Trying to narrow down lens seletion

[rob0225]

Hello all...I've been reading the forum for about 3 months now, but first post.

I know this have been discussed and talked to death and I have read through previous post but still have some lingering questions.

My wife and I got bit hard by the bug and have become extreme hobbyists. Mostly outdoor portrait stuff and we have set up an indoor home studio with strobes.

We have a Canon 550D (wish I would have done more research prior and I probably would have gotten a better camera). The camera came with two lenses, 18-55 and 55-250. I also bought a 50mm 1.4.
We are shooting mostly portrait style shots of each other and our family both inside (with strobes) and outside without tripod. I can also see us getting into night portraits with cityscape type backgrounds.

We want to get a good zoom lens and have narrowed it down to 4 L lenses and need some help. I’ve narrowed it down to the following four lenses:

EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM
EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM

I’m leaning heavily toward either the EF 24-70 or EF 24-105, but didn’t want to exclude the others. They are all within our budget some fit more comfortably then others. J

I have a few questions:

1. One of my questions has to do with the lenses that are f/2.8 but no IS. Do I need IS for what I’m doing? I like having IS but I think that’s only due to the fact that it’s there…if it’s not necessary on the type of photos I’m taking then I’m okay there as well.

2. The other question is the lenses that have IS but are f/4. Based upon the type photos we are shooting do I need the f/2.8 lenses or is f/4 okay?

3. What are the drawbacks or limitations if I choose one lens over the other? I.E. if I choose the f/4 lens over the f/2.8. What am I not going to be able to do? Conversely, what am I going to be able to do if I choose one over the other?

4. I also understand that if I choose the f/4 lens it will impact shooting in low light…what exactly is considered low light? I don’t want to discount that we may shoot indoors under normal light conditions without a light source at some point.

I guess that’s all for now. Thanks.

Robert

 

[LarissaPhotography]

Robert,
My suggestion would be the 24-70 because it allows you to go down to 2.8. Plus, the 70-200 is going to be a little too zoomy on your crop sensor camera. The 24-105 would be a good choice too. It all depends on what you're looking for and how you shoot.