Which would you choose?? 85mm or 100mm?

KimballPhotography

Currently for my portrait work I use my 28-135. I also have a 75-300 IS lens for my sports photography. I'm looking to add another lens to my collection for portraiture. I don't have a ton to spend and have narrowed my search down to either the Canon 85mm f/1.8 or the Canon 100mm f/2.8. I do a lot of beach photography as well as bridal shoots, outdoor weddings, maternity and newborn shots. I prefer to shoot outdoors with natural lighting but have been doing more indoor work...trying to use as much natural light as possible. Which of these two would work best for me? I like the fact that the 100mm is a macro lens. I dunno:dunno ....thoughts??
Thanks in advance,
Natalie Kimball

pathfinder

KimballPhotography wrote:

Currently for my portrait work I use my 28-135. I also have a 75-300 IS lens for my sports photography. I'm looking to add another lens to my collection for portraiture. I don't have a ton to spend and have narrowed my search down to either the Canon 85mm f/1.8 or the Canon 100mm f/2.8. I do a lot of beach photography as well as bridal shoots, outdoor weddings, maternity and newborn shots. I prefer to shoot outdoors with natural lighting but have been doing more indoor work...trying to use as much natural light as possible. Which of these two would work best for me? I like the fact that the 100mm is a macro lens. I dunno ....thoughts??
Thanks in advance,
Natalie Kimball

Natalie - have you considered the 50mm f1.4? With the 1.6 crop factor of the 20D, the 85 and 100mm lenses may be longer than you really need. I love 85mm lenses on full frame 35mm bodies, but find them a bit long for head and shoulders portraits on the 20D. 50mm x 1.6 = 80mm on a 20D
A Canon 50mm f1.8 can be had for abut $80 - so you can have a 50mm and sleep at night too.

A lens that lives on my 20D, is the Tamron 28-75f2.8 Di - small, sharp, inexpensive - I own a pair of Canon 85mms, a Canon 24-70 f2.8 L, and a 100 macro. But the Tamron is reserved for my 20D. The others go on my 1D.

XO-Studios

I would go for more light i.e. the 1.8.

Another thing to consider, and I run into this quite often, the way I setup my studio, I am about 20-26 feet away from my backdrop, and less than that from the model. I wish I could be further away, and have my model the nice 6 feet away from the backdrop, but alas, the backdrop is against one wall, and I am against the other. Now with that said, if I use my 50mm/1.8 nikkor, I need to be that 20-24 feet away to get her fully in there standing up. The one time I did the 6' model, I literary was pressed up against the wall using that 50mm on a D70. Pending your regular setup (studio length and all) this might be a consideration.

Also, and I know this is subjective, most lenses get the best results, one stop down, on the 85/1.8 one stop down would still give very nice DOF.

XO,

gtc

sigma 30mm
the sigma DC 30 mm/1.4 looks pretty good too if you want a bit more width for group shots -with crop factor it would be almost like a 50mm prime on your 20d and reasonably wide on your full frame and all at 1.4

ashby

This is one you might consider. Check the review on fredmiranda. You could kill two birds with one stone. And the Red Cross could gain, too.