Kit lens or luxury lens

canon1

canon1

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Martin
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Hi everyone,

Ok need your help, i want to photograph some building, now do i use my kit lens EF-S 17-85mm that came with my 50D or the EF 16-35 F2.8 II USM lens.

The kit lens will be set at 17mm (with crop factor = 27mm) at F8
and the L-lens will be set at 16mm (with crop factor = 26) at F8

my question is: will the image be sharper using the L -lens that the kit lens being they are both set at F8 or should i photograph the building using the L-lens at f2.8
 
Your 'camera bag' shows the EF-S 10-22.. why not use that? I didn't really understand from your post whether you already have the 16-35 or not? I'd say the kit lens is the worst option here..

And you should definitely not shoot at f/2.8 on the 16-35, f/8 should be pretty good.. unless it's dark and your buildings tend to twitch or run away :)

You DO have a tripod, right?
 
Could you not try both?

I got rid of my 17-85 because I found that I got a lot of purple fringing around objects towards the sides of the frame. That being said, at F8 it was quite sharp and I found I got some good shots with it, especially of still things like buildings.

It's just a guess, but I would imagine that the L lens would be better. Even if it's not discernibly sharper, it should have better colour rendition and give you less distortion (I seem to remember the 17-85 distorted quite a bit at the ends of the zoom range).

 
MatW said:
Could you not try both? [/COLOR]
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This, surely? Once you've got it lined up and suchlike, changing lens and and taking another shouldn't be too much like hardwork...

Given one situation so specific it's quite difficult to say which lens would be best.
 
Vaizki - I didn't really understand from your post whether you already have the 16-35 or not?

No i don't own the 16-35 i was going to hire it, but has you rightly said i do have the EF-S 10-22mm, i could give that ago, just wondered if the L-lens 16-35mm would have been sharper.
 
canon1 said:
Vaizki - I didn't really understand from your post whether you already have the 16-35 or not?

No i don't own the 16-35 i was going to hire it, but has you rightly said i do have the EF-S 10-22mm, i could give that ago, just wondered if the L-lens 16-35mm would have been sharper.
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Ahhhhhhhhh.

That makes sense. Do you have a strict limit on your hire costs? A 14mm prime might be worth considering if not...
 
RevOnline said:
Ahhhhhhhhh.

That makes sense. Do you have a strict limit on your hire costs? A 14mm prime might be worth considering if not...
Click to expand...


no i don't have a limit on hire cost, I'll have a look at that lens - cheers Andrew!
 
If you know exactly what you're shooting, you'll rarely be better with a zoom than a prime...those tests above pretty much back that up. Prime's are just massively inconvenient/expensive if you're shooting a variety of stuff.

The 14mm is definitely what I'd go for if I was spending (someone else's) money.
 
I don't think I'd want to use the Canon 17-85mm at 17mm as you get a lot of distortion.
 
I've no experience with these or any other Canon lenses, but I found that when I went from a fairly modest Sigma 24-70 lens to a high end Nikkor 28-70 lens, there was a noticeable difference in image quality. It was kind of like the image was in HD! I would imagine you'd see a noticeable difference with these Canon lenses as well.
 
How about the Canon EF-S 17-55mm IS?

Constant f/2.8 if you need it and renowned as a rather sharp lens, should suit the 50D crop sensor nicely
 
canon1 said:
I wasn't aware of any distortion from the 17-85mm, as anyone else noticed this?
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It is the lens with the most distortion and CA at the wide end: http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/179-canon-ef-s-17-85mm-f4-56-usm-is-test-report--review?start=1

It only starts to be useful from about 24mm and over. Luckily you have 10-22mm which is an excellent UWA. You really wouldn't see much improvement from 16-35mm or 14mm on crop sensor, in fact you would see worse "corners"!

P.S. If you want to control distortion and perspective it is perhaps better to stick to longer focal lengths if possible.
 
daugirdas said:
It is the lens with the most distortion and CA at the wide end: http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/179-canon-ef-s-17-85mm-f4-56-usm-is-test-report--review?start=1

It only starts to be useful from about 24mm and over. Luckily you have 10-22mm which is an excellent UWA. You really wouldn't see much improvement from 16-35mm or 14mm on crop sensor, in fact you would see worse "corners"!

P.S. If you want to control distortion and perspective it is perhaps better to stick to longer focal lengths if possible.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the review, very interesting!, think i stick with the 10-22mm.

cheers everyone
 
it amazes me that you would think of shooting a big building at f/2.8? do you not know about DOF?
 
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