Help with my lens wish list

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Archive 2008 · Help with my lens wish list

Cougar281
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p.1 #1 · Help with my lens wish list

I'm trying to build up my "Wish List" of lenses to buy; I'm just trying to get back into photography and have been frustrated with the results from my 28-135 IS/USM, however I have been impressed with the results from my 50mm f/1.8 (except for the fact that at 1.8, the DOF is almost un-usably shallow; I've gotten some of my best images at f4-4.5). As someone in one of the revies said, I don't want IQ to get me frustrated and give up on photography. I don't want any EF-S lenses as I want every lens I have to work on my Elan 7n, as well as if/when I move up to FF. Here's what I have in mind:

17-40mm f/4L USM: 27.2-64mm effective on a 1.6 crop body, Wide angle for landscapes, indoor and/or close range. Appears to be a high rated (higher than the 16-35L). First page of reviews speak rather highly of this lens.

24-105mm f/4L IS USM: 38.4-168 effective on a 1.6 crop body, Good medium range zoom, possibly good for some portraits and/or indoor. Also a highly rate lens inthe reviews.

100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM: 160-640 effective on a 1.6 crop body, mostly for long range/nature/wildlife. I've rented one of these and got some of the sharpest images ever (until I purchased the 50mm).

28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM: 44.8-480 effective on a 1.6 crop body. In the reviews I've read about this lens, the main "cons" are price, size and weight. It's been described as a "no compromise" wide range zoom lens. If that is in fact true, it probably would live on my camera when the time comes that I can buy one.

I'm thinking that if I can ever get Canon to fix the 28-135's focusing issues, to sell it and replace it with something. Possibly the 24-105. Obviously, my wish list won't be fullfilled overnight (or even all that soon), but I'd like to have a list in mind.

Which lens would be the better one to aim for first? I'm open to comments, suggestions, critisism, etc, so please, fire away.

Thanks,
Dave

Sep 21, 2008 at 08:56 PM

danmitchell
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p.1 #2 · Help with my lens wish list

If you want the best lenses for your _current_ camera, think about not ruling out EFS lenses. You can always sell them at the point that you move to FF - think of the "loss" as a cost of renting the lenses until that time.

Two EFS lenses are excellent options for your camera: The EFS 10-22 is probably the best option in a ultrawide for landscape work and the EFS 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens really can't be exceeded in IQ or functionality on a crop body.

I use the 17-40 on full frame and I used it on crop. I love the lens of FF but it works a lot better there in my view than on a crop body, for several reasons. The 17-40 needs to be stopped down for best corner performance and for uniformity across the frame, but you are somewhat limited here on crop due to the onset of diffraction blur at larger apertures.

The combination of the EFS 10-22 with the EF 24-105 could be a good bet if you don't mind switching lenses a bit and foregoing overlapping focal length ranges.

Dan

Sep 21, 2008 at 09:07 PM

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