I'm moving away from zooms to only two primes

I have a 1D MKII and looking at shaking up my lenses. I shoot mainly my two boys (1 & 3) and starting to move into portraits. I'm happy with my zooms but I think it would be interesting if I sold them and moved to only two primes with a budget of $1200. I would love to have a 35L but that would blow my budget so thinking that a 50mm 1.4 and a used 135mm 2.0 would make a pretty interesting combo.

Anyone move away from their zooms to only two primes? Any feedback would be appreciated...thanks!

You are happy with your zooms, but you want to only shoot 50mm and 135mm now?
If you "only" going to shoot portraits, i guess it would work. It could end up being very restrictive for you, 50mm isnt wide enough for many things and 135mm will be too long for many things. I do like the idea of only using primes, as you see from my lineup, but it sure doesnt hurt to have a zoom or two aswell. I guess you could try using your zooms on 50mm and 135mm for a week or two, too see if it fits your style. If you have the 50mm 1.8, you could get a 85mm 1.8 and 135mmL instead, three primes? Maybe a 35mm 2.0?
I could probably live with my primes only, but it's because i have the 24mm. The 100mm feels too long at times. Love my fifty though, but it isnt very wide.

I think you should reconsider. I bought my camera moving from large format film (architect who got into architecture through photography) and slooow processes to a 5d2 w/24mm ts-e ii. Decided to pick up a 85L 1.2 to treat myself in exchange for selling all my film equipment.

Ended up adding a 135L to the mix because the 85L was just too slow to AF (although a great lens otherwise) and now probably going to return the 135 in exchange for a 70-200 of some variant. The reason for all this is my 3 y.o. daughter: The primes are great, but any advantage the prime has in resolution is lost due to the amounts of cropping I need to do to achieve good compositions.

Aperture is still an advantage but there's only so many superduper DoF shots you can take before it becomes gimmicky.

I have only 2 primes. 30mm and 85mm. I pretty much use the 30mm indoors and the 85mm outdoors. It works for me. I sold the Tamron 17-50mm lens to buy the Sigma 30mm. I don't miss it at all. All I care about are portraits, and this setup works for that purpose. I have a 3 year old as well. Yes, she's on the move all the time. So am I.

Good luck.

The 50mm f/1.4 has some questionable optical qualities, bad build and the AF sounds bad. I can't think it would make a 1d2 fanatic happy.

The 135L is killer but probably too long on the 1.3x crop.

Why not a 50mm Sigma and a 85mm f/1.8 Canon and keep a zoomie?

30mm and 85mm would be better to live with, than 50mm and 135mm, for me anyways. You have a crop factor of 1.3, right, 50mm and 135mm will be great if you get a 20-35ish prime for a three prime setup

I doubt I could move to only two primes. If I only shot those two things, then it might work - but doubt it. Everyone is different. Try it, if you don't like it, you can always go back to a zoom or two.

I have more than two, but I only have primes. I agree with the others about the 135 being too long. Don't get me wrong- I love my 135, but I mostly use it on my FF cameras. I only put it on a crop body when I need some extra reach. The AF on it is fast and it is sharp. 100mm is my favorite length (as you can see in my signature, I have two 100mm lenses). Both the Zeiss and the Canon are sharp. The Zeiss is MF only, the Canon doesn't have the fastest AF, but it is a great lens!

But if I could only have 2 lenses on a crop body- I would go with an 85mm or 100mm and a 24mm or 35mm.

I loved primes so much I bought a 70-200

i never shot a zoom lens until i just got my T2i at the beginning of the year. back in the film days they really werent very good. poor speeds, wouldnt hold focus etc etc....

i shot for a couple of newspapers and i knew several other pro-shooters. we all shot primes exclusively but i have to agree with the others here, 2 lenses will seriously handcuff your ability to get the shots you want...

i ran a 24mm f2, 35mm f2, 50mm f1.4, 85mm f1.8 and a 200mm f2.8... that pretty much covered what the big papers used (they used dark world gear with a 180mm instead of the FD 200)...

with the 1.3 crop youre going to want something wider than 50mm (effectively a 65mm) along the lines of a 28mm. that will give you a 37-ish mm equivalent lens which is the wide end on most P/S cameras...

I love my primes, but I dont think I would be happy limited to a 50 and a 135...I have the 20 2.8, 28 2.8, 50 1.4, 85 1.8 and the 200 2.8. I use all of them for different things...granted the 50 1.4 is what I use the majority of the time, but I love being able to shoot wide or long when I want to also...Shooting all primes makes you work harder for your shots, but to have only two would be to limiting I think...

effstop wrote in post #14406760
I have a 1D MKII and looking at shaking up my lenses. I shoot mainly my two boys (1 & 3) and starting to move into portraits. I'm happy with my zooms but I think it would be interesting if I sold them and moved to only two primes with a budget of $1200. I would love to have a 35L but that would blow my budget so thinking that a 50mm 1.4 and a used 135mm 2.0 would make a pretty interesting combo.

Anyone move away from their zooms to only two primes? Any feedback would be appreciated...thanks!

back in the old days (pre zoom) i had three primes: 28mm, 50mm and 80 mm.

today i have a FF camera and i'm covered from 15mm fisheye to 400mm. much prefer the modern kit but if austerity is your thing give it a try and after a year or so let us know how it's working out for you .

ed

I agree with what everyone already said. 50mm and 135mm are long on your bodies. Even the 50mm is sometimes hard to shoot indoors. Your three year old should already be running around a lot. That would make most people keep at least one zoom.

I shot a party this weekend and have to admit that it would have been tough to only do it with a 50/135 combo as the zoom was really effective. So, now will be keeping the zooms but will be adding a prime and leaning towards the 135mm as I tend to shoot on the long side.

Get a better zoom like the 24-70, the 4 extra mm makes a difference, and the constant 2.8 is nice.