First FF lens advice?

Upgrading from crop, I'm about to pull the trigger on a 6D and want to make sure I pair it with a good lens off the bat. I've sought advice from the members here before and can't thank this community enough!

I'm an avid Landscape photographer and also shooting more and more portraits/engagements - verging on offsetting my hobby with paid shoots. During 2014 I'll be focusing on photography as a partial income.

So really, I'm looking for a good all rounder'..if only it were that simple!

Something that's sharp across the board and can be used for landscapes but would also be usefull for portrait/people applications.

My budget is around $800-1000.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Damien

The starting point would be the 24-105/4L. The potential issues in your case could be that it won't give you the skinny DoF you'd get from a faster lens, if that is the look you like in portraiture, and that is has a few quirks like distortion and vignetting, but these can be fixed in post-processing.
You may be able to add a 50 or 85 mm prime without blowing your budget too badly.

^, Agreed. The 24-105 can be had for the $600 range on the boards, plenty left over for a fast prime. If you need a faster zoom, keep an eye out for the 24-70, it can be had in your budget too.

Get the 24mm 2.8 for landscapes, 40mm stm for a normal view, and 85mm 1.8 for portraits.
Well under the budget and faster apertures than the f4.0 of the 24-105mm lens.
The 24-105 is a good all purpose lens, but it may not give you the DOF options as the primes do
Or if your looking to a good single lens the 24-70 mk1 is a good used option. It has f2.8 af well for nice subject separation.

Here is a 24-105mm that just posted if thats what you want. https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1361738

Get the kit with the 24-105L or pick up a 24-70mm/28-75mm.

You should have a good idea about what you like from what you're shooting with now. Just take whatever FL you frequently use now and work out that it's effectively multiplied by 1.6 from what it would be on a FF camera. The same goes for the effective DOF (close enough anyway) from aperture.

So a 35mm f/1.4 on crop is very similar to what a 50mm f/2 would be on full frame in terms of focal length and depth of field.

neimad19 wrote in post #16703123
Upgrading from crop, I'm about to pull the trigger on a 6D and want to make sure I pair it with a good lens off the bat. I've sought advice from the members here before and can't thank this community enough!

I'm an avid Landscape photographer and also shooting more and more portraits/engagements - verging on offsetting my hobby with paid shoots. During 2014 I'll be focusing on photography as a partial income.

So really, I'm looking for a good all rounder'..if only it were that simple!

Something that's sharp across the board and can be used for landscapes but would also be usefull for portrait/people applications.

My budget is around $800-1000.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Damien

Heya,

24-105 F4L would do it just fine.

Tamron 24-70 F2.8 VC is a good alternative if you need speed.

Don't fret having F1.8~2.8 on a prime. Just go for sharpness and good imaging in general. If you're getting paid, the last thing you want to do is miss a shot because focus was half-off due to too thin of a depth of field. At a lot of real gigs, you'll find you don't have time for the F1.8 stuff for a perfect shot with both eyes in focus. You'll be shooting at F4 very commonly even with a fast lens. And landscapes will be done stopped down anyways.

Depth of field can be done via distance to target if you want creative blurred backgrounds, even stopped down heavily. You don't need ultra-fast primes for this outdoors completely. They are easier for it obviously. But you can do a lot more with a lens that is not "super fast" than you think and it's cheaper to just learn how to use distance to target to generate the depth of field you want. Again, when shooting people and portraits, it's one thing to get creative with super thin depth of field, but it's another thing, getting paid, to have a single eye in focus. You'll be stopping down to F4 pretty often. So again, don't worry about having a super fast prime for this. Keeper rate, when getting paid, is more important than a busted shoot. You won't know until you get home that one eye is out of focus or a person is out of focus in a group, etc.

Very best,

Nothing beats a good prime for portraits. At about $300, the 85 f1.8 leaves room for getting a good zoom that has 24mm at the low end - there's a few to pick from.

I would go for a 85 1.8 and 50 1.4 prime or a fast 24-70 zoom(Maybe the Tamron 2.8)

85 1.8 and the Tamron 28-75. Heck for $1000 you probably still have enough for a Rokinon 14mm 2.8 as well.

The 24-105L as part of the 6D kit will cost you about $600. It is a terrific general purpose walk around and landscape lens. With your stated budget you would have enough money left over for a prime lens for portraits -- either a 50 f/1.4 or 85 f/1.8, depending on your desired focal length.

You can probably swing a good used 17-40L and 85 1.8 from a place like KEH or Adorama.

That's a pretty impressive combo!

NBEast wrote in post #16703407
Nothing beats a good prime for portraits. At about $300, the 85 f1.8 leaves room for getting a good zoom that has 24mm at the low end - there's a few to pick from.

This. 85 1.8 24-105 Done for now.

24-105 would be my choice at that range. cant go wrong with it

If you want just one lens the 24-105 is the only option.
But I would take the 17-40 + 85/1.8 over the 24-105 any day. Especially for landscape and portraits.

I like my 24-105, never considered the 17-40, not enuf range to suit me. As the above poster noted, with the 17-40 you need two lens. If I was getting two, I'd get the 24-105 and either a 70-200 f4 IS or a 70-300 IS USM, depending. [Of course, I have both, bought at different stages of my photographic career. ]

BTW, I'm not that into WA so 24 is quite *WIDE* to me. Of course, with any, I'd have a 50mm 1.8. Like Der Wienerschnitzel, it's cheap and it's good! <g> (that's a family joke)