Indoor low light no flash cathedral lens?

I have a 60D and my only low light type lens is my 24-70 F2.8L.
What would you recommend for indoor no-flash usage in cathedrals and other large room low light usage? Would think I would need a zoom and maybe my current 24-70 is the best available range. Was wondering if a prime like an 85 with a 1.8 or better F stop would be better - loose the zoom though. Have been in some large cathedrals and sometimes I really need some reach to get details. What would you use?
Probably the best answer is to get a 6D!
Pete

If you are trying to take pictures of just the cathedral with no humans a tripod would be handy. I prefer wide shots for that type of work but 24mm might come close on a 6D but less so in a 60D.

Petie53 wrote in post #17067909
I have a 60D and my only low light type lens is my 24-70 F2.8L.
What would you recommend for indoor no-flash usage in cathedrals and other large room low light usage? Would think I would need a zoom and maybe my current 24-70 is the best available range. Was wondering if a prime like an 85 with a 1.8 or better F stop would be better - loose the zoom though. Have been in some large cathedrals and sometimes I really need some reach to get details. What would you use?
Probably the best answer is to get a 6D!
Pete

You've got a good number of choices - personally I love the types of shot where a fisheye captures the grandeur of these buildings, maybe Canon's 8-15 or Sigma's 15mm would be good starting points.

If you want to stay rectilinear and you like your 24mm wide end, there's the 24/1.4 and several others around that range that give you that wide aperture.

I would say however that an open aperture will not do you much good - it's a big building - shallow DoF is useless - you need to stop down, so again try the FEs, Canon/Samyang 14/2.8 or the Canon zooms 16-35, 17-40 etc.

Ultimately the only way you'll do it properly, stopped down, is to use a tripod. If you want to do it with a nice 50mm, you could use a tripod and a pano head.

I think serious consideration should be given to the EF-S 10-18 STM IS, because of it's IS. An 85 mm 1.8 would actually be slower than the 10-18 in terms of hand held shutter speeds because it doesn't have IS. Furthermore, shallow depth of field and reach, aren't something I'd want when trying to take pictures of a cathedral.

You will want wiiiiiide for interior shots. I suggest the new 10-18EFS-IS and/or the Rokinon 8mm/3.5 fisheye. Several years ago I visited St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. I took most of my best shots using y 60D and 15-85EFS, but used my 10-22EFS a few times, and even my 70-300 for some details.

The high ISO modes on my 60D, combined with IS on two of my lenses, was more than sufficient. Mostly I used ISO 6400 and my noise reduction software took care of the ISO noise. I considered getting a T4I or T5I for the ISO 25600, but didn't need it anyway.

Ok. I have the 10-22 EF-S for a wide and a 70-300L for reach along with a 15mm EF fish-eye.
Yea I can see the wide angle or fish-eye for room shots. It just seems that there is so much detail up high in some much older buildings that a telephoto would be really beneficial.
Seems some places don't allow tripods so maybe a monopod would help.
Was looking for the miracle single lens solution. A 10-100 F1.2????
Guess I need to really test my limits with what I own. The fish-eye doesn't have much effect on my crop camera in the few test shots I have tried.
Oh and I get the depth of focus issue with wide aperture.
Thanks!!

Any lens will do.
What you need is a tripod... then keep the ISO low and shoot at very long exposure times.
That way you can shoot at any exposure you like, and not just "wide open" with a wafer thin depth of field.

Remember, you're photographing a static subject so "motion blur" isn't an issue.

The only issue you may have is that some places don't allow the use of a tripod.

Petie53 wrote in post #17067909
I have a 60D and my only low light type lens is my 24-70 F2.8L.
What would you recommend for indoor no-flash usage in cathedrals and other large room low light usage? Would think I would need a zoom and maybe my current 24-70 is the best available range. Was wondering if a prime like an 85 with a 1.8 or better F stop would be better - loose the zoom though. Have been in some large cathedrals and sometimes I really need some reach to get details. What would you use?
Probably the best answer is to get a 6D!
Pete

So far no one has mentioned the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8. That's exactly what I would use in a situation like that. Here's a picture I've posted before. Its a full size plaster copy of the The 54th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. This is a large scale work in a very dim gallery at the National Gallery of Art in DC. The sculpture is 11'x 14' and I've cropped it slightly here to remove the fancy proscenium arch. The image was taken at 26mm, f/1.8, ISO 320, 1/40 sec and no flash. The room was pretty dim but the results was very sharp from corner to corner even though the lens was wide open. You get 1 & 1/3 more stops of light than an f/2.8 on a crop body and 18mm is a lot wider than 24mm on a crop

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/kkje​vF

^ the sigma 18-35 is pretty outstanding

RodneyCyr wrote in post #17068131
You will want wiiiiiide for interior shots. I suggest the new 10-18EFS-IS and/or the Rokinon 8mm/3.5 fisheye. Several years ago I visited St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. I took most of my best shots using y 60D and 15-85EFS, but used my 10-22EFS a few times, and even my 70-300 for some details.

The high ISO modes on my 60D, combined with IS on two of my lenses, was more than sufficient. Mostly I used ISO 6400 and my noise reduction software took care of the ISO noise. I considered getting a T4I or T5I for the ISO 25600, but didn't need it anyway.

ISO of 6400 on a 60D is very noticeably noisy even with good noise reduction software. And remember there is no free lunch. The more noise reduction you apply the greater the negative impact on overall IQ. Nose reduction is a trade off. Better not to have noise in the first place rather than fix it later.

PH68 wrote in post #17068435
Any lens will do.
What you need is a tripod... then keep the ISO low and shoot at very long exposure times.
That way you can shoot at any exposure you like, and not just "wide open" with a wafer thin depth of field.

Remember, you're photographing a static subject so "motion blur" isn't an issue.

The only issue you may have is that some places don't allow the use of a tripod.

Walking around a tripod isn't very convenient and in many places its not permitted. If the OP is willing to deal with carrying it around during his trip that would be a solution. If not its back to handheld.

Canon 200mm F/2L IS USM. Problem solved.

Details in high cathedral cielings? 200mm has some reach. CHECK!
Dark cathedrals, low light. F/2. CHECK!
F/2 still not fast enough? It's got at least a 4-stop IS! CHECK!
Look like a bada$$ with a white bazooka? CHECK!

rivas8409 wrote in post #17068729
Canon 200mm F/2L IS USM. Problem solved.

Details in high cathedral cielings? 200mm has some reach. CHECK!
Dark cathedrals, low light. F/2. CHECK!
F/2 still not fast enough? It's got at least a 4-stop IS! CHECK!
Look like a bada$$ with a white bazooka? CHECK!

Pay for it? Very large CHECK!

PH68 wrote in post #17068435
Any lens will do.
What you need is a tripod... then keep the ISO low and shoot at very long exposure times.
That way you can shoot at any exposure you like, and not just "wide open" with a wafer thin depth of field.

Remember, you're photographing a static subject so "motion blur" isn't an issue.

The only issue you may have is that some places don't allow the use of a tripod.

Shooting in a cathedral at reasonable distance would not result in a wafer thin DOF. I've done it with my Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8. Here are just two DOF calculations.

Example 1: Focal Length 24mm, at f/1.8, 20 feet from subject. The total DoF would be 16.4 feet
Example 2: Focal Length 18mm, at f/1.8, 40 feet from subject. The total DoF would be infinite.

Now, if he tried to capture a small statue at say 6 feet away at f/1.8 using 35mm, then the Dof would be less than a foot, but most of the statue would likely still be in reasonably sharp focus. At a perhaps more typical, aperture of f/2 the DoF wopuld be deeper still.

rivas8409 wrote in post #17068729
Canon 200mm F/2L IS USM. Problem solved.

Details in high cathedral cielings? 200mm has some reach. CHECK!
Dark cathedrals, low light. F/2. CHECK!
F/2 still not fast enough? It's got at least a 4-stop IS! CHECK!
Look like a bada$$ with a white bazooka? CHECK!

Only problem would be if the OP didn't wanted to carry around multiple lenses or the equivalent of small howitzer. This lens would certainly be great for details but would not be so great for the big picture. From the OP's original post it would seem he wants something wider. And of course at 5.6 lbs and $6000 it may not be a really good match for a 60D.