Fill this gap (lenses)

uplander · Feb 7, 2009

This is my lens line up and it has one glaring poor example which I need to replace.
I have a 40D and a back up 10D

Tokina 11-16 f2.8
Tamron AF18-200 f/3.5-6.3 :banghead:
Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS USM
Canon EF 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 IS USM
Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM
Canon EF 400 f2.8 L IS USM
Canon 1.4x and 2x TC's

The Tamron needs to go (the IQ just sucks IMHO). My thoughts are to go with either a walkabout lens of the best IQ in the same somewhat range or just fill the 18-70 gap with again the best IQ avaiable.

Discuss!! (Overlaps in focal length allowed, just give your reasoning and examples if you have some).

PS I would like to be able take three of this lens lineup for a travel kit ( considering airline travel and baggage limitations) and cover as many bases as possible.

Overread · Feb 7, 2009

24-105mm f4 L IS - decent range walkaround lens with IS

or the 24-70mm f2.8 L - better in lower light conditions though no IS and a shorter focal range.

Though 24mm is not that wide on a crop sensor camera

Prophet · Feb 7, 2009

Gotta agree. But what are you looking to do with it? How fast of focus do you need? I hear nothing but great things about this lens (dont' know how fast it focuses):

Canon | Zoom Wide Angle-Telephoto EF 24-70mm f/2.8L | 8014A002

Or you could go the cheap route like I did. 85mm 1.8 (super fast focus) and the 17-40mm f4L. With flash the F/4 L is ok in doors, but if you can't use flash yer hosed. The 85mm picks up quite well on a crop body.

-JD-

JustAnEngineer · Feb 7, 2009

How about something in the 17-55 (won't work on the 10D) or 24-70 range?

Montana · Feb 7, 2009

While reading your question, the first lens that popped into my mind was the 24-105. For a three lens travel setup:
Tokina 11-16 f2.8
Canon 24-105 f4
Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS USM
And your 2 extenders.

Derrick

uplander · Feb 7, 2009

Prophet said:
Gotta agree. But what are you looking to do with it? How fast of focus do you need? I hear nothing but great things about this lens (dont' know how fast it focuses):

Canon | Zoom Wide Angle-Telephoto EF 24-70mm f/2.8L | 8014A002

Or you could go the cheap route like I did. 85mm 1.8 (super fast focus) and the 17-40mm f4L. With flash the F/4 L is ok in doors, but if you can't use flash yer hosed. The 85mm picks up quite well on a crop body.

-JD-

I prefer to shoot available light so a fast lens is preferred.

uplander · Feb 7, 2009

Montana said:
While reading your question, the first lens that popped into my mind was the 24-105. For a three lens travel setup:
Tokina 11-16 f2.8
Canon 24-105 f4
Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS USM
And your 2 extenders.

Derrick

I was thinking along these lines but really wish the 24-105 was faster.

Overread · Feb 7, 2009

a faster 24-105mm f4 and a 24-70mm f2.8 with IS
two things many dream of having from canon - but sadly I don't think we will see them

usayit · Feb 7, 2009

When I do take along my SLR, I found the following quite flexible for travel; 1dMII + 24-105L + 100-400L + 50mm f/1.4 + 550EX + offshoe cord. All of it will fit into the relatively small camera bag (LowePro sling 200AW).

At times, I'll leave the 100-400L and take my tokina 19-35mm instead.

SandShots · Feb 12, 2009

hows that Tok 11-16 working out for you?

KevinUK · Feb 12, 2009

Its a personal thing, but whilst I loved the 24-105 for general walk-about lens with my old film camera, I couldn't get on with it for that type of use on a crop-frame body because an EFL at the wide end of about 38mm wasn't enough. I always ended up taking and changing to a second wideangle.

I actually found that the 17-40mm more often covered the range that i needed but even then there were a lot of occasions where it didn't go long enough.

For me the ideal is an EFL of about 24 to 100 ish, so 15 to 70mm would be what I personally wanted on a crop body as a general purpose lens. The closest canon contender seems to be the EF-S 17-85mm IS (which may not work on the 10d, not sure) so that has to be a great contender - and the IS could be useful in low light (if its you, rather than the subject, thats moving).

For me personally, I liked the 24-105 so much as a lens that I decided to keep using this and go full frame digital to get the ranges back that i'd once had with film. This was for three reasons: 1-Canon don't seem to make L glass in an EFL that was suitable for me personally on cropped cameras, 2-getting the EF-s would have felt like a downgrade and 3-there seem to be used 5Ds (mk 1)s about now that the new model is out so it doesn't seem such a foolish idea.

But that was me, and I already had the 24-105 so perhaps it wouldn't be such a good alternative if you didn't. Also if you liked the cropped camera/lens combo with your other lenses and especially if you did a lot of telephoto stuff its probably not a good approach either. Thought you may be interested to hear it though, just in case.

Kevin