70-200mm on a crop body. your thoughts please

ChrisHeathcote

ChrisHeathcote

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My question is quite simple really. Having now started taking my hobby seriously I am looking to invest in additional lenses. My interests are wildlife, low light, some portrait but mainly family shots of my son and nephew and candid now I have the benefit of shooting from the hip with my 60d :-)

For a while having ready through numerous forums I have looking at either Sigma 70-200 f2.8 OS or Canon f4L IS (can't stretch to 2.8L) and also at a later point adding a Sigma 150-500. However I have seen a couple of comments than on a crop body the 70-200 is too long and have just seen the 50-150. I am also thinking that either 50-150 would serve as a good general walk around lens. I also have a 17-70 which I sometimes find isn't quite long enough when out and a 70-300 which isn't short enough so I tend to stick with the 17-70 and crop.

So to my question what are your thoughts on the 50-150 instead of 70-200. Yes I do appear to be fond of Sigma :-)
 
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I had the the 70-200f4L on a 40D way back and it was a great combo, wish I still had it sometimes!

I would choose it over the sigma easily, even 2nd hand copies are normally pretty good...
 
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I've had 3 70-200's, an f4 non IS, a f2.8 IS MkI and a f2.8 IS MkII and have used them all on both full frame and crop and I've got some fantastic photos out of all of them. The f4 non IS was so light and very fast focussing and was as sharp as a tack. I found it was sharper than my f2.8 MkI up to f4.5/5.0 but then the f2.8 got sharper. The f2.8 MkII is just out of this world though, much sharper than either of the others.

The 70-200 is currently on my 5D3 and a Sigma 24-70 f2.8 USM is on my 7D but they do get swapped around a lot as a 280mm equivalent is a great reach on my 7D, great for close wildlife shots in the park.

I've just got a new replacement Sigma 150-500 OS after mine developed a problem and I had it replaceed under warranty. I shoot a lot of birds, wildlife and aviation with it, mostly on the 5D3 and a Sigma 120-400 OS on my 7D. Both are great lenses and both were bought from Panamoz. The replacement arrived 11 days after I sent it back, and that is shipping from Hong Kong.
 
I use a 70-200mm on my D7000 for work and wouldn't want anything else for general photojournalism. You're generally buying top-end technology and quality with a 70-200mm and that counts for a lot, regardless of the body you use. Plus, tat focal length is useful for a hell of a lot - wildlife, sports, landscape, portraiture, street, events.... all sorts. It's a do-it-all lens.
 
A 70-200 is great on a crop sensor. I used one on my D90, now that I have an FX cam I miss the extra reach [though I do have that DX crop option] - I prefer not to compose with a semi-dimmed screen through the VF - so I bought a TC to compensate.
 
I used to own a copy of the sigma 50-150mm mk 1, then earlier this year I upgraded to a 70-200mm f4 IS. I always shot at f/4 on the sigma as f/2.8 wasn't reliably sharp.The canon is a great lens as people say, overall image quality and sharpness are superior, but I really loved my sigma and it is a very versatile range on a crop. There are times when I miss it - and it was black! - but the canon has faster, more reliable focus and there are times the extra length is more use.
 
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