Got $1300, which lense to get?

Hi everyone
Love this site a lot.

I just got $1300 for christmass to spend, and Im thinking about getting a nice lense.

I work as a CG artist, and I have a 20D with 28-135mm lense. Its a good lense, but lacks sharpness and not so fast.

I would like to get an L quality, but Im still new to photography

Mostly i take a lot of photos for texture use in 3D, in example pictures of walls, metals, ground, rocks etc. Anything like that which will be applied on a 3d model to look real.

I am thinking between 24-70mm L and 16-35mm L

But if you guys recomend something better, please let me know. I believe 16mm will have distortion on the corners. Cant have that.

I appreciate any help

THANKS A LOT

For walls and things of that nature I'd take a long hard look at the Canon TS-E lenses, probably the 24mm.

Sell your lens and get the new 24-105/4 L IS. You'll have $ left over.

The 24-70 L is a fine lens with a proven track record.

I'd go for the 17-40mm f/4L and the 70-200mm f/4l

This gets you both longer and wider than your current lens,. with hardly a noticeable "hole" in the middle.. and the quality of both will be light years ahead of your current lens.

Thanks a lot everyone for help!

For closeup stuff a macro lens it the obvious choice - I have the Canon 100mm macro, it's great.

If you do any indoor work I am afraid you will find the f4's to be quite lacking.

CyberDyneSystems wrote:
I'd go for the 17-40mm f/4L and the 70-200mm f/4l

This gets you both longer and wider than your current lens,. with hardly a noticeable "hole" in the middle.. and the quality of both will be light years ahead of your current lens.

I second this selection ...

I would sell the 28-135 and get the 24-105 and 70-300 IS. The 70-300 is an awesome lens for the money and the 24-105 speaks for itself. Good luck

IMO it would be a mistake not to get an f/2.8 lens. For the $$ mentioned, the 24-70 L would be my choice.

Or the Sigma 24-70 F2.8

the tamron 28-75 f2.8 has excellent close focus abilities which you will need for pics of textures. It's excellent optically.

Use the remaining money to buy a good tripod ($200-300), ballhead ($100), cable release, flash ($300) and flash bracket ($100), all of which will help your texture photos a lot.

I got a 20d 18-55mm kit lens I will let you have for 1300 dollars and I will pay the shipping.

RomanS, the first thing that poped into my mind when I first read your post a few hours ago was the 24-70L. I still think you should seriously consider it. I have one and am just one of many on this forum that can attest to it's qualities. As a professional CG Artist I would think you have access to programs to correct any perspective issue that may arise. Its good glass, f/2.8, focusing is quick and near silent, built like a tank, and the hood is actually functional at all focal legnths (a really rare bird).