canon 20D versus 5D

pathfinder

arroyoshark wrote:

Andy, you're experience and knowledge of Canon lenses seems pretty vast.

I am wondering, that if I "backended" into a 5d and then concentrated on glass, realizing that most L glass is off into the future....what non-L Canon glass would work reasonably well with the 5d?

I am more of a western landscape photagrapher, taking both wide scenes and closely cropped near scenes.

I realize that 'full frame' sensors will be most unkind to poor glass, but Canon must have a few good non-L lenses.

I am thinking of a wide prime of f1.8 -2.8, the 28-105 f3.5 zoom and perhaps a normal or normal tele lens of f1.9 - 2.0. Would these give satisfactory results with the 5d?

Hope this isn't too open-ended.

Hello arroyoshark. Howdy from advrider:):

How about a 50mm f1.4 and an 85mm f1.8 or the 100f2.8 macro. The 17-40 L is relatively inexpensive also. All of these are superb lenses.

Of maybe just one lens - the 24-105 f4 L IS . It is a great walk about lens, that is wide on a 5D, and long enough for head and shoulder portraits also. It is not that fst, but with IS you can capture landscapes easily with slightly longer exposures.
This was handheld at 1/15 sec with a 5D and the 24-105 L IS

Here is a actual pixel image crop of the center


Canon makes several 24mm, and 28 mm lenses in f2.8 that are inexpensive as well.

Andy

arroyoshark wrote:

Andy, ...

Hope this isn't too open-ended.

and thanks for asking

I really dig: the 50 f/1.4, 85 f/1.8, and the 17-40L. So, right there, for example, is three lenses (one of them L) for less than the price of just the 16-35L.

For your landscapes, the 17-40 is a great choice. Check out

www.starvingphotographer.com
www.solev.net

both guys use the 17-40 extensively.

gtc

wide primes
dont forget manual primes

some really good ones ,apart from expensive zeiss germany distagons(of course andy has one of these)

the contax-zeiss version (zeiss/yashica)

zeiss jena version (east german zeiss)

also the olympus -zuiko 21/3.5

arroyoshark

pathfinder wrote:

Hello arroyoshark. Howdy from advrider:):

How about a 50mm f1.4 and an 85mm f1.8 or the 100f2.8 macro. The 17-40 L is relatively inexpensive also. All of these are superb lenses.

Of maybe just one lens - the 24-105 f4 L IS . It is a great walk about lens, that is wide on a 5D, and long enough for head and shoulder portraits also. It is not that fst, but with IS you can capture landscapes easily with slightly longer exposures.
This was handheld at 1/15 sec with a 5D and the 24-105 L IS

Here is a actual pixel image crop of the center


Canon makes several 24mm, and 28 mm lenses in f2.8 that are inexpensive as well.

Bacatcha Pathfinder.... and nice photo. I also enjoy urban nite photography. That was my thinking with the prime lenses.

I had been busy price shopping either a Canon 350xt or a 20D when Canon sprang the 5D and now the 30D on us. Both these new cameras have appeal to me. I also like the new 24-105mm L lens. With my currrent fragile budget, if I pop for the 5d, which seems to offer superb detail capability for landscape, then I become $$ strapped for glass. I had read some ride reports on the 24-85mm, 28-105mm and 28-135 non L lenses and it seems the 28-105mm f3.5 is the better of the lenses. I was curious about whether it would hold good edge sharpness/focus on a 5D. It represents an affordable "kit" lens for me, I guess.

Or, in the alternative, with the projected cost of the new 30D, then yeah, maybe I could afford one L lens initially.

I don't tend to trade off cameras with the frequency of some here, so I am going through this mental judo.

Thanks for your comments.

arroyoshark

Andy wrote:

and thanks for asking

I really dig: the 50 f/1.4, 85 f/1.8, and the 17-40L. So, right there, for example, is three lenses (one of them L) for less than the price of just the 16-35L.

For your landscapes, the 17-40 is a great choice. Check out

www.starvingphotographer.com
www.solev.net

both guys use the 17-40 extensively.

Thanks for the response. Checked out the websites. These guys do some incredible work. Caught your drift on the 17-40. From what I can determine, the 17-40 is maybe 2.5 times the cost of the 28-105mm f3.5 non L and a bit more than 1/2 the cost of the new 24-105 IS.

pathfinder

Purchase a 20D or even a 350Xt and better glass, as opposed to a 5D and a cheaper zoom. You'll get better images with the better glass.

The 20D can make spectacular images - it is just not as WIDE as a full frame camera without a 10-22 or some such.