List of great EOS lenses

Hey guys, to be honest, have a budget for lenses put aside, then be shrewd about your purchases and do as much research as you can.

Also be prepared to buy and sell lenses. At the start it can really be useful to have a cheap zoom to get you going, this way you can see how dof changes at different focal lengths and different apertures.

At some stage make the switch to primes. It is a beautiful thing to be free from a zoom and locked to just one focal length. It forces you to shoot in a different way.

Learn to shoot at 50mm first, then learn at 35mm and at 24mm. Finally learn to shoot at 85mm. Then when you go back to shooting on a zoom you will have renewed perspective.

Of course to achieve all of that you must be prepared to buy and sell lenses which brings me back to my first point. Have a budget and be prepared to buy and sell.
 
Two things worth mentioning here:

(1) Most local camera shops rent lenses for VERY little compared to the cost of buying them. It's worth making a trip to play with those lenses and understand how they feel, how they operate, etc. This WILL save you a lot of money.

(2) With the 7D/t2i, given the sensor size, I always recommend to people to get a 30mm lens as with APS-C this is the closest to the FOV of our eyes (which equates to 50mm on a 35mm sensor). Further, the Sigma 30mm F1.4 lens is absolutely amazing and to me a much better deal FOR VIDEO than many of the other prime lenses in this price range. i couldn't live without it. I have a 50mm F1.8 and NEVER use it.

I shoot with both primes and zooms and can say, the biggest beauty of most prime lenses are their speeds.
 
Renting lenses == good !!! Listen to Grimepooch !

For my shoots I use old manual AIS but when I'm on a paid gig and the grandfather look of my lenses won't cut it I RENT !

BTW - when grimepooch referred to the speed of the lens he is referring to the widest aperture on the lens.

A lens is deemed as 'fast' because it lets in a lot of light.

This phrase came about from back in the day when photographers referred to a wide aperture as 'fast' because it meant that with all the extra light they could use a fast shutter speed
 
Yeah, I bought a few lenses I thought I wanted, and then didn't like! The difference in what I lost in shipping and such I could have rented the lens for over a weel!

Which reminds me, I need to go rent another lens. I want a 200mm macro with IS I think :)
 
Thanks so much J Davis. I went out and bought the Canon EF 50mm f 1.8 II and am interested in doing some tests compared with the 18-55mm kit lens.

I'm getting ready to shoot a short doc and many of the locations will be dimly lit bars and clubs. So if I only have kit and 50 lens, I'm assuming the kit for wide shots and 50 for close ups.

From what I've read the major strength of the 50mm is (besides the 100 price) that it is "fast" and lets in lots of light. Thus it's major advantage over the kit lens would be say shooting in settings with low, available light?

Coming from a video camera background, shooting with a prime is definitely going to be a challenge.

Thanks again. BTW J - I watched your HD Sketches... very cool stuff.
 
If the bars are very dimly lit, you're probably going to get a lot of noise with the kit lens since you'll need to up the ISO. Also, as you are probably aware, at the higher zooms, you lose even more speed as the speed is not constant through the whole range.

You might want to look at the plugin called 'Neat Video' as it works REALLY WELL for cleaning out noise. Since I release in 720p, I shoot at 1080p, clean in 1080p then bring it down to 720p.
 
denzlite said:
Thanks so much J Davis. I went out and bought the Canon EF 50mm f 1.8 II and am interested in doing some tests compared with the 18-55mm kit lens.

I'm getting ready to shoot a short doc and many of the locations will be dimly lit bars and clubs. So if I only have kit and 50 lens, I'm assuming the kit for wide shots and 50 for close ups.

From what I've read the major strength of the 50mm is (besides the 100 price) that it is "fast" and lets in lots of light. Thus it's major advantage over the kit lens would be say shooting in settings with low, available light? ...
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Runs some tests and get those tests onto your computer so you can see the image at 100%. You will notice how the depth of field gets extremely shallow when using the 50mm at f1.8

What looks like it is in focus on the camera LCD may not be in focus once its on your computer. The more you shoot the more you will get a feel for it.

denzlite said:

Coming from a video camera background, shooting with a prime is definitely going to be a challenge.
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You're going to love it. Its freeing in a way. The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.

denzlite said:

I watched your HD Sketches... very cool stuff.
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Thanks! Be sure to check out Dancer and the twist in the final seconds, its easily the best piece I have written to date.

There is also this ...
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=204124
 
Oh, and since autofocus works horribly in the dark, use the zoom feature of the camera when setting focus. This is GREAT and fast once you get comfortable using the camera.

But, as J Davis said, the more you focus with it, the more you will get used to hitting focus even not zoomed in just from experience.
 
oh you edited your post !


grimepoch said:
Oh, and since autofocus works horribly in the dark, use the zoom feature of the camera when setting focus. This is GREAT and fast once you get comfortable using the camera.

But, as J Davis said, the more you focus with it, the more you will get used to hitting focus even not zoomed in just from experience.
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Maybe you mean focus assist which is the button top right that show the image at x5 and x10

BTW - The old camcorder trick of zooming in to get focus and then zooming out doesn't work on vDSLR's because most still lenses don't hold focus thu the zoom range
 
J Davis said:
'at longer focal lengths'

:)
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Yes :) Thank you. So many confusing words when dealing with this stuff :) I do have a question for you.

None of my zooms have a consistent speed through all focal lengths. Even when I set the lens to the slowest speed, as I change the focal length, I can see differences in the video as whatever is happening inside the lens as I zoom is happening.

On zooms with a constant speed, does this still happen? Or can you zoom real time without the image getting issues like the aperture is changing around while it zooms even though it theoretically, the value is the same on the camera?
 
Yep, I mean focus assist. Didn't know what it was called! :) I use it all the time. I guess I should have stated what I meant by zoom! :) NOT physical lens zoom for that!
 
grimepoch said:
Yes :) Thank you. So many confusing words when dealing with this stuff :) I do have a question for you.

None of my zooms have a consistent speed through all focal lengths. Even when I set the lens to the slowest speed, as I change the focal length, I can see differences in the video as whatever is happening inside the lens as I zoom is happening.

On zooms with a constant speed, does this still happen? Or can you zoom real time without the image getting issues like the aperture is changing around while it zooms even though it theoretically, the value is the same on the camera?
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The answer is both YES and NO

If you get a zoom with a variable aperture for example the 18-50 f3.5-5.6 and then put it at f5.6 then theoretically you zoom the range of the focal lengths at f5.6 but in practice when you do this you will see a flicker in the image as you zoom across certain focal lengths even though the exposure remains pretty much the same.

If you were to spend $1000 and get the 17-55 f2.8 which is constructed to have a constant aperture and therefore constant exposure across the focal length range then you can record while zooming without seeing the flicker. But once again when you put it into practice it doesn't really work. Thats because the mechanical construction of the zoom is not smooth. Its not like the rocker zoom on your camcorder.

To some extent you can combat this by attaching a follow focus to the zoom ring and then you can get a zoom shot with some degree of control but it will be trial and error as to whether it will be smooth.
 
Actually, the best way is to storyboard your narrative piece so there are no zoom shots. If you are doing event work like recording a music gig then try to do fast zooms, don't go for the slow zoom.
 
I never zoom a shot, I was more just curious. Instead, I move towards or away from the subject physically, or use my slider I built for slow in or out. Also, in post since I go down to 720p, I will automate a zoom in our out to the image a bit.

I guess the need here is really an electronic zoom if one were to desire using that easily.
 
Great list J. Davis, thank you.

I'm shooting a doc with available light. I have a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 w/ image stabilizer. I was thinking a zoom would be more appropriate than primes, as my subject is not scripted and events do occur spontaneously. And with low light, I was thinking something that would manage south of f/4. My question is, won't the higher ISO settings on these cameras, (7d) yield that far end of stop even though some additional grain and noise is introduced?

What lense do you recommend for the rest of the ranges, below 17mm and above 50?
 
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dav said:
Great list J. Davis, thank you.

I'm shooting a doc with available light. I have a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 w/ image stabilizer. I was thinking a zoom would be more appropriate than primes, as my subject is not scripted and events do occur spontaneously. And with low light, I was thinking something that would manage south of f/4. My question is, won't the higher ISO settings on these cameras, (7d) yield that far end of stop even though some additional grain and noise is introduced?

What lense do you recommend for the rest of the ranges, below 17mm and above 50?
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i would buy a 0.5x wide angle converter, i have that on the way and am going to use it with my tamron when i buy it..

it means its 50% wider....so your tamron lense would be 8.5mm....and it has a 1:1 macro meaning that it doesnt lose its close up....

as far as primes i am going to get a canon 24mm f/1.8 and a 50mm f/1.8
 
Interesting. Which converter for a 72mm lens? Also, won't you lose stop adding more elements to an existing f/2.8?
 
Does anyone have a suggestion for which zoom lens sub 800 doesn't breathe much? Don't know if anything will exist with those qualities in that price range but I am hoping so.

Thanks!
 
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