24-105 f/4 vs 24-70 f/2.8 (for corporate / birthday party / wedding events)

5W0L3 wrote in post #14426711
Does a person even end up shooting at f/2.8 during these events? As there are many group shots etc. so im assuming that most people would shoot the events (when using these lenses) at around f/4 - f/5.6 for maximum corner sharpness?

I never take my lens off f/1.4 (35) or f/1.2 (for 85). Why would you need corner sharpness? There's never anything in the corners worth getting in focus, especially at parties

I shoot all my group photos at 35 @ f/1.4 or 85 @ f/1.2. If outdoors I sometimes even use 200 prime at f/2 for group photos

imo 35/85 is far superior to 24-XX/X

smorter wrote in post #14785725
I never take my lens off f/1.4 (35) or f/1.2 (for 85). Why would you need corner sharpness? There's never anything in the corners worth getting in focus, especially at parties

I shoot all my group photos at 35 @ f/1.4 or 85 @ f/1.2. If outdoors I sometimes even use 200 prime at f/2 for group photos

imo 35/85 is far superior to 24-XX/X

this is exactly me at the moment! haha

I use two camera bodies with the 35/85 combo most of the time with 135 thrown in here and there and people absolutely love the pictures.

I kinda faced this question a week back when I asked about these two lenses. In my case, I wasn't going to be shooting weddings and I had a budget number to stay within. Because of this, my lens of choice is going to be the 24-105 plus a flash and a prime like a 40 1.4 or a 28 1.8. (or a 35, not sure yet) I figured the 24-105 would suit my needs for a nice zoom and if I needed low light performance or a shallow DOF, I would put a prime on.

Since you are doing events which in some cases means no flash, and it appears you don't have a set budget, I would say the 24-70 is a better choice. As others have said, the 2.8 will work better. However, if you have a budget that will be stretched with the 24-70, I would buy the 24-105 with a flash on it and then carry the second body with the primes you currently have. I've read so many threads in the wedding section also mentioning that a 70-200 2.8 IS V2 is one of the lenses of choice at weddings. So you may also want to think about this down the road.