> > Hi fellow listmembers, > > for the past year I've been trying to decide what telelens to buy. I > currently own Canon's 28-135 IS and 50/1.8 mk1 lens and a Tokina > 20-35/3.5-5.6, so I've got the short and normal end sufficiently covered, > but I would like to have something with a bit more reach. Main purpose > would be portraits/candids and for isolating detail in landscape > photography and anything else that I get interested in once I 've got a > long lens at my disposal and learn how to use it. I have handled a friends > EF 75-300, but found its focus irritatingly slow and the build quality not > so great. Since I would not mind spending a few euros more I'm currently > considering the 200/2.8 (second hand), 80-200/2.8 (second hand, obviously) > and 70-200/4 (new, seems impossible to find second hand in the > Netherlands). All these lenses are in the same price range. The 200 prime > and the 80-200 zoom both have a 72 mm filter thread, which is nice since I > own a couple of filters in that size. Also, both are black which > I consider > to be an advantage. The 80-200 is with its 1.3 kilos twice as heavy as the > other two. Buying the 70-200 would get me a brand new lens, but without a > tripod collar which limits its usefullness (so I would have to spend extra > money for a tripod collar). The 200 is light, fast, black, but not a zoom > lens. And all three lenses "only" go to 200 mm, and I'm not quite > sure if I > would like/need something up to 300 mm. See my dilemma? > > I would greatly appreciate your opinions on this, to help me make up my > mind! What did or didn't you buy or and why (or why not)?How much of a > disadvantage would you consider the 80-200's weight to be? Would 1.3 kilos > be too heavy for you? What you rather have a 300 than a 200 mmm > lens, or do > you find the difference of little importance in real life situations? > > Thanks, > > Bart
Hi Bart, Well you are not complaining about the optical performance and slow lens speed of the zooms you have and weight seems to be important to you. So IMO for you an EF 70-200 4L and EF 1.4X ought to fill in your lens line-up pretty well out to 280mm or so with much better performance than ANY of you existing lenses. Which lens focal length you chose should depend on what you expect to shoot and how you like to shoot, not what other people use. There are of course certain lenses that lend themselves to certain types of images. For me I shoot lots of chrome film and a lot of sports, mainly motor sports, yacht racing and field sports. As you can see this is really LOTS of images of people and kids in play, mostly outside under many different conditions. So I prefer to carry the fastest lenses for this type of shooting so I have the compositional options of isolating the subject by shooting tight, lens wide open or including more of their surroundings by backing up and stopping down several stops. So I have mostly fast "L" class zooms (I have the "L" zoom triplets, EF 17-35 2.8L, EF 28-70 2.8L and EF 70-200 2.8L), and fast primes in the classic portrait focal lengths (EF 50 1.4USM, EF 85 1.8USM and EF 135 2L). For longer shots on field and track I have an EF 300 2.8L and EF 1.4X and EF 2X converters to get most of the reach I need. BUT sometimes even 600mm is to short on the race track and I will rent an EF 400 2.8L. But even I refuse to carry the extra weight an EF 400 2.8L around unless I can get an assistant to haul this monster and extra body around. Of course there are the other specialty lens in the bag too, an EF 20 2.8L for those wide shots that need low distortion that the EF 17-35 2.8L cannot hope to deliver and someday an EF 14 2.8L for those really wide shots with low distortion and good speed. As you can see, a purpose for every lens and a lens for the purpose and style I like to shoot! Good luck in your lens selection and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask! Regards, Chip Louie * **** ******* *********************************************************** * For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see: * http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm ***********************************************************
