More -=Top Ten=- lens Polls, Wide Angles?

[CyberDyneSystems]

**EDIT**

the last in this series.. is close to Prime time Voiting..

But since we looked at this, several new wide and ultra-wide angle lenses have arrived on the market...

ALSO we now can have more choices for polls due to software upgrades.

the last page or so of this thread discusses Wide angles... please add your suggestions for must have wdie angle lenses

I expect to put up the actual poll this weekend














Understand that with these next step catagories we are assuming that we are moving beyond all around do evrything lenses, at low budget points into more specific use lenses where budget becomes less of an obsticle.


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Wildlife:

With this one, we have a tougher time, as the best lenses,. those we might recommend at the top of the list,. are lenses few of us can afford or have even used. Many may vote for a lens they have never even seen in person.

Using a list including the "big guns" I fear that once the Canon and Sigma monsters are listed that leaves little room for the ones we actually do often use and recomend?

Should we then list the Big dream lenses seperately,. ? Just say up front,. "well f you want the best and have the cash just get the 600mm,.. but other wise look at this list"




Here's the whole shooting match as I see it,..
How can we whittle this down to ten lenses?

Canon:
EF 600mm f/4L IS
EF 500mm f/4L IS
EF 500mm f/4.5L (used)
EF 400mm f/2.8L IS
EF 400mm f/4DO
EF 400mm f/5.6L
EF 300mm f/2.8L IS
EF 300mm f/4L IS
EF 100-400mm f/5.6L IS
EF 70-300mm f/5.6DO IS
EF 75-300mm
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L
EF 70-200mm f/4L

Sigma:
500mm f/4.5 EX HSM
800mm f/5.6 EX HSM
300-800mm f/5.6 EX HSM
50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 EX HSM
120-300mm f/2.8 EX HSM
100-300mm f/4 EX HSM
70-200mm f/2.8 EX HSM


************************************

Portrait:

EF 50mm f/1.4
EF 85mm f/1.8
EF 85mm f/1.2L
EF 100mm f/2L
EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
EF 135mm f/2L
EF 24-70mm f/2.8L
EF Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 XR DI

*Added*
EF 50mm f/1.8
EF 135mm f/2.8 Soft focus
200mm f/2.8L

I know that there are many other great lenses that work well for portriats,. but if asked specifically for a lens to use only for portrait work.. cost not a huge concern,.. what else am I missing?



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Sports:

EF 300mm f/2.8L IS
EF 400mm f/2.8L IS
Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 EX HSM
Sigma 300mm f/2.8 EX HSM
EF 300mm f/4L IS
EF 200mm f/1.8L
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS
EF 70-200mm f/4L
Sigma 100-300mm f/4 EX HSM
EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

*Added*
EF 85mm f/1.8
EF 135mm f/2L
200mm f/2.8L
Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX HSM

A little easier in sports lenses,. especially considering we could easily knock of the Sigma 300mm prime as I do not recall it ever being recomeded here despite it's being a nice bit of glass...

What am I missing?

************************************

Catagories:

What other catagories do we need a specific list for?

Landscape? This is problematic as what defines it....

Wide Angle? Doesn't fit our mold as we have "sports" and "Wildlife" as opposed to "telephoto"

Do we need a "Macro"? The choices here are relatively obvious limited.


Thanks

[Tom W]

135 mm f/2.8 soft-focus.

[pcasciola]

We leaving the 50 f/1.8 out?

Like the wildlife list isn't big enough already, it might be worth listing the extenders.

Sports is missing the 85 f/1.8 and 135 f/2L, which are both excelling indoor available light sports lens. I also think sports needs to be broken down more. A 100-400L is not going to do very well at an indoor basketball game, and a 400mm f/2.8 is great on a 1D Mk II but a little long on a 20D. Maybe just sports and then outdoor / indoor?

Wide angle is a huge pain because of the x-factor. 17mm is great, but not on a 1.6x body. Might be worth mentioning a few though, maybe bundle lancscape in there as well as architecture and real estate.

Wide angle/landscape/architecture lens is mainly an x-factor conversation, so not sure what to do there.

[Tom W]

Wildlife:

With this one, we have a tougher time, as the best lenses,. those we might recommend at the top of the list,. are lenses few of us can afford or have even used. Many may vote for a lens they have never even seen in person.

Using a list including the "big guns" I fear that once the Canon and Sigma monsters are listed that leaves little room for the ones we actually do often use and recomend?

Should we then list the Big dream lenses seperately,. ? Just say up front,. "well f you want the best and have the cash just get the 600mm,.. but other wise look at this list"




Here's the whole shooting match as I see it,..
How can we whittle this down to ten lenses?

Canon:
EF 600mm f/4L IS
EF 500mm f/4L IS
EF 500mm f/4.5L (used)
EF 400mm f/2.8L IS
EF 400mm f/4DO
EF 400mm f/5.6L
EF 300mm f/2.8L IS
EF 300mm f/4L IS
EF 100-400mm f/5.6L IS
EF 70-300mm f/5.6DO IS
EF 75-300mm
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L
EF 70-200mm f/4L

Sigma:
500mm f/4.5 EX HSM
800mm f/5.6 EX HSM
300-800mm f/5.6 EX HSM
50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 EX HSM
120-300mm f/2.8 EX HSM
100-300mm f/4 EX HSM
70-200mm f/2.8 EX HSM

I can't speak for the Sigma lenses, as I don't know the prices without looking them up. But, the Canon selection can almost be divided into two categories - Below $1500 and above. There's a big price differential when you go to a larger entrance lens. Basically, anything that is larger than the 400 f/5.6 falls into the high-priced category which prohibits many from buying.

These are on the very high-priced side:

EF 600mm f/4L IS
EF 500mm f/4L IS
EF 500mm f/4.5L (used) **Not sure on the price on this one**
EF 400mm f/2.8L IS
EF 400mm f/4DO
EF 300mm f/2.8L IS

While these fall into the more "affordable" range:

EF 300mm f/4L IS
EF 100-400mm f/5.6L IS
EF 70-300mm f/5.6DO IS
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L
EF 70-200mm f/4L
EF 200 f/2.8L **could be a portrait lens as well, given enough studio space**

And, of course, the very affordable range:

EF 75-300mm
EF 100-300mm USM
EF 55-200mm

[Orogeny]

Portrait: EF 50mm 1/8

Sports: Sigma 70-200mm 1/2.8 EX HSM

Tim

[CyberDyneSystems]

Excellent input..

In the beginning lens catagoriy we put the two 50's in one spot,. mainly becuase otherwise we would have had to bump another lens...

Dpending on the numbers we end up with they may be bunched together again in portrait etc...

135mm soft focus! thanks!

...and of course the 85 and 135 in sports too...
As for 100-400mm,. excellent for out door motor sports

So.. maybe there is a division there,.. outdoor sports and Venue/performance/event/indoor sports lenses?

there will be some crossover,. but it means that ,. for outdoor sports for instance,. many more lenses like the 100-400mm would be more reasonable.

[Tom W]

A daunting task. Maybe it might be better to build a list of each lens, outlining its strengths and weaknesses. For example:

Canon 50 mm f/1.4: Very suitable for low-light portrature, particularly on the 1.6X cameras. Limited use for indoor sports, due to the slightly slower autofocus scheme. Very sharp from f/2.5 up.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Tom,. on Wildlife I'm stuck...
At the outset,. I did NOT want to beak up catagories into smaller price points,. as it is great to see side by side a 300.00 lens hold it's own against a 1,200.00 lens.

With Wildlife though we have the compounded issue of simply too many to whittle down to ten, so as you suggest,. it may be an absolute neccesity. The Sigma's break up pretty much like the Canon's,. but I'd probably make the cut off an even $2,000.00 leaving the 70-200mm IS and "allmost" the 120-300mm Sigma in the "under" catagory.

Than ALL of the Big fast primes would pretty much be on there own... save for the monstrous Sigma 300-800mm f/5.6 EX which clearly belongs in the BIG GUN category zoom or not

[Scottes]

I like Tom W's idea a lot, but would try to add a statement about "value for cost" - "50mm f/1.8 is a great lens for the money" and "If you've got the cash, the Canon 60mm f/4 L is the lens to get." Or something like that.

[Tom W]

The 60 mm f/4 would be perfect.

[Longwatcher]

For categories,
You are missing

- Best Indoor event lens
subcategorys:
--Wedding
--Concert
--Bar/lounge

- Best Photojournalism lens (which I thing will be which ever you have on your camera at the time, but maybe there are best lenses to keep on camera for this)

- Street photography lens (while part of me thinks portrait lens would work, the other part says either a wide angle or a long lens might be better)

And you left off my pet lens and best for sports/wildlife and also completely outside the range of any person with an income below filthy rich; the ever popular 1200mm. After all if it is good enough for SI and National Geographic it should be good enough for our lists.

[Jon]

How about "Wildlife - long and fast" (400 mm f/4 on up/fanatical) and "Wildlife - practical (intermediate?)".
Sports is looking at (at least) two categories as well - indoor and outdoor. What to do about the auto and air racing followers? Or maybe they fall in the "wildlife" category (for that matter, maybe sports and wildlife overlap).
I'd be inclined to consider "Wide angle" as a separate category; if someone wants a wide, it doesn't much matter what they're planning on shooting, be it landscapes, street scenes, whatever. The deciding factors are going to be pretty similar, and they're going to ask "what wide is good?". For sports/wildlife/portrait, it's easier to look at a lens and say "yes, it's great" or "no - it won't do because it's too . . . whatever", like the 70-200s get recommended for sports but never for wildlife.

[KevC]

Russian Fishy maybe? MC Zenitar 16mm f/2.8. Cheap Fishy...

[Jon]

Originally Posted by KevC

Russian Fishy maybe? MC Zenitar 16mm f/2.8. Cheap Fishy...

. . . but in what category?

[CyberDyneSystems]

So we'd be looking to do;

Wildlife:
"Highend"
and
"More affordable"

Sports/Event/venue photography:

Outdoor/daylight
this would include autoracing, team games and aircraft etc.

Indoor/events/Arena:
Not just sports, as the same good lenses for basketball etc are great for dance, concerts etc. Here we are just talking about fast lenses with fast AF. The primary differences between one choice vs. another becomes focal length. In all these cases I am not at all concerned about trying to pidgeon hole focal ranges,. as we should know when we need an 85mm f/1.8 Vs. a 400mm f/2.8

Portrait/Studio
Just added the word studio,.. not sure we need to..

Photo-journalism/Street photography/
...are we coming full circle to the so called "walk around lens" ?
Clearly we did not cover any of the high end options in the first "starter" lens top ten,. (24-70mm f/2.8L) .. so perhaps we touch base again... with broader parameters and budget? To my mind,. Photojournalism AND Street photography offer a good place to ecomend some of the more extreme zoom ranges that tend to be a downside for other applications... another good reason to add at least one of these catagories.

O-kay.. I think were shaping up here.. seems no way to avoid at least two wildlife catagories and at least two "Sports" catagories,. with the addition of indoor venue work as well...