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    #1

    Zoom lens conundrum

    £500 budget +/- £100 (hopefully minus) Portrait lens - 90% of our photo's are of the kids indoors/outdoors and doing various sporting activities. Other 10% is me out on our balcony with the camera on a nice tripod taking pics of birds and whatever other wildlife I can snap.

    Wife (who I bought the camera for) wants a good quality lens for close up work.. but

    I like shooting the kids from distance and have already got some very pleasing results from the kit lense supplied (75-300 none USM/IS)

    We would both like 1 lens only as she is not a fan of chopping and changing lenses and does not like handling the bigger lens.

    Our body is a 450D.

    First question... is there a 1 lens solution for our needs and if so is it in the list below? If not can I get 2 decent lenses for £500? If so what??

    Shortlist:

    Used Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM (£580) Pro's: Best / Cons: Price, Used and is 105mm long enough for me?

    New Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L USM (£478) Pro's: I WANT ONE and very good for the distance stuff / Cons: Mrs won't like it as it's a bit of a monster lens and not really suitable for indoor close up's of the kids

    New Canon Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM (£495) Pro's: Excellent optics / Cons: Price and is it long enough?

    New Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM (£289) Pro's: Small and light / Cons: long enough?

    New Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM (237) Pro's: see above / Con's: see above

    Thanks in advance for helping me solve this!!!!
    Last edited by stokedrich; 09-07-2010, 17:32.
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Zoom lens conundrum

    Is there one lens? Doubt it. To get the focal ranges you're looking at you're going to lose out on aperture speed. The 24-105's worst point is it's low light performance, so indoor moving kids will probably fail, if you're photographing birds you need longer than everything exept possibly the 70-200.

    With your budget, including the +/-£100 bit, you could do worse than the 70-200f/4 and a 50mm f/1.8. That gives you the option of adding a 1.4 converter when funds allow which pushes your 200 out to 280mm
    Canon EOS7D mkII+BG-E16, Canon EOS 7D+BG-E7, Canon EF-S 10-22 f/3.5-4.5, Tamron Di-II 17-50 f2.8, Canon EF 24-105 f/4L IS, Canon EF 70-200 f/4L, Sigma 30mm f1.4 DC HSM 'Art', Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, Sigma 1.4x DG, Canon Speedlight 430EX II (x2)

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      #3
      Re: Zoom lens conundrum

      Thanks Woolley - as I thought the Nirvana of one lens is not going to happen...I'll probably keep the 75-300 then which is no bad thing while I'm learning my wings (pardon the pun) and get something nice for the 'always on' or 'mostly on lens' which may well be the Canon EF-S 15-85mm unless you have any better suggestions? Thanks

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        #4
        Re: Zoom lens conundrum

        You might like to consider this: e-bay link and then a shorter zoom to go with it.
        Canon EOS7D mkII+BG-E16, Canon EOS 7D+BG-E7, Canon EF-S 10-22 f/3.5-4.5, Tamron Di-II 17-50 f2.8, Canon EF 24-105 f/4L IS, Canon EF 70-200 f/4L, Sigma 30mm f1.4 DC HSM 'Art', Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, Sigma 1.4x DG, Canon Speedlight 430EX II (x2)

        Comment

          #5
          Re: Zoom lens conundrum

          Have just bought the EF 100 f/2 USM ....... which is amazing in low light and cost £230 off Ebay for a mint example .............. buy one of those with a bit left over for ......what ever you need
          Cheers Mark


          www.ms-photo.co.uk

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            #6
            Re: Zoom lens conundrum

            I got a 135 f2L which is superb - but much more expensive
            ef-r

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              #7
              Re: Zoom lens conundrum

              Looking logically at your list, and with my limited experience of lenses:

              Much as I love my 24-105 ang it stays on my camera the majority of the time, the two uses you suggest are the things I'd probably use something else for. That also looks suspiciously cheap for a good 2nd hand copy, so unless you know the seller well (in which case it's too good to miss) I'd say avoid it.

              The 70-200 is a fantastic lens and will do a lot of what you're looking for, with restrictions. You're losing half of your reach compared with the 75-300 you're already using. Look at the photos you're taking at the moment, and if your wildlife snaps are mostly in the 200-300 range, are you gaining from this? To counter that, you'll probably get sharper pictures with faster focusing so you may get an image that you would otherwise have missed, and you can move a little further from the children to get some great shots. Doesn't help you indoors, of course. It's also a great all-rounder and you'll find yourself looking for subjects to use it on. Colour and sharpness are both satisfyingly good to a degree you can't really appreciate until you use it. So that's got to be a 'possibly'

              The others you list are variations on a theme and all comparitively slow at the longer end. You're really only deciding how much zoom you want, none of which is any use for your wildlife pictures. If you keep your exisiting telephoto zoom, perhaps consider something in the common 17-50 range but with a fast aperture:
              Tamron
              Sigma with Image Stabilisation

              Tamron also do an image stabilised version, but I'm not hearing good things about it.

              If you don't need the wider end - and I'm suspecting from your criteria you don't, this Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 is on the upper end of your budget and offers a useful range coupled with a fast aperture. It's comparatively heavy, but not compared with the Canon equivalent, and if the kids are misbehaving you can threaten them with it! I have no experience of it, though, so can't comment directly on the image quality it offers.
              Canon EOS7D mkII+BG-E16, Canon EOS 7D+BG-E7, Canon EF-S 10-22 f/3.5-4.5, Tamron Di-II 17-50 f2.8, Canon EF 24-105 f/4L IS, Canon EF 70-200 f/4L, Sigma 30mm f1.4 DC HSM 'Art', Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, Sigma 1.4x DG, Canon Speedlight 430EX II (x2)

              Comment

                #8
                Re: Zoom lens conundrum

                Hello Stokedrich

                Unfortunately there is no one lens solution. If there was, we would all be using it.

                Bearing that in mind, your current lenses are more than adequate, I would suggest that you keep the 18 - 55mm on the camera as standard (keeps wife happy) and you change to the 75 - 300mm when you need to.

                If you are desparate to spend some cash, get the 24 - 105mm as an addition to the other lenses. In time you will probably upgrade those as well. You will use the 24 - 105mm as your standard walkabout lens, the 18 - 55mm when you need something wider and the 75 - 300mm for sports and wildlife.

                The downsides to the 24 - 105mm is that it is expensive, a little heavy and as your first L series lens, you will be afflicted with L disease ............ for which there is no known cure! The good news is that it is a super quality lens and you will keep it for ever.

                Colin
                Colin

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                  #9
                  Re: Zoom lens conundrum

                  I bought and now use the 24-105 as my standard lens - I dont regard it for a second.

                  Brian
                  ef-r

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                    #10
                    Re: Zoom lens conundrum

                    There is a 24-105 up for sale in the classifieds for less than £600
                    ef-r

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                      #11
                      Re: Zoom lens conundrum

                      When I was using a 1.6x crop sensor I used the 24-105 as my walk-around lens as the extra sharpness and less CA which (for me) more than made up for the loss of wide-angle. I had a 17-85 and it wasn't good (the 15-85 does seem nice though). BUT for £400-600 I'd get (to do what you asked for):
                      (i) Canon EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS Lens as it's sharp and only £150
                      http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1114/cat/11

                      (ii) Canon EF 70-300mm f4-5.6 IS USM Lens £420
                      http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/253/cat/11

                      which is alas two lenses, for only one lens I'd be back with getting a 24-105 somehow. All IMHO of course...
                      John

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                        #12
                        Re: Zoom lens conundrum

                        I use the 24-105 as a walkabout lens on the 50d - perfect
                        ef-r

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Re: Zoom lens conundrum

                          24-105 for me too.
                          jhdee

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                            #14
                            Re: Zoom lens conundrum

                            I am starting to feel quite deprived ..................... I don't have a 24 - 105mm lens.

                            Colin
                            Colin

                            Comment

                              #15
                              Re: Zoom lens conundrum

                              Swap you mine for that 500mm of yours .......... deprived:tongue:
                              jhdee

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