Building a lens collection

A4Effort

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Ok, so far I have purchased a Canon 50mm f/1.8 and a 24-105mm f/4 Canon L lens.

I am slowly looking to expand my collection. I am a photojournalist and shoot a variety of pictures. In my free time I try to take some artistic pictures.

Here is what I had in my mind: (no ranking)
Sigma 30mm prime f/1.4
Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 wide
Tokina 10-17mm fisheye
What would you recommend my next lens be? Also I currently do not have a flash. Would you recommend getting a flash first before purchasing another lens? Once again, I shoot pretty much anything from potraits to sports and everything in between. Any help is grealty appreciated.
 
You should get a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8. At least I know that is my next lens, but a little pricey though.An external flash would always be good.
 
would definatly look to getting a flash unit for your setup - can really extend what you can take with the gear and means that you don't always have to push for high ISO and noise all the time.

As for the next lens - well what do you see as your shortfalls - do you find yourself needing longer than the 105mm that you have already? Many people do use a 70-200mm focal range lens to deal with further off subjects
 
I could shoot all day and night while traveling (max flexibility and easy packing) with:

24-105L
100-400L
50mm f/1.4

or someone (like me) that likes primes:
24L, 85 f/1.8, 50 f/1.4, 135 f2L

or for someone that needs slightly faster zooms at a sacrifice of weight and range:
24-70L
70-200 f/2.8L

Try to think in terms of building your repertoire rather than "collecting" lenses. In other words, ask "what do you want to shoot" then pursue the tool to enable you to shoot it. Since you are a photojournalist, I am VERY surprised that you don't shoot with the 16-35mm f/2.8L. That is the prototypical (on full frame) journalist's zoom.
 
Get a flash, that is going to be my next purchase even though i only have a 50mm and could use another lens..... but don't buy a cheap lens something that allows you to shoot off camera will allow you to take a lot of interesting shots
 
I know there's a typo in here, but this did make me laugh:

but don't buy a cheap lens something that allows you to shoot off camera will allow you to take a lot of interesting shots

I sooo want a lens that lets me shoot off-camera :)

To the OP, I agree with the flash assessment.
 
I agree with first building a decent portpholio, then look at what you feel is needed more, do you have to crop to get the subject to fill the frame or are you always fighing with noise due to high ISO? Pick what you feel will solve your most common problem ^_
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. The reason why I did not go 24-70mm Canon L is because I wanted a longer focal range. Also the f/2.8 was enticing but the IS of the 24-105 L was one of the factors that got drawn to it because a lot of my work includes shooting without a tripod.

I think based on this and some further research I will consider the 16-35 f/2.8. But first, I will buy a flash, most likely the canon 430ex II speedlight.

Anyone have any other suggestions?
 
This doesn't have anything to do with what you started this topic of discussion about, but as an interested aspiring photojournalist, do you have a website I could look at or perhaps the newspaper you shoot for, their website?
 
I shoot for my college newspaper at the University of Vermont. We just placed 5th nationally out of 600 other college newspapers at a recent conference. Here is the link: http://www.vermontcynic.com/
 
Do you have a specific link to your own work? (seeing as I don't know your real name?)
 

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