Some help with my lenses

[gman]

Some advice here would be appreciated, here's the lenses I currently have for my Canon:

Sigma 20mm Prime F1.8
Canon Kit Lens 18-55mm F3.5-5.6
Tamron 70-300mm F4-5.6 with Macro
Canon 50mm Prime F1.8


I want to keep the 50mm prime for portrait work and the Tamron for the telephoto range.

The Canon Kit Lens I use for landscapes as it goes 18mm wide and the Sigma I use for indoor shots as it's a nice fast lens.

I'm considering selling the Canon Kit Lens and the Sigma in favour of the Canon EF-S 18-55 mm f3.5/5.6 II IS as I'll still have the wide for landscape but wondering if the IS will be enough to make it match the Sigma's speed for indoor work? (where space is tight and the Canon 50mm prime is too long).

The only thing niggling me is the loss of creativity with being able to go to F2.8 and faster with the Sigma. Does anyone know if the Canon EF-S 18-55 mm f3.5/5.6 II IS is any good or have any other advice? Trying to cut down on the amount of lens changing.

Edit: also considering the CANON EF 16-35MM F/2.8L USM, don't mind losing the 35-55mm part to get the speed.

 

[Steep]

IS is only of use if you are handholding the camera, you can't use it when the camera is mounted on anything like a tripod. Not sure what kind of indoor work you are doing mind you.

 

[gman]

Baby and toddler photography, not posed so they are moving and sometimes quite fast! It would be handheld. Do you know if the quality of the lens is ok? I'm worried it's just a glorified kit lens.

 

[EOS_JD]

If you have a moving subject you can almost forget IS with slow shutter speeds. At 1/30th or slower (which you may find indoors) the subject movement will be blurred. IS does not help freeze subject motion - only camera shake.

Slow lenses (like the 18-55) are not great when using them in low light. With small apertures like f5.6 you will probably have pretty slow shutter speeds.

What camera do you have?

If you have a 1.6x crop camera then I'd say if you need a zoom, you would be far better with something like the Canon 17.55 f2.8 IS (or the cheaper Tamron 17-50 f2.8). Both have 2 stops faster shutter speeds at 50mm than the 18-55IS you are looking at. Sure IS helps for certain shots like handheld landscapes at slow shutter speeds but portrait work needs fast lenses.

The 50mm f1.8 is certainly a decent portrait lens and the 18-55 indoors would not be a good choice at all. The 16-35 is fine if you have a FF camera but is an expensive wide angle lens.

Perhaps a Sigma 35mm f1.4 would also be a good choice. Wider than the 50 and faster than any zoom.

 

[gman]

Thanks for the advice, it's an EOS400 and I think decision is now made to keep what I've got or go for a fast zoom. The crop factor is a bit of a bugger as most the stuff I shoot is wide. Cheers again, good points made

 

[condyk]

You could look at the Sigma 30mm 1.4 which is an awesome lens if you get a good copy or even a Canon 24mm 2.8 or 28mm 1.8. You really need a good shutter speed to capture motion but without pumping up the ISO too much and introducing noise, so a faster lens is way better. You could also try a Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 as that will give decent quality, zoom flexibility and is reasonably fast unless light is starting to get a tad dim.

 

[EOS_JD]

Thanks for the advice, it's an EOS400 and I think decision is now made to keep what I've got or go for a fast zoom. The crop factor is a bit of a bugger as most the stuff I shoot is wide. Cheers again, good points made

If you like to shoot wide, the 10-22 f3.5-4.5 is a great lens but it's not particularly useful for portrait work. - Great for landscapes though.

From your existing lens line up, I'd look to replace your two slow zoom lenses (when you can).

First, replace the 18-55 with a 17-55 f2.8 IS or another lens in that range with a fast constant f2.8 aperture.

Next look at that slow telephoto zoom. With long lenses, fast shutter speeds are even more important so slow lenses suffer a lot more with issues like camera shake. A 70-200 f4L IS would be a fantastic choice although I appreciate it's not the cheapest!

And if you need a decent wide angle then as I noted above the 10-22 is an excellent choice.

 

[EOS_JD]

You could look at the Sigma 30mm 1.4 which is an awesome lens if you get a good copy or even a Canon 24mm 2.8 or 28mm 1.8. You really need a good shutter speed to capture motion but without pumping up the ISO too much and introducing noise, so a faster lens is way better. You could also try a Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 as that will give decent quality, zoom flexibility and is reasonably fast unless light is starting to get a tad dim.

If you need a fast prime, I agree that the 30 f1.4 would be a great choice.