BuckyN8 wrote in post #13568579
I am looking for a new lens to purchase and since I am spending a chunk of change, I figured I would see what suggestions everyone has specific to my case of shooting.
I typically use my Canon 50mm 1.4 for EVERYTHING! I still have my 18-55mm kit lens that I bust out when needed, but I need something else. I had the 55-250mm that I recently sold because I never used it. I am going to NYC for New Years and am looking to purchase a good walk around lens for landscapes and close group shots. I love the sharpness of the 50mm and would like something that gives me the same sharpness with great depth of field. I have been looking at these lens but not sure if this is overboard
Canon 24-70
Canon 24-105
I am open to other brands that are even cheaper
Just not sure which direction I should go. After I go on this trip, I want to use it as a lens to take family photo shoots with. I typically just shoot for family and friends as I do not market myself.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
Thanks!
First of all, since you have had a couple EF-S lenses, I'm going to assume you are using a crop sensor camera. That's fine, just has to be taken into consideration when selecting lenses.
You sound like a prime shooter who doesn't mind "zooming with your feet".
Why not look at some more primes to compliment your 50mm?
For the $1100 that the cheaper of the two L's sells for, you could get at least a couple nice primes...
EF 24/2.8 or 28/1.8 USM (I prefer the latter for it's USM, build and slightly larger aperture). One of these can serve well as a slightly wide "standard" lens on a crop camera. ($500 for the 28/1.8, by the time you add the lens hood. $400 for the 24/2.8 w/hood.)
EF 85/1.8 USM would give a more telephoto lens than what you have and is great for more candid portraits, when you have some working distance. Complements the 50mm very well. ($400, by the time you add the lens hood)
EF 100/2 USM.... is an often overlooked "sleeper" in the Canon lineup, if you need a bit more tele lens. Fast and high quality, yet quite compact. (About $500 with lens hood.)
EF 100/2.8 USM Macro (not the more expensive L)... might be a good choice if you also want a macro lens that can serve dual purpose as a moderate tele for non-macro shooting. However, it's nowhere near as compact as the 100/2 (Currently $500 plus another $35 for the hood, which is also quite large.)
There are also cheaper, but good third party macro lenses: Tamron 90/2.8, Sigma 105/2.8, Tokina 100/2.8, for example. I do not think any of these lenses will focus as quickly as the Canon USM lenses, so might be a bit less "dual purpose".
I would want to have a wider lens for use in NYC... A cheaper solution is the manual focus Bower/Rokinon 14mm f2.8... You hardly need AF on a very wide lens with so much depth of field. (Costs less than $400.)
Alternatively, you would need to go to a zoom for an ultrawide lens... there simply aren't many affordable UWA primes for crop sensor cameras. Pick from Canon 10-22; Tokina 12-24/4 or 11-16/2.8; Sigma 8-16, 10-20, or 10-20/3.5; Tamron 10-24. Prices vary from under $500 to over $700. I use and like the Tokina 12-24. It can be found used for around $400, sells new for $600.
If you still want a zoom "walk-around", don't overlook the Canon EF 28-135 IS USM. So many have been sold in kits, lightly or practically unused copies are widely available on the used market for $250, sometimes as little as $200 (check your local Craigslist). Even at it's usual new price (a little under $500 incl. hood) it's sort of a "poor man's" 24-105... has fast USM focus, IS, very good image quality... Just isn't as well built or sealed as the L-series lens. Gets a little soft at 135mm if not stopped down. I use one as a backup to my 24-70L and as a loaner if an assistant needs to borrow a lens. It's a convenient range of focal lengths, but might want to complement it with an UWA zoom for city shooting.
The EF-S 18-135 IS is a newer, crop-specific alternative... wide to moderate tele all in one lens. It doesn't have USM, but all the images I've seen done with it lead me to believe it's a pretty capable lens. It's currently on sale for $300 (normally $400)... add another $25 for a lens hood.
A lot of people really like the EF 15-85mm IS USM as a walk-around lens. It's rather pricey for a lens without particularly large aperture, but quite compact and excellent image quality. And it's a bit wider than most... nice range of focal lengths in a single lens, in fact. (About $700 currently, by the time you add the lens hood).
All the above zooms don't have particularly large apertures, but that might be fine if you want to keep your kit as small and light as possible and particularly if you have one or two fast prime lenses complementing the zooms.
If you prefer a fast f2.8 zoom as a single lens solution, it will be pricier and you end up compromising somewhere... The EF-S 17-55/2.8 IS USM is super lens, but with somewhat limited range of focal lengths. ($1100 by the time you add the hood)
An alternative that many people seem to like a lot is the Tamron 17-50/2.8 (non-VC) for about $440. The focus is a bit slower than the Canon, but it's capable of high image quality. There's no stabilization, but it's not a very essential feature on these focal lengths anyway. (There is a more expensive version with VC, but most say it's not as sharp).
There is also a Sigma 17-50/2.8 OS... I don't know much about it... It sells for a little less than $700.
Note that all the f2.8 zooms send to have a fairly limited range of focal lengths. You'd likely want to complement any of them with wider and/or longer lenses.
So, I can see several possible solutions that aren't necessarily any more expensive than what you are considering, some are actually far less expensive but would still give you more shooting options. My choice for travel with a crop sensor camera would be a reasonably compact walk-around zoom such as my 28-135 paired up with my Toki 12-24, and probably complemented with a two or three fast, but reasonably compact and unobtrusive primes, such as my 28/1.8, 50/1.4 & 85/1.8. When I am walking around with a full frame camera, I often use 24-70/2.8L complemented with 20/2.8 and 135/2.
