Considering the Canon 5D, but new to Canon lenses...(long)

.... so i'd like some advice where to go. Here's a little background:

I like to shoot with fixed focal length lenses. My ideal two lens kit would
be a 35mm and 85mm, both fast and sharp. Three lenses, i'd stretch to a
28/50/105 combo. I consider a standard (35/50) and a telephoto (85/105) more
important to me than an ultrawide. I like shallow DOF and good bokeh. I like
the idea that Canon's system is so adaptable, and I like the idea of putting
Nikon/Leica/Zeiss lenses on the 5D, but would like to consider Canon's
lenses simply for having max aperture viewing before playing around with
adapters in the future. I plan adapting my manual Tamron 90mm to the 5D
anyway. My planned uses are portraiture, still life, with the possibility of
landscape in the future (i'm growing addicted to mountains). I have a three
lens Hasselblad outfit and have no plans selling it, and a Nikon FM3a i'll
keep for kicks.

So, i'm looking at Canon's FFL lenses in the 28-100mm range. My total budget
(camera, lenses, CF card and spare battery) would be around £4000, and my
manager will be arranging a suitably reasonable staff discount on such a
large purchase. Unless I can find a sufficiently good deal, I will be buying
new- in the UK at least, Canon's lenses fetch a premium price used. Unless I
can find a good reason, I will be spending a more realistic amount of
£3000-3500 total. Assuming a street price on the 5D of £2000, that's about
£900-1400 to spend on lenses.

I'm looking for any experiences, or recommendations that users can make. I
would prefer to steer clear of zooms for the moment, as i'm considering
something cheap (like a Tamron 28-75 f2.8) further down the line.

Thanks in advance (those of you who read this far down, congratulations on
not getting bored!)

Martin

"Martin Francis" wrote in message
...
... so i'd like some advice where to go. Here's a little background:

I like to shoot with fixed focal length lenses. My ideal two lens kit
would be a 35mm and 85mm, both fast and sharp. Three lenses, i'd stretch
to a 28/50/105 combo. I consider a standard (35/50) and a telephoto
(85/105) more important to me than an ultrawide. I like shallow DOF and
good bokeh. I like the idea that Canon's system is so adaptable, and I
like the idea of putting Nikon/Leica/Zeiss lenses on the 5D, but would
like to consider Canon's lenses simply for having max aperture viewing
before playing around with adapters in the future. I plan adapting my
manual Tamron 90mm to the 5D anyway. My planned uses are portraiture,
still life, with the possibility of landscape in the future (i'm growing
addicted to mountains). I have a three lens Hasselblad outfit and have no
plans selling it, and a Nikon FM3a i'll keep for kicks.

So, i'm looking at Canon's FFL lenses in the 28-100mm range. My total
budget (camera, lenses, CF card and spare battery) would be around £4000,
and my manager will be arranging a suitably reasonable staff discount on
such a large purchase. Unless I can find a sufficiently good deal, I will
be buying new- in the UK at least, Canon's lenses fetch a premium price
used. Unless I can find a good reason, I will be spending a more realistic
amount of £3000-3500 total. Assuming a street price on the 5D of £2000,
that's about £900-1400 to spend on lenses.

I'm looking for any experiences, or recommendations that users can make. I
would prefer to steer clear of zooms for the moment, as i'm considering
something cheap (like a Tamron 28-75 f2.8) further down the line.

Thanks in advance (those of you who read this far down, congratulations on
not getting bored!)

Martin

Many like the 85mm f1.8, but I'm a fan of the 100mm f2, both are sharp, and
have good OOF characteristics. Another option, but one with which I'm not
personally familiar, is the 85mm f1.2, but that might push out of your
budget ($1450US). As far as a "normal" lens, the 50mm f1.8 is cheap, and
good, but cheap in all senses of the word, all plastic construction, no USM,
even a plastic lens mount. But under $75US. Then there's the 50mm f1.4,
better all around, but roughly 4x as expensive. Both are faster than
Canon's 35mm f2, but there is the 35mm f1.4L but it's over $1000US.

--
Skip Middleton
http://www.shadowcatcherimagery.com

In article , Martin Francis
writes
... so i'd like some advice where to go. Here's a little background:

I like to shoot with fixed focal length lenses. My ideal two lens kit would
be a 35mm and 85mm, both fast and sharp. Three lenses, i'd stretch to a
28/50/105 combo. I consider a standard (35/50) and a telephoto (85/105) more
important to me than an ultrawide. I like shallow DOF and good bokeh. I like
the idea that Canon's system is so adaptable, and I like the idea of putting
Nikon/Leica/Zeiss lenses on the 5D, but would like to consider Canon's
lenses simply for having max aperture viewing before playing around with
adapters in the future. I plan adapting my manual Tamron 90mm to the 5D
anyway. My planned uses are portraiture, still life, with the possibility of
landscape in the future (i'm growing addicted to mountains). I have a three
lens Hasselblad outfit and have no plans selling it, and a Nikon FM3a i'll
keep for kicks.

So, i'm looking at Canon's FFL lenses in the 28-100mm range. My total budget
(camera, lenses, CF card and spare battery) would be around £4000, and my
manager will be arranging a suitably reasonable staff discount on such a
large purchase. Unless I can find a sufficiently good deal, I will be buying
new- in the UK at least, Canon's lenses fetch a premium price used. Unless I
can find a good reason, I will be spending a more realistic amount of
£3000-3500 total. Assuming a street price on the 5D of £2000, that's about
£900-1400 to spend on lenses.

I'm looking for any experiences, or recommendations that users can make. I
would prefer to steer clear of zooms for the moment, as i'm considering
something cheap (like a Tamron 28-75 f2.8) further down the line.

Thanks in advance (those of you who read this far down, congratulations on
not getting bored!)

Martin

Hi Martin

It's a personal choice thing, but I think you are planning a budget that
has too much camera and not enough lens. BTW, the indicated RRP of the
5D is, IIRC, about £2,600, and I would be pleasantly surprised if the
street price reaches £2,000 any time soon. FWIW, here are my own
personal choices, though they would break your budget.

35mm f/1.4L USM - a superb lens, and the one I would choose for any
hand-held interior use - I have used it with success in the British
Museum and similar places enlightened enough to allow photography.

50mm f/1.4 USM - what can I say that has not been said many times by
others? I bought this in preference to the f/1.8 as I have an aversion
to cheaply constructed lenses; having said this, I bought an f/1.8 for
my daughter and, in normal use, it is hard to tell the difference in the
results. Unusually, I bought both second hand (on e-bay) but both are
indistinguishable from new.

85mm f/1.8 USM - a fine portrait lens. I don't use it a lot, as I don't
do much portrait work, but if I did it would be a favourite. For what I
do most of, the next lens is more useful.

100mm f/2.8 macro. Superb. I have the pre-USM version, but I have not
heard much to suggest the old lens is noticeably inferior. For macro
work, of course, the AF is fairly useless anyway.

And, saving the best for last - 24mm f/3.5L TS-E. Could be my desert
island lens, except that a desert island is probably the kind of place
where it would be least useful. One of my main interests is taking
pictures of buildings, exteriors and interiors, and at this it excels.
With practice, it can be used hand held in good light. For church
interiors, I quite often use it on the floor, where the upward shift
conveniently removes all or most of the floor from the image. When I
bought it, my main camera was an EOS 1n, on which it is near-perfect. It
works well on my 10D, though the restricted FoV is less than ideal, so I
look forward to being able to use it on a full frame digital.

I also have a 45mm f/2.8 TS-E. This gets a lot less use; it would be
excellent for studio still-life work, but I don't at present do a lot of
this.

If I had to choose, say, 2 of these, then for what I do it would be the
24 TS-E and the 100mm macro. Your needs may, of course, be different
from mine.

If you would like to see some sample images from any of these lenses,
e-mail me at: david at dlittlewood dot co dot uk

David
--
David Littlewood

In message ,
David Littlewood wrote:

35mm f/1.4L USM - a superb lens, and the one I would choose for any
hand-held interior use - I have used it with success in the British
Museum and similar places enlightened enough to allow photography.

Is it dark there, or also very warm in color temperature?

I've noticed that when shooting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
NYC, that when I try to white-balance in a RAW converter, the
temperature is too warm to be properly corrected. I think that they may
run bulbs in series, and put 6 in the place of 5 or something, or have a
special power supply that under-powers the bulbs to get this very warm
color. Or it might be special bulbs, but the shadows are basically shot
because they have no useable blue.
--


John P Sheehy