Favourite Lenes

[discoveringtheforest]

All the DSLR Users share your favourite lenes?

Mines of which would have to be the Canon 24-105mm L F4 and 70-200mm L 2.8 none of which I own ( maybe some day ) but have been lucky enough to get a lend of and try out.

Currently using the 17-85mm USM canon F4-5.6 len which preforms pretty well.

 

[Cobweb]

The Nifty Fifty (Nikkor 50mm f1.8) & the Sigma 28-70mm f2.8 which is a great walk around lens
I'm on a Nikon system

 

[robin wood]

Canon 28mm f2.8 seems to live on mine, good low light ability reasonably wide and sharp, cheap and light too. I loved the 50mm which was even cheaper and lighter and better low light at f1.8 but it is plasticy and eventually fell apart, on the lookout for a 50mm 1.4. With DSLR and photoshop ease of cropping I hardly see the need for zooms.

 

[Cobweb]

If you are taking a lot of portraits, the background compression you get froma zoom is tasty

 

[discoveringtheforest]

the 70-200 f2.8 are great for portraits out doors in my opinon.

Id love to try out the 10-20mm sigma/canon

 

[Wayland]

I'm not sure I would use the term "favourite" because each lens has it's own function.

The lens I use most is a 17- 40mm f4 L on a full frame sensor so no magnification factor.

The next is the 70-200mm f2.8 IS L occasionally with a 2x extender.

 

[P@ul]

The lens I use most is my Pentax A 400mm f5.6 so I will list it as my favourite.

 

[robin wood]

I'm not sure I would use the term "favourite" because each lens has it's own function.

The lens I use most is a 17- 40mm f4 L on a full frame sensor so no magnification factor.

The next is the 70-200mm f2.8 IS L occasionally with a 2x extender.

"I hardly see the need for zooms." unless you can afford proper zooms that is. Rather a cheap prime than a cheap zoom but quality glass always shows.

 

[Wayland]

I largely agree with you.

I used prime lenses for most of my wet photography days and to anyone that said a zoom was more useful I replied "I have two feet of zoom in my boots".

Some of the modern L series zoom lenses are exceptional though. The MTF charts are so close to prime lenses in the same class, that even top grade sensors are hard pushed to register the difference.

Now the issue is how much I want to carry.

A range of primes covering the focal lengths I need would be heavier, bulkier and more costly than the set up I have now.

If I believed there was a significant quality issue it might be different, but in real life shooting, there just isn't.

My whole outfit, excepting the tripod, now fits into a Billingham Hadley and I can pack that into the top of my Bergen. That's literally half the size of my wet kit and delivering comparable results.

17mm super wide to 400mm telephoto in a go anywhere package, it takes some beating.

 

[discoveringtheforest]

Whats a good size prime lens for everyday use ? 30mm,50mm etc?

 

[Wayland]

Depends what you're taking pictures of and what size sensor you're working with.

 

[discoveringtheforest]

Landscape,cmos canon sensor 40d?

 

[robin wood]

For landscapes you generaly want a wide lens which is a problem with a cropped sensor. The 28mm is fairly cheap and good. the canon kit lens is very cheap goes to 18mm and is OK for holiday snaps. Wider than 28 and good gets very expensive.

 

[robin wood]

wopps double post sorry

I am no photographer but this is a typical snap out of the car window with the 28mm on a 300d which is the model before the model before the model before yours but the same crop factor.

 

[Wayland]

Whats a good size prime lens for everyday use ? 30mm,50mm etc?

Landscape,cmos canon sensor 40d?

Tricky, for a prime lens, ie. not a zoom, then a standard is usually considered to be the lens with the same focal length as the distance from corner to corner across the frame.

This makes the traditional 35mm SLR standard 43mm in fact but since a 50mm was easier to make that became the accepted standard.

From memory the 40D has a crop factor of 1.6 so a 27mm lens would be the true standard, 28mm being the closest to this in the current range.

Now as mentioned, a wide angle lens is often the preferred lens for landscape, although this is not universally true, it is for the majority of landscape workers, myself included.

As such you may find a wider lens such as the 24mm or the 20mm to be a better option.

If you were looking for a zoom in the wide range, something like the 10 - 22 could be worth a look.