Indecision on some Canon stuff...

Harlequin565

Harlequin565

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Ian
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I have just had a very surprising "thankyou" from work to the tune of £300. With my birthday coming up and £200 set aside by my wife, I'm thinking "moar gear".

Just after opinions & thoughts on various lenses you own as I can't decide. £500 is the budget.

I shoot with a Canon 50D and own a 50mm f1.4, Sigma 10-20, a 24-105 f4 & the 70-200 2.8.

I am an all-rounder I guess with preferences for Landscape, Portrait & Street work.

So...

- A wide fast prime (20-35mm / 35-50mm on my body) for general purpose use. I like the weight of the primes and the fact I have to use my feet to frame.

- A mid-range wide zoom (Sigma 17-70 or Canon 17-40). I am planning to go full frame eventually (read on...) so the 10-20 will eventually be useless leaving me a wide-end gap.

- A ringflash for fun. Bung the change in the "full frame fund". I love the catchlights I've seen with this type of flash.

- Finally, I have a Canon EOS film camera and I love the full frame feel. The last option is for me to trade in the 50D for a 5D (mark 1) and spend the change on a 1.4 (mkii) extender. However I have no clue about what degradation I'll notice in terms of low light performance, AF & image quality (I print up to A3).

So if anyone has experience of wide(ish) primes/zooms, and or going from a 50D down to a 5di, or that tasty ringflash toy, I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks!

Ian.
 
to be honest you are well covered with your lens line up
10-200 with a 4mm gap. (is there any need for the 17-XX range now) when i moved form th 50D to the 5DII i sold my canon 10-22 and bought a 17-40 straight away. (it was the only efs lens i had)
Primes you have a decent one at 50mm. anything else in my books is a bit specialised in its use. I agree though with menthel that the 30mm on your 50D would be nice, giving you a FOV roughly to that of the 50mm on FF.

I have the Orbis ringflash and bracket and love its quality (construction & capability). Assuming by your list you dont have a flashgun (you would need one for the orbis) maybe thats an option for party of those funds.

Just a thought here as well. if you have £500 and the 50D that means you are a few Hundred quid of a 2nd hand 5DII & with trading in your sigma 10-20 you can easily get a 17-40 too!
 
If staying with APS-C...

Siggy 30mm f1.4 (a "standard" fast prime) and Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 (you don't have a fast standard zoom.)

They're both well suited to your 50D but they're small sensor lenses. However, until you decide to go full frame it's a sometime / maybe question and you can always sell small sensor lenses if and when you do decide to go full frame.

If you go full frame I'd ditch the 24-105mm and get a 24/28-70mm f2.8 and possibly a 85mm f1.4.

Or... you don't seem to have a macro lens... Siggy 150mm f2.8? Or a macro around the 100mm range?

Or... you could get a smaller camera, MFT or something like a LX5?

Choices, choices.
 
You don't list a tripod.....
Dead handy for Landscapes and with your budget you can get a good-un that will last you a lifetime.
While you are at it - chuck in a set of filters (grads, ND and polariser).

1.4x Extender is a very handy thing to have in the bag. I've got the MkII and the drop in image quality used with my 5DII and 70-200 f4 IS L is absolutely negligible even when pixel peeping.
 
Thanks for all the replies!

I don't think I can stretch to a 5d2, so it'll have to be a 5d if I go full frame.

I have a 430EXII & a Manfrotto 190Pro tripod with head, so that's covered. I borrowed some ND Grads (Lee) and didn't get on with the line they left on the image - especially when you start to double them up. If I'm tripodding, I'll take enough exposures to HDR the scene.

2 votes for the Sigma 30mm f1.4 which I was thinking about anyway. Beginning to lean...

I did consider a macro lens, but I have some Kenko extension tubes and I got bored pretty quickly working with macro subjects. People say they make great portrait lenses, but I'd rather plumb for an 85mm f1.8 for the wider aperture.

Thanks again for all the replies. Just hearing opinion is really useful. Especially on things I hadn't thought about like a small P&S.

Cheers.

Ian.
 
The Canon 85mm f1.8 has a fine reputation and is on my "when I have the money for it" list!
 
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