Monday, November 9, 2009

New Lens November

I was asked to shoot one of Mushna's friends' wedding here in a few weeks. I was concerned with my lenses at the shorter/wider end so I went to Pictureline to look at options.

Part of me really wanted to go full steam ahead with the 24-70 f/2.8L, but I ended up settling for a couple of primes instead, the Canon 50 mm f/1.4 and the Canon 35 mm f/2. While the L glass would have been nice, I think these two lenses will do just fine, plus this combination was about $500-$600 cheaper than the 24-70.

I headed out for some test shots the other night. These are pretty much straight out of the camera, some sharpening applied in Adobe Camera Raw because I shoot in Raw.

The Canon 35 mm f/2:
Canon 35 mm f/2

Canon 35 mm f/2

Canon 35 mm f/2

Canon 35 mm f/2

Canon 35 mm f/2

The 50 mm f/1.4:

Canon 50 mm f/1.4

Canon 50 mm f/1.4

Canon 50 mm f/1.4

Canon 50 mm f/1.4

Canon 50 mm f/1.4

Canon 50 mm f/1.4

Pixel peeping, I find the 35 mm might be slightly sharper than the 50, but overall, both lenses seem to perform really well.

The 35 mm suffers from some chromatic aberration and softness at the edges, but it seems to be very slight on my cropped sensor body.

I'm happy with both purchases.

2 comments:

steve-o said...

Prime lenses are great. I wish I had more opportunities to use my Sigma 50mm--I like it a lot, and its speed opens up a lot of possibilities.

I'm considering the Canon 24mm L lens--I can get it at a discounted rate directly from Canon, so it's very tempting. Getting the wife on board, however, is a different story.

Display Name said...

It's funny because Mushna was 100% on board with buying the 24-70 f/2.8L. I almost did it, too, but I decided I'll hold off until I get some credit card debt paid down and stuff.

Plus, rumors have been circulating for a really long time about an upgrade to that lens. A lot of photographers are begging for an IS system in it. I'm kind of curious to wait a while just in case that happens, then see what the price is.

Part of me still wants to go prime all the way. I've been lusting after Canon's 135 mm f/2L for a long time, too.