank you, will stick with what I've got and invest in a 50mm 1.4 instead x

[Ian]

Hi Gina - I'm having trouble understanding why you would want a 50mm f/1.4 if you already have the 1.8 version.

Unlike the others in this thread I think it is entirely reasonable to want to have a zoom lens. The obvious choice is a 10x or thereabouts superzoom for convenience and for avoiding missed photo opportunities. Unfortunately, you have a 5D Mark II which is full frame so you can't use EF-S lenses and there are lots of superzooms from Canon and independents for EF-S mount Canons.

Canon does do a 28-300, but it's an L-series monster and not only is it big and heavy, it's expensive (£3K). I don't think there are any affordable superzooms for full frame Canons

But fear not, I think the lens for you is the Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM. It's relatively affordable (around £375 from non-grey dealers and even cheaper second hand) and although it's not a luxury build by any means, it's a decent optical performer. Some even rate it over the much more expensive EF 24-105 f/4 because of its design usability (nicer zoom action and bigger control rings).

The 28-135 zoom range means you get a very usable wide angle all the way through standard and portrait focal lengths. As you have a full frame camera you should be able to get good defocused backgrounds even at f/5.6 at the long end of the zoom.

The lens is also physically light and relatively compact.

Well worth considering in my book.

Ian

PS I have to say I did scratch my head a little about your choice of the 5D Mark II. Without going into personal reasons I would have thought a big heavy 5D Mark II (and quite expensive) with big heavy lenses would have been far from your short list of cameras!

[Ian]

Originally Posted by Patrick

I would have thought you already have a good choice in the 85mm for portrait shooting.

You have a top class camera there, a cheap lens will not make the best of it.
My advice is wait save up some more until you can afford quality glass and buy either Canon L lens or my favoured brand is Sigma EX lenses (for Sigma best lenses always go for the EX range, their equivalent to the L prefix on Canon) both give optical excellent results Canon probably the better built for heavy pro use.

Patrick

Have to disagree on this one, Patrick. Inexpensive lenses need not be useless on a 5D Mark II, although naturally you need to choose carefully. Sigma, unfortunately, doesn't really have anything for full frame in the wide to short tele zoom range apart from a 24-70 and I doubt that would be optimally useful for Gina given the lenses she already has and the fact that the Canon 28-135 is a decent performer and half the price.

The 28-135 is affordable and so she could get going with this lens soon. Maybe later she could save up and get a 24-105.

Ian

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by Ian

Hi Gina - I'm having trouble understanding why you would want a 50mm f/1.4 if you already have the 1.8 version.

Unlike the others in this thread I think it is entirely reasonable to want to have a zoom lens. The obvious choice is a 10x or thereabouts superzoom for convenience and for avoiding missed photo opportunities. Unfortunately, you have a 5D Mark II which is full frame so you can't use EF-S lenses and there are lots of superzooms from Canon and independents for EF-S mount Canons.

Canon does do a 28-300, but it's an L-series monster and not only is it big and heavy, it's expensive (£3K). I don't think there are any affordable superzooms for full frame Canons

But fear not, I think the lens for you is the Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM. It's relatively affordable (around £375 from non-grey dealers and even cheaper second hand) and although it's not a luxury build by any means, it's a decent optical performer. Some even rate it over the much more expensive EF 24-105 f/4 because of its design usability (nicer zoom action and bigger control rings).

The 28-135 zoom range means you get a very usable wide angle all the way through standard and portrait focal lengths. As you have a full frame camera you should be able to get good defocused backgrounds even at f/5.6 at the long end of the zoom.

The lens is also physically light and relatively compact.

Well worth considering in my book.

Ian

PS I have to say I did scratch my head a little about your choice of the 5D Mark II. Without going into personal reasons I would have thought a big heavy 5D Mark II (and quite expensive) with big heavy lenses would have been far from your short list of cameras!

I had the 28- 135 when I bought the Canon 10D and yes it performed well, but I changed to Sigma 24- 70 f2.8 (canstant aperture through its zoom range) and a 70-200 f2.8 (constant aperture again) both outperformed the Canon lens? They are no lightweight as you commented.

I too wonder why Gina should want another 50mm lens a f1.4 other than perhaps to replace the f1.8.
Personally I have never found the fascination for a 50 mm lens anyway, I know the arguments for, but in practice checking my exif data, I if ever use the 50mm area on my zoom lens. OK they can be had with these very wide apertures but you have no depth of field to work with wide open and I'm not personally very keen on the effect they produce but that's subjective.
I again personaly find f2.8 wide enough.

Patrick