Would you?

[Gary Kinghorn]

Hi there.

As is always the case when I haven't bought something in a while I'm thinking about equipment. On this occasion I'm looking around the shorter end of the scale.

Camera wise I have a 5d Mk2 and a 1d mk3, so lenses need to be full frame compatible.

I have a 24-70 F2.8 which as everyone knows is really rather lovely and a 50mm 1.4 that I like a lot.

The thing is I have a couple of odds and ends coming up where something quite wide would be nice. For example I'm off to shoot in Winchester cathedral on Friday, I have a landscape day coming up and I do the odd wedding here and there. Now the 24-70 is a really nice lens, but I'm wondering if a 28 or 30mm might fit quite nicely in my bag.

And now - after all that rambling - to the question. What kind of results would I get with a fast 28/30mm prime when shot at 2.8 when compared to my 24-70 at the same focal length? My head tells me that the L glass will be every bit as good as a cheaper prime, but knowing how good my Sigma 50mm 1.4 is I wonder if my results might be better with a prime. And of course if I buy a fast one I can stop it down too.

Budget is around £250 second hand, so not L glass this time.

Thoughts?

 

[woof woof]

What kind of results would I get with a fast 28/30mm prime when shot at 2.8 when compared to my 24-70 at the same focal length? My head tells me that the L glass will be every bit as good as a cheaper prime, but knowing how good my Sigma 50mm 1.4 is I wonder if my results might be better with a prime. And of course if I buy a fast one I can stop it down too.

I like primes myself and find do it all "standard" zooms a little unsexy, bulky too, and AFAIK these zooms aren't exactly known for being distortion free at the wide end so you could probably improve on that if going for a f1.4/1.8 wide prime.

Other than that, if you have G.A.S. and are mostly happy with your gear why not go for something... different? A nice compact? (if you can do it in budget) used / new MFT+pancake? LX7?