Focal length versitility vs. aperture

Though I understand that shooting styles may be a factor, I'm still curious as to which setup you'd go with and why.

I'm debating paring my 7D with either the Sigma 17-50 f/2.8 or the 17-70 f/2.8-4. In the realm of wedding photography, does the extra focal length of the 17-70 outweigh the 1 stop advantage of the 17-50 or vice versa? Thanks in advance.

Use both when needed. There is no "one solution fits all".

Sorry, after reading my post, I guess I didn't speak correctly. I do not own either lens, and I am looking to purchase one of them. Thanks.

The extra length isn't that great, and you may need the faster aperture sometimes, so I would get the faster lens if only buying one.

However, as the first reply pointed out, there are times for both and it is a good idea to have options in your lens bag that can deal with all eventualities. Maybe with a fast lens on one body and a lens with a longer focal length range on a backup body. When I was shooting weddings, I would have three bodies with various lenses attached, ready for grabbing as required. The choice of lenses would vary at different points in the day, to suit what I expected to be dealing with at that point.

I certainly wouldn't be looking at doing a wedding with just one body and a 'do-it-all' lens.

sandpiper wrote in post #12194605
The extra length isn't that great, and you may need the faster aperture sometimes, so I would get the faster lens if only buying one.

However, as the first reply pointed out, there are times for both and it is a good idea to have options in your lens bag that can deal with all eventualities. Maybe with a fast lens on one body and a lens with a longer focal length range on a backup body. When I was shooting weddings, I would have three bodies with various lenses attached, ready for grabbing as required. The choice of lenses would vary at different points in the day, to suit what I expected to be dealing with at that point.

I certainly wouldn't be looking at doing a wedding with just one body and a 'do-it-all' lens.

^^^this^^^^

Thanks for the input. I'm not looking for a one lens solution, I'm just trying to improve my lens lineup little by little. Being that most folks agree that a 17-50(ish) focal range seems to be their bread and butter on a crop sensor camera, I thought this would be a great place to start.

Variable aperture lenses bother me, so I would go with the one constant at 2.8.

Go with the f/2.8 lens. The difference in focal length between the two lenses are small enough that it's just a step or two forward or a bit of cropping in post. I wouldn't sacrifice the constant aperture for that difference.

My personal point of view leads me to faster = better for wedding photography. (given that IQ is the same) Your more likely to run into low light issues where a fast lens would be helpful over needing to move a few feet closer or needing to be a few feet back when you can't.

I use primes so no zoom vs zoom seems to suit me. The faster, the better for my work.

I'd go with the f2.8 zoom. 80mm FOV equivalent on the long end on a normal zoom seems good enough IMO. The 24-70L on a FF body is a very common lens on a wedding photographer's lineup.

Go wit hthe 17-50. You already have an 85 so if you need something longer, you got it. 17-50 is a wide range that you will find lots of use for and I doubt you'll miss the extra 20mm. In most wedding situations faster is indeed better.