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Trailboy wrote:
Including me. I think they are better lenses.
But I could do a lot more to improve my photograph with £2500 than a stop, better af, etc
When I said "make the opposite decision," I meant "make the opposite decision to yours." That is to say, there are many photographers--several of which have posted in this thread--who absolutely do choose the 35L (and might also choose the 85L) over their slower-aperture counterparts, because the faster lenses satisfy their particular photographic needs.
Certainly, it is not everyone's priority to pay the price to get f/1.4 over f/2, or f/1.2 over f/1.8. I would say a majority of photographers out there probably don't shoot in conditions or in a manner that would give them a significant benefit with the faster lens of the pair. I regularly discourage people from buying the 85L over the 85/1.8 for exactly this reason--I find a lot of people covet the 85L, and quite a number of them buy it, without really having concrete reasons or realistic expectations about how their photography would benefit.
But that said, that doesn't mean no one should use them or that they are a poor value. They're just a poor value for those photographers who don't really need them. For those who do, and for those who understand and enjoy how to shoot in ways that exploit their unique qualities, the 35L and 85L are absolutely worthwhile. You just have to know whether you are one of those people. It's the same thing with camera bodies. I've lost count of how many people have looked at my 5D2 and thought I was absolutely daft for spending thousands of dollars just to take "better" pictures, when I could have just bought a Rebel or a point-and-shoot megazoom, or even just used my mobile phone's camera. To them, they simply don't see what the fuss is all about. "Why would you spend so much money to carry all that stuff around when you could just take the photo with your mobile?" They have little to no appreciation for the difference. (Ironically, if I show them the resulting photos, they then coo and exclaim how amazing my camera must be, as if I had nothing to do with the way it turned out!)
And that's exactly how you feel about the difference in the lenses. To you, it's not worth it, just like it's not worth it to those people to buy a DSLR.
With occasional exceptions, there is no such thing as a "better lens." There are only "better lenses for what I/you/he/she wants to do." The 35/2 is not a better lens than the 35/1.4L, and vice versa.
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