All I have now is a 24/ 2.8 prime. I'm willing to spend around 1000. Maybe a little more. Give me your best shot and advice for camera I have and great lense to fit it. Prime or zoom. 24mm and above. Generic lenses are acceptable also. Would love to also see pics from a 1Ds II using your lense of choice. Thanx
John

If it's only one lens, I'd pick the Contax 35-70mm f3.4. Set you back around $300.

You say lens, but if you go with primes you will probably want more than one. If I only had $1,000 and wanted to cover typical landscape shooting I would probably go with an Olympus OM line up of a 21mm f/3.5, 24mm f/2.8, and a 28mm f/3.5 and then add to the the Contax Zeiss zoom that Justin mentioned. That would give you a great line up for landscapes. I hope this helps.

Contax Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 28/2.8

Easy,
Contax 35-70mm f3.4 with EF adapter
Canon 70-200 f4 non-IS

That's about $1000
No auto aperture or focus on the contax.

If you have to ask, you don't want primes for landscape. You want slow, prime-like zooms. Under 24mm is either expensive or not so good. The 28mm contax is a better lens than the 24mm/2.8 Canon. But I suggest you keep the wider Canon for now.

Steve Spencer wrote:
You say lens, but if you go with primes you will probably want more than one. If I only had $1,000 and wanted to cover typical landscape shooting I would probably go with an Olympus OM line up of a 21mm f/3.5, 24mm f/2.8, and a 28mm f/3.5 and then add to the the Contax Zeiss zoom that Justin mentioned. That would give you a great line up for landscapes. I hope this helps.

I agree...excellent line-up with the Contax zoom. Probably the best bang for the buck...

ZF 25mm f/2.8 or CZ 28mm f/2.8. While the Contax zoom is superb, it is not wide enough for landscapes imho.

I'm impartial to the Leica Elmarit 28/2.8. I know a landscape lens doesn't have to be sharp in the corners wide open on, but think of it as 2 lenses in one. Someone snagged this deal of the month:
http://cgi.ebay.com/LEICA-ELMARIT-R-28-mm-f-2-8-LENS_W0QQitemZ330286568028QQihZ014QQcategoryZ3323QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Yes, let me add that I compared the Elmarit 28 with the C/Y Zeiss 28/2.8 and at infinity center frame they were equaly sharp. The Zeiss 28 had to be stopped down quite a few stops to get where the Elmarit was at f/2.8 in the corners.

c/y zeiss 28mm 2,8 ist realy amazing.
i did compared it with the oly 28mm 2,8 and 3,5; EF 28mm, yashica ML 28mm;
and i did need only short testing to see that the zeiss is the best.
on the negative, its is twice heavy and large as the rest of the gang.

what i found also quite strange is that it only costs so little for such a great glaz ...

r-)

Thanx for the input. Can someone guide me to some MTF tests comparing canon and contax lenses? How does it stack up against the 17-40 canon and 24-105? I would like to research the contax 35-70 zoom a little further. That would be a good lense to get. I usually shoot on the upper end for landscape anyway. If things worked out then maybe get a 21mm or 24mm in the future to cover the low end if needed. Also is there a newer version out of this lense? Resources to buy new and used please.
One other thing. I have a carl zeiss jenna flektogon 35mm/2.4 I used a few times on my 5D. Haven't tried it on the 1DS II yet.
John

For sure the Contax 35-70 should be in your bag, a bargain lens that( IMHO) really wants some beating (although I have the 1dsmk2 and mk3 it really shines on the mk3)
Now you are going to need a wider lens than 35mm as well, there are many choices (the 21 2.8 Contax doesn`t fall within your budget unfortunately) I purchased a mint 25 2.8 Contax (German) and although reading some not so good reviews of that lens mine is actually superb and even a match or slightly better than my Contax 28 2.8.
I did have an Olympus 21 3.5 for a short time but it needed stopping down quite a lot to get the best from it so I sold it. I tried an 18mm Contax but wasn`t impressed with that.

Now as you are talking about the 1dsmk2 your choices are somewhat bigger than if you were using the mk3. I have a sigma 20 1.8 ( a very good copy) it`s next to useless wide open (IQ wise) but stopped down to 5.6 and on the 1dsmk2 it runs my Contax 21 2.8 close for all the frame except the edges (only on the mk2 btw)
Maybe shouldn`t mention here but in all honesty up till I got the mk3 my 17-40 and 24-105 lenses worked just fine on the mk2.

Dave

The 24-70L would be my pick. It's a great compromise .... as you get good IQ, speed, and focal range in 1 lens.

These were mostly shot with the 24-70L:

http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=817698

If you are willing to spend more, I think nothing can beat the Zeiss ZE 21 Distagon which will be out in February.

bobbytan wrote:
The 24-70L would be my pick. It's a great compromise .... as you get good IQ, speed, and focal range in 1 lens.

These were mostly shot with the 24-70L:

http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=817698

If you are willing to spend more, I think nothing can beat the Zeiss ZE 21 Distagon which will be out in February.

I imagine most people here recommending the CZ 35-70 have had a 24-70L or a 28-70L.

The CZ 35-70 is sharper, has much better build quality, and costs ~$350. It's not as good of an all-around lens as the 24-70. But for landscape it's a better choice.
As far as the yet to be `release $1800 CZ 21, that doesn't seem to really fit what he asked.

The CZ 35-70 is readily available.

+1 on the C/Y 35-70 for intermediate focal lengths; I recently got one from the B&S board here, and it's quickly becoming my favorite outdoors walkaround lens (displacing my 17-40L) for its outstanding sharpness and contrast. The close-focusing "macro" feature is a nice bonus, too.

5D+Zeiss28/2.8 v. 5D+Nikkor28/3.5 @f.5.6
50 v. 200 USD

Wini wrote:
5D+Zeiss28/2.8 v. 5D+Nikkor28/3.5 @f.5.6
50 v. 200 USD

Well, for one thing, the CZ doesn't show the kid. That's pretty useful when shooting landscapes.

Lots of CA in both.

The 2 copies of the CZ 28mm 2.8 I owned had soft corners - if this is important to you you may want to look at the OL28mm 3.5 or a Leica 28mm ROM.