What lens do you use for weddings?

17-40 F4 L
24-70 f2.8 L
70-200 f2.8 IS L

Wish list: 85mm f1.2L

rediculous. too slow of a lens... what kind of advice is this? bad advice.

another piece of bad advice all around. that 1.8 has horrible focusing. period. 4-5 posts before that somebody said they want the 70-200 f4!? F4 is too slow... horrible advice.

f2.8. no slower. 24-70mm L 70-200 L IS. those are good ones. the 50mm 1.2 is great. the 85mm is fantastic too

I only need one, and that's my 24-70L. My father often shoots with me, and he uses my 70-200L IS. They're really all I need, and all I should think anyone would need. Faster lenses can be nice, but using the 1.4 ap or whichever because it's dark gives you soft shots anyway, because the DoF is so thin. I just crank the ISO when necessary.

Ditto what Ronald said. Great setup for weddings. I guess it's time for me to get a 70-200L. I can't believe I've gone without one this long..... It would be great to have my 24-70 L on one camera and then a 70-200L on my other 20D.

Many weddings under my belt with 645 Med Format film, back in the 'dark ages' (before digital was affordable). All values expressed in the 35mm format: 24mm is too wide; 28-30mm does not get you into perspective distortion danger (accentuated butts or noses close to lens); and the longest I would use was 100mm (150mm in MF 645 format).
Now with 20D, I find 17mm wide enough, but the 17-85 is just too slow for available light shooting. I have shot with as long as 135mm f/2.8 lens (215mm on 35mm format). If I had 70-200 f/2.8 monster I might be tempted to use it, but I also have some reservations about the perspective 'compression' of long focal lengths, so for now I am happy mounting my tiny and light weight Olympus 135mm f/2.8 (yeah, manual focus and no auto diaphram, but with low light available light shooting who cares? it is small and light and easily fits my pocket during weddings!)

They will pry the 24-70 2.8 L from my cold dead hands

Sorry i really have to disagree..

You might get away with a 17-40 or a 20-40 on its own, but a 50 f/1.8 just wont give you the wider elements that are required in a wedding shoot..

For my recent wedding

24-105 f4L IS for 35%
70-200 f2.8L IS for 55%
100 f2.8 Macro for 5%
50 f1.4 for 5%

The 100 was used for the close up shots of the rings, menus and and tables the 50 f1.4 for a few low light shots. The rest were with the 2 Canon L IS lenses and they were superb to work with.

I just want to point out the huge difference in lens use depending on the photographer. To contrast with JD here's my approximate usages:

28-75 F2.8 - 50%
50mm F1.4 - 25% or bit more
12-24 F4 - 10% (up to 25% for cramped weddings)
70-200 F2.8 IS - 10% (more for large venues)
100mm F2.8 macro - less than 5%

pixelessays wrote:
another piece of bad advice all around. that 1.8 has horrible focusing. period. 4-5 posts before that somebody said they want the 70-200 f4!? F4 is too slow... horrible advice.

If you read my post properly, you would realise I said you could do an entire wedding with 50mm. I didn't specifically refer to the 1.8

It obviously wouldn't be ideal - but it would be possible. I wasn't advocating it - merely suggesting it was a possibility.

Perhaps I should tweak my %ages a little as I also used the 10-22 for a number of shots in the church (setting the scene)and also at the reception venue. The Macro and the 10-22 make up probably 5% together.... I'll need to look at my EXIFs a little more.

The reason my use of the 70-200 is so high is because I took a lot of candids mostly at night and also in the Church. I just stood back and snapped away catching people and the bride & groom laughing and enjoying themselves. My 24-105 was used over my Tamron 28-75 because there was plenty of light in the church so I didn't really need that extra stop and I also used it for the formals where most were shot at between f8 and f11 to get good dof and to maximum sharpness from the lens. I'm not sure which is sharper to be honest (both nice lenses) but as I paid a handsome sum for the Canon L, I'm going to get my use from it .

I plan on using the 50 f1.4 more for my next wedding (next month). I'm slowly building up a portfolio and hope to do a couple more before the end of the year. Not particularly to make lots of money but to get some experience.

Stress and time seemed to be the biggest hurdles!

IMHO if there's enough light use the Canon L, my friend has that lens and he loves it on his 5D. Any lens should be fine at F8, the main difference I suspect would be contrast and color, which is affected by lens materials and coatings.

I too could shoot an entire wedding with the 50mm F1.4, though I wouldn't like to unless I had no other choice.

Tim,

How noisey is your 28-75 F2.8. I've read several reviews saying it's a noisey lens.

The lens noise is irrelevant compared with the shutter noise, and was never an issue. I'm upgrading to the Canon 24-70L for the next wedding season.