Shooting w/ Zoom Lenses on the 5d

S

sk8orinda

Active member
Well, I have always been a strong advocate of exclusivly using primes for stills and video (It's as if all the quiality in a prime lens is distrubuted out to dozens or hundreds of focal lengths in a zoom lens, and so you essentially get "more lenses" in one, but each "lens" is shi*ty compared to the prime equivilent... That's just my analogy)

Anyway, I am going to buy a 5d pretty soon here, and though I have a pretty descent set of primes, I am just wondering if anybody likes using zoom lenses with this camera? Obviously L series zooms would be ideal, but what about other zooms? Sigma? Tamron? Etc.?

I can imagine the kind of answers I'll get, but if you have any specific lens suggestions, pros/cons, or general advice, I would appreciate your input.
 
My only real suggestion is, if you're getting a zoom lens, to get the absolute best-quality zoom lens you can afford. In general you'll see less barrel distortion and chromatic aberration, with better edge-to-edge sharpness, which is important on a full-frame sensor.

Personally, if you shoot outdoors quite a bit, the Canon 24-105L that comes with the 5DII kit is a great and well-regarded zoom lens. It's f4, which is a bit on the slow side, but with plenty of light that shouldn't be a problem.


Here are a couple of really good sites for lens reviews and information…

http://the-digital-picture.com/
http://www.fredmiranda.com/
 
I've got the 24-70 2.8L its very sharp, you get a bit of barrelling at 24mm but thats about it and I've seen worse on Panavision lenses.
Derek
 
Depends what you are shooting but

changing lenses takes time and therefore costs money

changing lenses with a FF attached takes more time and costs more money

Uniquely IMO the 5d looks best at f4 or 5.6 which brings its DOF back to similar to the S35/7d/35mm film look at 2.8 which is so desired

Even though I own..
14, 20, 24,28PC, 50, 55, 80 135 and 400 mm prime lenses I have ended up buying

a 24-105 F4 and a 70-200 F4

I keep the 14 and 50 .14 in the bag for special situations but the two zooms create 90% of my footage

This approach has been dismal on the small chipped 7d but is IMO a masive selling point of the 5d

The 24-105 is not a very pleasant lens however barrely and a bit physically floppy

But it is great on camera giving everything from an establishing 'master' shot at 24 to Full CUs of talking heads - you could shoot a feature on that lens only

I have also tried a 35-70 manual nikkor which is a beauty but I loose that wide end without a lens change

I dont know the ideal 24-X FF zoom lens - its probably a nikon G or an old manual one

The 70-200F4 canon is a wonder ful smooth small package with a great mount point - I got mine used for $400

S

ps I never zoom in shot !
 
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The canon zoom lenses, especially the L and kit lenses look very detailed and the colour is sharp. It's like digital cleanliness and great for photos, where you have all the time in Photoshop and Raw to mess with.

But are there any softer, dare I say, more dirty/filmic/rubbish zooms that one could recommend? I know I could just use my old Nikon glass but what's the score on the canons?
 
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