What to buy for a lens?

ksully

I had a question about lenses. I am a beginner, just did my first wedding. Currently all I have is the 28-135mm that came with my Canon 50D, but I am looking to invest in another lens. My business is weddings and portraits, but I also enjoy landscape and action shots. I'm not really sure how to best spend my money. I do not know if investing in a telephoto lens or a wide angle would be better at this point? Any suggestions for around $1,000. Is Canon worth the extra money? Thanks for any suggestions

Art Scott

Taking the fact that wedding and portraits are your business............then I would recommend 2 lenses 70-200 f2.8 and a 24 - 70 f2.8 or
another wide angle zoom with constant aperture..........the important thing is the constant aperture and then one of these lenses should have
a close up if not actual macro (1:1) capability for close up ring shots....................if money is tight then buy Sigma Lenses, I have been
using them for around 30 yrs and have not been disappointed ..................or you can go for top line canon gear.................
Another 2 lens to consider is the Sigma 17-70f2.8-4 or the 17-50f2.8 .......personally I have no use for anything 50mm it is just my bag.....
but the 17-50 keeps the constant aperture.......

Kevin CTMP

I agree with Art on his recommendations.....you are definitely going to want a wide aperture lens that will hold constant at full focal length...this is especially important being that many pastors will not let you use flash during a ceremony (and many churches are very dark). the 24-70 2.8 and the 70-200 2.8 are definitely my top choices....if your only going to get one, I would recommend the 70-200 2.8....it gives you a nice focal range from virtually anywhere in the church, and the images always come out great for me. As far as other shots, your 28-135 should suffice for most work, but it won't do much good in a dark church if you can't use flash. As far as sigma vs. canon. In my personal experience, sigma lenses are great, but the autofocus on them sometimes seems to be slightly slower than the canon, which isn't a huge deal, but during a fast paced wedding when you only have a second to get the shot, that could be all the difference ....so for portrait work sigmas seem to be just as good, but if your shooting weddings, i would spring for the canon

AlbertZeroK

I consistantly shoot with my Canon EF-s 17-55 f/2.8. But it seems I've left my Sigma 50mm f/1.4 on my other T2i since I got it. Although, sometimes sigma lenses need to be sent into Sigma for calibration when you get them. My 50mm and my new Bigma will go in in a few weeks. It's something that can be done under warrantee and I would recomend it for all sigma lenses after you get them.

ksully

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I have a Canon 70-200 2.8 IS on it's way (along with another 50D, my new backup) Looks like maybe a 24-70 will have to be my next investment.

rpcrowe

I sort of agree with ART SCOTT
i AGREE WITH art scott BUT, My only disagreement is that if I only had two lenses for a wedding shoot, BOTH would be mid range zooms with a constant f/2.8 aperture.

I believe in redundancy and don't believe that a photographer should ever attempt a wedding without back up gear. The wedding photographers mantra should be "Redundancy, redundancy and more redundancy!"

I am sure thare will be many of you who say that they have shot many weddings with a single camera, single lens and single flash with no problems. I was a Navy photographer for over 30 years and did a lot of flying. I never had to bail out but, cartainly would not have left the parachutes back at base when I was flying in an aircraft in which chutes were appropriate.

If you choose two mid-range zooms (ON TWO CAMERAS) and one of these zooms goes down, you can still do a creditable job shooting a wedding.

Heck, I shot MANY-MANY weddings for years with Rollei twin lens reflex cameras which had a single fixed, botmal angle lens of f/2.8 aperture. I did a very creditable job shooting the weddings without resorting to a telephoto lens - which I did not have until I switched to Hasselblad equipment.

On the other hand, if you opt to invest in only one miD-range zoom and a 70-200mm f/2.8L lens and your mid range zoom goes down, it would be extremely difficult to cover a wedding creditably with just the telephoto.

BTW: YOU ALSO NEED BACK UP FLASH... If you cannot afford back up equipment IMO YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO SHOOT WEDDINGS. "mY GEAR WENT DOWN!" IS NO EXCUSE FOR FAILURE ON THE PART OF A WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER.

digger2

Great Points
Buy some backup gear first, if you only have one body then 20 len's in your bag will not work if that goes down.
I too shot weddings using a 2 1/4 twin lens for years. If you want a bigger/closer in shot walk forward.

rpcrowe wrote: »

i AGREE WITH art scott BUT, My only disagreement is that if I only had two lenses for a wedding shoot, BOTH would be mid range zooms with a constant f/2.8 aperture.

I believe in redundancy and don't believe that a photographer should ever attempt a wedding without back up gear. The wedding photographers mantra should be "Redundancy, redundancy and more redundancy!"

I am sure thare will be many of you who say that they have shot many weddings with a single camera, single lens and single flash with no problems. I was a Navy photographer for over 30 years and did a lot of

Overfocused

I've done many events and most of the time the 70-200 stays on my camera throughout the whole event. Weddings are a bit different since a lot of things tend to get up close and personal. I'd want to start with the 24-70mm F2.8 for weddings solely on the fact that they want their pictures to be close and personal. Since you're getting the 70-200 first I might consider getting 35mm or 50mm prime for emergencies. Primes even at 100-200 dollars have excellent IQ.

Sglshotkw

I have to agree with others here on Lenses the 70-200 f2.8 and the 24-70 work great but remember your shooting a crop sensor camera and 24 is not real wide, if you can pick up something at least 17mm it will help with the larger group shots.

One more note about having backup equipment, I shot a wedding this last weekend with temps in the high 80's and humid, my wife not knowing placed one of my cameras under a bag to keep it out of the sun and it ended up fogging the sensor. Now it did come back after a short time but just think if that was your only camera, what would you do.

Good luck with your choices!