Another Noob wannabe photographer in need of advice.

I know that 5d mkii is FF and the 7d is cropped but the 5dii is just a little out of my reach price wise brand new and I refuse to pay 2000 + for a used camera. I'm mostly interested in portraiture and maybe a little macro, if I bought the 7d and chose to upgrade to a FF later would my lenses transfer seamlessly or would I have to get new lenses. I understand their would be differences if I were to get say a 50 mm prime in switching from crop to FF. If there isn't really much of an issue with this what would you recommend to be one of the best lenses for the 7d (keeping in mind I would want it compatible with the 5dii) ? Being able to zoom is a necessity, a couple recommendations anyone?? Thanks !!

All compatible 5D lenses fit on the 7D but the same cannot be said for the latter. But get the 7D and whatever lens you please. Glass really doesn't depreciate so if you transition to FF you can simply sell what non compatible lenses you have and put that money towards new ones for the 5D. My favorite lens for my 7d is my 17-55mm with is not interchangeable between bodies.

Canon currently makes two lens mounts: EF and EF-S.

The EF mount works on all Canon DSLRs, whereas the EF-S only works on APS-C cropped sensor bodies.

So any lenses you have that are EF mount, you can use when you upgrade to a FF camera. Any lenses you have that are EF-S cannot be used with a full frame camera.

As with the lenses themselves, you know that cropped sensors are smaller than FF sensors. In practice, these cropped sensors are only large enough to cover the center of lenses, where image quality is the highest. With full frame sensors, they're large enough to cover the corners of the lenses as well, where image quality isn't so great. What this means is that any bad lenses you may have, they will look worse on a full frame body than on a cropped body. Additionally, since cropped sensors are smaller, they get a narrower field of view using lenses. Since they're not large enough to use the entire lens, they only use a narrow part of the lens, making things look more "zoomed in" on a cropped sensor. APS-C sensors have a 1.6x crop sensor, so this means that the field of view on a 50mm on a cropped body will be equivalent to a 80mm (50mm x 1.6=80mm) on a FF body.

To truly see this effect, check out this video!

Hope that helps!

I see a lot of lens designations with EF-S and L, what does the stand for? Does it have to do with quality, being a prime vs zoom?

edit : Well you answered part of my question. What does an L designate though?

tricky500 wrote in post #11251031
I see a lot of lens designations with EF-S and L, what does the stand for? Does it have to do with quality, being a prime vs zoom?

You're going to get a lot of lens terminology, so I hope you don't mind if I go over all of them

EF and EF-S are lens mounts, and the differences are described above, but to reiterate:
EF lenses work on both cropped and full frame bodies
EF-S are meant to only work on APS-C cropped bodies.

USM notates that the lens has an UltraSonic Motor, which is an autofocus motor that is much faster, quieter, and more accurate than a standard autofocus motor. Most (but not all) USM-equipped lenses are capable of Full Time Manual (FTM), where you can manually focus even with the lens set on autofocus (and therefore not have to switch to "Manual Focus" to manually focus the lens). If you were to do this with a standard motor, you would damage the motor itself. USM lenses have a gold ring across the end of the barrel for quick identification.

IS notates image stability, where the lens makes small adjustments to compensate for camera movement/lens sway to make the image sharper. Keep in mind that IS only helps with camera movement, and does not help or correct subject movement.

L notates the "Luxury", or high end spectrum of Canon's lenses. They have superior optical and build quality, and are equipped with USM motors. "L" lenses are not a mount but a lens designation, so the L notation is independent of what body the lens can work with (but all L-lenses I know are EF mount, so they should work on both FF and cropped). L-lenses have a red ring (and lack the gold USM ring) around the barrel for quick identification.

You're the best. Thanks! At least I have an idea of where and how to go about looking for lenses now.

'L' also means LUST. And once down that road, your wallet will be kicking your behind constantly

tricky500 wrote in post #11251031
What does an L designate though?

The L means, "Open up you wallet really, really wide and dump out all your money! And then some..."

An unanswered part of your original question was, in essence: which EF zoom would be best for a 7D?

There isn't a clear cut answer, but I'd say it'd be one of the 16-35, 17-40, 24-70 or 24-105, depending on your budget, whether you'd rather have a lens that was too long or too short, and whether IS or a wide aperture has the priority for your style of photography.

If it were me, I'd go with the 24-105, forgoing any wide angle capability and a f/2.8 aperture for extra length and IS.

What has to be stressed again though is that the best zoom for a 7D is NOT an EF lens.

How serious are you about the two things you mentioned (portraits and macro) being all you plan to shoot?

A lens like the 24-70/2.8L would be a perfect portrait lens on a 7D, but it is a little short for portraits on the 5D. It also is not especially wide (on the 7D) for other, more general photos which you have not said you plan to shoot.

The 24-105L could also work, same wide end limitations plus f/4 is a little slow for DOF control on a 7D.

Or one of the 70-200 lenses could be considered. This is a little long for portraits on the 7D but would be perfect on the 5D.

And none of the above (and no Canon zoom lenses) work for true macro. Some (like the 70-200/2.8L IS USM II) have pretty good magnification of around 0.3, but only Canon dedicated prime macro lenses get to 1:1 macro magnification.

JeffreyG wrote in post #11251576
A lens like the 24-70/2.8L would be a perfect portrait lens on a 7D...

Yeah - I'd go along with that too - I didn't really appreciate your mentioning portraiture as a priority, and was thinking more in terms of general photography.

I will take all of this into consideration. Appreciate the advice guys.

r31ncarnat3d wrote in post #11251024
Canon currently makes two lens mounts: EF and EF-S.

The EF mount works on all Canon DSLRs, whereas the EF-S only works on APS-C cropped sensor bodies.

So any lenses you have that are EF mount, you can use when you upgrade to a FF camera. Any lenses you have that are EF-S cannot be used with a full frame camera.

As with the lenses themselves, you know that cropped sensors are smaller than FF sensors. In practice, these cropped sensors are only large enough to cover the center of lenses, where image quality is the highest. With full frame sensors, they're large enough to cover the corners of the lenses as well, where image quality isn't so great. What this means is that any bad lenses you may have, they will look worse on a full frame body than on a cropped body. Additionally, since cropped sensors are smaller, they get a narrower field of view using lenses. Since they're not large enough to use the entire lens, they only use a narrow part of the lens, making things look more "zoomed in" on a cropped sensor. APS-C sensors have a 1.6x crop sensor, so this means that the field of view on a 50mm on a cropped body will be equivalent to a 80mm (50mm x 1.6=80mm) on a FF body.

To truly see this effect, check out this video!

Hope that helps!

r31ncarnat3d wrote in post #11251048
You're going to get a lot of lens terminology, so I hope you don't mind if I go over all of them

EF and EF-S are lens mounts, and the differences are described above, but to reiterate:
EF lenses work on both cropped and full frame bodies
EF-S are meant to only work on APS-C cropped bodies.

USM notates that the lens has an UltraSonic Motor, which is an autofocus motor that is much faster, quieter, and more accurate than a standard autofocus motor. Most (but not all) USM-equipped lenses are capable of Full Time Manual (FTM), where you can manually focus even with the lens set on autofocus (and therefore not have to switch to "Manual Focus" to manually focus the lens). If you were to do this with a standard motor, you would damage the motor itself. USM lenses have a gold ring across the end of the barrel for quick identification.

IS notates image stability, where the lens makes small adjustments to compensate for camera movement/lens sway to make the image sharper. Keep in mind that IS only helps with camera movement, and does not help or correct subject movement.

L notates the "Luxury", or high end spectrum of Canon's lenses. They have superior optical and build quality, and are equipped with USM motors. "L" lenses are not a mount but a lens designation, so the L notation is independent of what body the lens can work with (but all L-lenses I know are EF mount, so they should work on both FF and cropped). L-lenses have a red ring (and lack the gold USM ring) around the barrel for quick identification.

Just as a point of clarification for the OP, current Sigma, Tamron and Tokina lenses for Canon are all EF mount. However, those designated DC, Di-II and DX, respectively have smaller image circles and will most likely present some degree of vignetting under certain conditions on "full-frame" cameras.

tricky500 wrote in post #11250979
I know that 5d mkii is FF and the 7d is cropped but the 5dii is just a little out of my reach price wise brand new and I refuse to pay 2000 + for a used camera. I'm mostly interested in portraiture and maybe a little macro, if I bought the 7d and chose to upgrade to a FF later would my lenses transfer seamlessly or would I have to get new lenses. I understand their would be differences if I were to get say a 50 mm prime in switching from crop to FF. If there isn't really much of an issue with this what would you recommend to be one of the best lenses for the 7d (keeping in mind I would want it compatible with the 5dii) ? Being able to zoom is a necessity, a couple recommendations anyone?? Thanks !!

There are really 2 distinct things to keep in mind when going from APS-C to Full Frame. One is that if you want to be able to use all your lenses you have now, they must be "EF" mount and not "EF-S". The only other thing is that your Field of View will change when you go from APS-C to Full Frame. So a 50mm on Full Frame looks more like an 80mm on APS-C. This is simply done by taking the focal length and multiplying it by 1.6x to get the APS-C equivalent Field of View.

Gotchya.