Canon L Lenses

[Rookie Filmmaker]

I'm looking into getting my first Canon L Lens but I'm having trouble deciding which one to get. I own a canon 30d and mostly do live event photography such as concerts, clubs and weddings. I can only afford one up to $1300 right now and my choices are as follows:

Canon 24-70mm f2.8
Canon 16-35mm f2.8
Canon 24-104mm IS f4
Canon 17-40mm f4

I need help in comparing these against each other. Fstop is important but so is zoom range and IS. I like but the 24-70mm, but I don't like how heavy it is and it dosen't have IS. 24-104 is nice because of the zoom range and IS, but I'm concerned about the f4 not being enough.

Somebody please help!

 

[Jeremy Ordan]

IS is nice, but nothing compensates for a fast piece of glass. In the Nikon line my favorite lens is the 17-55 f/2.8. It is fast, super sharp, and butter smooth bokeh.

The Canon line differs slightly, so therefore I would say if you're mostly doing event then you want the most flexible glass out there. That being said I would go for the 24-70. I like this because it gives you the wide (24mm) although it's not that wide... while also giving you that nice telephoto almost portrait length around 70mm focal length. Of course you could find yourself wanting a little more reach, but I never underestimate the importance of wide sharp glass and with the low distortion of the 16-35 at the wide end, that is a solid piece of glass.

For zooms I think that you really need 2... I like my 17-55 and the 70-200. That gives me the full range of everything I need.

For just one, start in the middle.

 

[r.vanbeek]

Whatever you do, buy prime lenses whenever possible ! Zooms are great, but you'll be better off with primes because not only are they way faster, sharper and more saturated then zooms, you will have more benifits in low light conditions !

Some of my favorites:

Weddings: EF 85mm f/1.2 L USM
Concerts: EF 135mm f/2.0 L USM or the EF 200mm f/2.8L USM prime lens.
Clubs: Go wide on this one. Buy a good flash and a 17-40 or 16-35 zoom ( good wide angle primes are expensive and a zoom will do fine in these kind of situations when used with a flash and slow shutterspeeds )

Once you're used to primes, you will never look back, trust me ! Just be patient, save your money and buy those good L lensen without changing back and forth all the time with other lenses !

Take a look at FredMiranda.com for reviews of all Canon lenses !

Good luck !