> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Nick Taylor > Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2002 2:32 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: EOS Lens questions + What I have & shoot > > > What I presently have in order of usage: > 28-135 f/3.5-5.6 IS - 50% > 20-35 f/3.5-4.5 - 20% > 100-300 f/5.6 - 20% > 50 f/1.8 - 10% > 28 f/2.8 - very litle any more > What I generally shoot: > city street & people - mostly B&W > high school sports - indoor and outdoor - color film > old rural buildings - mostly B&W > tourist type snapshots >
Hi Nick, Much as I like zooms there is no substitute for primes for street shooting. I like the lens speed and smaller size of primes. I'm surprised that you don't use your EF 50 1.8 more on the street. Hmmm, if you like your 28-135 and do a lot of street shooting you're probably are using it at 135mm a lot, frequently in the middle like 70-85mm and sometimes the short end is not wide enough and it's never fast enough and even used wide-open and fuzzy produces little background blur. You already have the reasonably fast EF 50 1.8 so I suggest an EF 135mm 2L and EF 85 1.8USM. With the EF 50 1.8, EF 85 1.8 and EF 135 2L you'll have fast lenses that can be used on the street for almost any subject except where you'll need a wide angle to include groups of people and or buildings and features you find on the street. The weakness here is the 20-35 3.5-4.5USM, while fairly sharp it's SLOW for low light use on the street. On the short end the EF 17-35 2.8L is a fine lens, not the sharpest tool in the shed but it's mostly fast enough and gloriously wide! Also IMO a wide angle zoom is more useful than having a bag full of wide primes because you often must zoom to get the framing to work well on the street. I'm a transparency shooter so I need to compose on the shoot, not in the lab. So let's sell off the, EF 20-35 3.5-4.5USM and EF 28 2.8, wait you ask what about the EF 28-135 IS? Keep reading. Ahh, youth sports! Dark indoor gyms and outdoor fields with lots of ugly backgrounds! Long lenses are the way to go and the faster the better! OK, OK an EF 200 1.8L or EF 300 2.8L is not for everybody but for indoor gyms the EF 135 2L is great courtside and with your EF 1.4X down court shots will be framed well also. This lens is plenty fast at f/2 to shoot available light at most indoor gyms with moderately fast films. If shooting under the hoop the EF 17-35 2.8L is very handy and can get 2-3 players in under the hoop shooting. For shots with two or three players involved in the action the EF 85 1.8USM is perfect cross court and down court. For outdoor field sport shots the EF 300 4L IS is a good choice for many sports and if you need some reach, combine the 300mm with the EF 1.4X for a 420mm f/5.6 lens, it's hard to beat this flexibility for the price of a converter. I've seen mint condition EF 300 4L IS lenses with the box go for $800. So sell that old EF 100-300 5.6 and don't look back, the difference in image quality will be nil but the MUCH better AF performance and 1 stop speed advantage combined with IS technology will make your day and images WAY better. For old buildings and rural shooting the 17-35 2.8L and EF 50 1.8 are pretty useful unless you cannot get up close to them. Then a longer lens like the EF 135 2L can be useful. For general purpose or casual shooting and doing the tourist thing the EF 28-135IS is a good on lens does all OK type solution. This is what I'd keep it for. The only other Canon lens of similar quality is the EF 28-105 3.5-4.5USM. The EF 28-105 3.5-4.5USM is a little bit faster but lacks the reach of the EF 28-135IS with IS being a moot point as it's slower and needs the IS to be usable. For all of you long time list readers, I bet you never thought you'd see me pick these lenses did you? With these well defined subjects that need fast lenses, prime lenses are cheaper and still fast enough to get excellent images. The EF 135 2L and EF 300 4L used with the EF 1.4x give maximum flexibility to this lens system with virtually no impact on image quality. So here we are: 420mm 5.6 (EF 300 4L IS/EF 1.4X), outdoor sports, large animals, nature EF 300 4L IS, outdoor field sports, EF 1.4X to 420mm@f/5.6 189 2.8 (EF 135 2L/EF 1.4x), indoor/outdoor sports, general 200mm use EF 135 2L, outdoor/indoor sports, street shots, tight portraits, EF 1.4x to 189@f/2.8 EF 85 1.8USM, indoor sports, street shooting, portraits, small group portraits EF 50 1.8, indoor candid, street shots, scenic, rural architecture EF 17-35 2.8L, indoor sports, street shots, scenic, rural architecture EF 28-135 3.5-5.6 IS, casual shots, tourist shooting EF 1.4x converter Hope this helps! Regards, Chip Louie * **** ******* *********************************************************** * For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see: * http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm ***********************************************************
