Another lens for 60d

[Steve Bleasdale]

So morning wedding prep and my flycam nano useing the 11-16 tokina... In and around church, reception, tamron 17-50mm, i seem to be covering everything, apart from long distance and the lower light first dance, I have canon 50mm 1.8 which is ok but not wide enough and can use the other two lens but feel around a 1.4 lens would give me less iso and better quality!! funds are low so could anyone advise me on what else i would need, in my mind!! 24mm 1.8 canon, 28mm 1.8 canon, sigma 30 mm 1.4, and something around 85mm 1.8, any advise welcome to add another lens to give me everything covered, also what do people think about zooms vs primes, it is a lot easier with zooms and weddings not a lot of time to keep changing prime lens, unless of course you have three 60ds running. steve

[Chris Westerstrom]

I have the Tamron that you have and the canon 70-200 which takes really nice portrait shots IMO

Primes I am looking at are the Sigma 30, I know the Canon 28 has better reviews, but isn't it made for a full size sensor? So even if the FOV is similar, it would have distortion more along the lines of a wide lens where as the Sigma has a normal distortion at that FOV ( I could be wrong)

A macro or something you can focus at short distances could be great for presents, rings, flowers, food and so on as well and they aren't that spensive

[Ollie Walton]

28mm canon is great a long with Sigma 1.4 great lens too.

28-70 a very nice L glass too.

How wide do you want to go.

Jupiter have a 16mm lens, (manual) quite cheap and good reviews :)

Thanks

[Steve Bleasdale]

As i say the 11-16 great for the day, but late on prime on....i suppose 24mm 28mm good enough, would that jupiter be a distorted fisheye or no distortion? steve

[Spiros Zaharakis]

The Canon 28 f1.8 does not have better reviews than the Sigma 30 f1.4 which is an amazing lens but still not wide enough.
Sigma also has 20 f1.8 and 24 f1.8. I wouldn't buy either one for stills but for video they are realy fine.
For a cropped body the 20mm is ideal (equivalent to 32mm).
The Jupiter is a fisheye lens so it will have some distortion but for the money it is a very good choice. It is only f2.8 though. Since you already have the Tokina 11-16 there is no point on getting that one too.
For an 85 lens I suggest the Samyang 85 f1.4. it is manual focus only so it's not ideal for stills but for video it is a better choice over the Canon 85 f1.8 which is also a geat lens BTW.

[John Wiley]

I'm think I might head down the path of the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 - I've read great stuff about it. It's certainly the most economical option for super-fast normal FOV lenses on APS-C. Of course adding light is always an option too if it's mainly just for the dance.

As for longer lenses, I'm of the opinion that every DSLR owner (whether for stills or video) should own a 70-200 f/2.8 of some flavour. They will give you excellent portraits, close-ups, long-distance full body shots and tight detail shots, and most of them offer almost-macro capabilities - maybe just good enough to stop you buying a dedicated macro lens. In addition to that, they are all rock-solid and will last through years of abuse, as well as holding thier resale value fairly well.

With excellent 3rd party versions available from Sigma and Tamron at around the $900 mark, it's hard to discount them based on price - I've not shot a single thing on my 550D in which I did not use my Tamron 70-200 for several shots.

[Mark Von Lanken]

It is a lot easier to shoot with zooms, but most zooms are limited to f/2.8. In low light, primes in the 1.4-1.8 range are much brighter.

A great lens to get closeups of the first dance, parent dances, toasts, whatever, in low light is an 85mm 1.4. I have used the Rokinon 85mm 1.4 and it's only about $250. It has a manual aperture ring and you can get it in an EOS mount. It's basically the same lens that Spiros recommened under the Samyang brand. Another option is getting a vintage manual foucus Nikon 85mm 1.8 or 2.0. You may be able to find one even cheaper than the Rokinon/Samyang, but if you want a Nikon 85mm 1.4, be prepared to spend some money.

I have tried shooting closeups of the first dance with a 50mm on a crop camera, but I do not go out onto the dance floor, and most of our dance floors are too big to get nice close shots with a 50mm on a crop camera. One big adjustment when going from a 50mm 1.4 to an 85mm 1.4 is that your DoF is much smaller, which is good and bad. Makes great shots, when you can keep it in focus.

I also have a couple of Sigmas 20mm 1.8s. It may not be the best bang for you buck since you already have that range covered with your Sigma 17-50, but I find that in dark reception, 2.8 does not cut it, but 1.8 will. New the Sigma 20 is about $650, but you can occasionally find them on ebay for $350-400.

[Chris Westerstrom]

Originally Posted by Spiros Zaharakis

The Canon 28 f1.8 does not have better reviews than the Sigma 30 f1.4 which is an amazing lens but still not wide enough.
Sigma also has 20 f1.8 and 24 f1.8. I wouldn't buy either one for stills but for video they are realy fine.
For a cropped body the 20mm is ideal (equivalent to 32mm).
The Jupiter is a fisheye lens so it will have some distortion but for the money it is a very good choice. It is only f2.8 though. Since you already have the Tokina 11-16 there is no point on getting that one too.
For an 85 lens I suggest the Samyang 85 f1.4. it is manual focus only so it's not ideal for stills but for video it is a better choice over the Canon 85 f1.8 which is also a geat lens BTW.

I think a normal lens is the most important one in the kit and that sits around 30mm or so.
Wide is fine, but it distortion becomes noticeable
with a normal lens, you can back up for wides, scoot in for mediums and get close for CU's all with a single lens.
I start almost all my shooting based around a normal lens first (depending on narrative of course)

[Steve Bleasdale]

Thanks fellas plenty to take in!! Agree with Mark for my lower light situation, i do need something wider than the 50mm 1.8 and better than the tamron 2.8 and tokina 2.8 so i will look at all advice, but do you think the sigma 20mm 1.8 vs the sigma 30mm 1.4 are these two better than a 24/28mm canon 1.8?? or should i just save me money and work with the 50mm 1.8 and just move??? steve

[Spiros Zaharakis]

It is a matter of taste.
For lenses with a max aperture of f2 and lower you have the following options:

If you want the normal FOV you need something around 30mm (48mm equivalent) and your options are, the Sigma 30mm f1.4, the Sigma 28 f1.8, the Canon 28f 1.8, Canon 35 f2, the Canon 35 f1.4 and of course the Samyang 35 f1.4, and the expensive Zeiss offerings at 28 and 35mm plus a couple more options on older MF lenses (like the Olympus 35mm f2).


If you need something a little bit wider than that, the Canon 24 f1.4, Sigma 24 f1.8 and a few older MF f2 lenses are available (38mm equivalent).

For something even wider you also have the option of the Sigma 20 f1.8 (32mm equivalent)

My choise would be the Sigma 20 f1.8 or one of the 24mm lenses. Since you already have a 50mm I find the difference between the 50 and a 30-35mm lens to be too small.
When I shoot stills I like to have primes in approximately double focal length increments, i.e. 24mm, 50mm, 100mm or 35, 85, 135, or 20, 35, 85 depending on what I want to shoot.

[Steve Bleasdale]

Thanks Spiros, good advise but im worried what chris has said about the distortion on the wider lenses??? and also because i do stills now and again i want a lens that would do for both alas at the moment mainly for video, so would the 20mm distort? is the 24mm better then? or should i go for the 28mm 1.8? what would that give me on the sensor ive got (42) equivilent? pretty confusing hey,
recap what i have 11-16 tokina 2.8,,zoom, canon 50mm 1.8,,,prime 17-50mm tamron,,2.8,zoom,,,

tying this down to sigma 30mm 1.4, is this far better in low light than the 1.8s?? or is this just not wide enough for reception and dance.
canon 28mm 1.8
sigma/canon 24mm 1.8
sigma 20mm 1.8
Thanks

[Spiros Zaharakis]

The older f1.8 Sigma lenses (20mm, 24mm, 28mm) are fine for video use but wouldn't be my choice for stills. Sluggish AF and not so great sharpness can be forgiven on video but on stills not.
The 30mm f1.4 is in a completely different level but the FOV is that of a normal lens. That will be fine if normal FOV is what you want.
Canon does NOT have a 24mm f1.8 lens.
Canon has a low cost 28mm f1.8 (the Sigma 30 f1.4 is a better choice IMHO) and a very expensive but otherwise excelent 24 f1.4.
I personaly don't mind the wide angle distortion because it only shows when you go REALLY close to your subject.
The best compromise would be a 24mm lens but really if you want a 24mm that does both stills & video well your only option is the $1700 Canon 24 f1.4

[Steve Bleasdale]

Thanks spiros i think its between the 24 mm sigma 1.8 and the 30mm 1.4, cheers pal thanks

[Jef Gibbons]

Hey Steve,
I rented a Canon 24mm 1.4 L lens this last weekend, and did some comparisons with the 30mm Sigma 1.4 The Canon's AF is way better for stills, and the image quality is better, but I didn't see enough of a difference to make me want to drop the cash for it (as it would be my first L lens). Many of my stills were very exciting, but for video, the differences were even less noticeable. I do feel the the 24mm on the cropped sensor is a better focal length, 30mm seems a bit too zoomed in a lot of the time.

One last thing, I have done some extensive front focussing tests with the Sigma, and mine has a bit of this problem, so I focus on the eyes and the nose is in focus... that kind of thing. With video I use manual focus so it's not an issue... just check your lens with this chart before you take it home!

Nikon D70 Focus Chart

[Steve Bleasdale]

Thanks Jef sweet