Primes or body?

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Steeps

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I've been asked to help out at a wedding in july (yes I know...) and having shot some in the summer I've not been too worried, but recently doing one in the winter with poor light I've started to hit some limitations.

I shoot with 40d's and a selection of 2.8 lenses and flashguns where allowed but I'd like to use a lot more natural lighting. I was eyeing up a move to a 5dII which would have been funded by selling off my ef-s kit, a body and putting about £500-600 towards it. I found the 70-200 f2.8 just a little bit too long but moving to full frame really would put it in the sweet spot of what I like to shoot.

After missing out on 3 5dII's for sale now for various reasons I'm starting to look at alternatives and the strongest comment has always been "quality glass over bodies", I know that sigma can be a bit hit and miss but for the budget I could get a sigma 85mm f1.4 and also consider getting a 30mm f1.4 for the wider shots.

I'd rather buy over renting and I usually go for second hand kit anyway, but I'm really struggling to think of what the best route forwards is.

Short post:
Upgrade to 5dII by selling off ef-s kit to bring 70-200 f2.8 lens into a more usable range and bump the iso when needed.

or

Sell off ef-s lenses and buy a couple of sigma f1.4 primes but keep the 40d.
 
Steeps said:
I've been asked to help out at a wedding in july (yes I know...) and having shot some in the summer I've not been too worried, but recently doing one in the winter with poor light I've started to hit some limitations.

I shoot with 40d's and a selection of 2.8 lenses and flashguns where allowed but I'd like to use a lot more natural lighting. I was eyeing up a move to a 5dII which would have been funded by selling off my ef-s kit, a body and putting about £500-600 towards it. I found the 70-200 f2.8 just a little bit too long but moving to full frame really would put it in the sweet spot of what I like to shoot.

After missing out on 3 5dII's for sale now for various reasons I'm starting to look at alternatives and the strongest comment has always been "quality glass over bodies", I know that sigma can be a bit hit and miss but for the budget I could get a sigma 85mm f1.4 and also consider getting a 30mm f1.4 for the wider shots.

I'd rather buy over renting and I usually go for second hand kit anyway, but I'm really struggling to think of what the best route forwards is.

Short post:
Upgrade to 5dII by selling off ef-s kit to bring 70-200 f2.8 lens into a more usable range and bump the iso when needed.

or

Sell off ef-s lenses and buy a couple of sigma f1.4 primes but keep the 40d.
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This is a case where I would be looking for best high ISO performance if you have your focal lengths covered with fast glass already. As much as I love primes the fast zooms and low sensor noise is my choice for weddings. You can shoot primes at a wedding but you really need 2 or 3 bodies if you don't want to be swapping lenses all the time which isn't good.
 
I would normally say glass over body, but in this case I think you should get the 5d mkII and pair it with the 70-200mm.

It sounds like your buying the 30mm/85mm primes just for this wedding ? maybe you'll use them going forward but to be honest a 5D2 is what I'd want if I was shooting a wedding (not that I ever will)
 
daugirdas said:
I believe 5D will require some 'standard' zoom to cover the wedding. I doubt you will get away with only 70-200.
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Oooh sorry , I thought the OP said he has a selection of 2.8 glass, I thought he had zoom range covered because hes talking about the primes.

Yes the 70-200 wont cover it if thats all you have. Something like the 24-70 and you are golden. For some reason a lot of people say they don't like the 24-70 but its my bread and butter lens for a wedding. Might not be as inerseting as a prime but a very good lens and covers a realy nice range for a lot of the day.
 
lensflair said:
Oooh sorry , I thought the OP said he has a selection of 2.8 glass, I thought he had zoom range covered because hes talking about the primes.

Yes the 70-200 wont cover it if thats all you have. Something like the 24-70 and you are golden. For some reason a lot of people say they don't like the 24-70 but its my bread and butter lens for a wedding. Might not be as inerseting as a prime but a very good lens and covers a realy nice range for a lot of the day.
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Ah I need to clarify this part. I currently use a 40d (do have access to another in the family which I usually use but I don't want to guarantee it as my own) along with a 17-50 2.8 ef-s lens and a sigma 10-20 which are both mine, I was considering selling these 3 to fund the 5dII with cash as those lenses won't work on FF leaving me with my own 5dII and 70-200 f2.8. At this wedding I will have access to another 40d and I believe a 24-70 f2.8 (need to double check, it's the groom's kit which is why they asked me to help out, as he can't shoot his own wedding)

I will have access to 2 bodies, if I go down the 5dII route I'd love to stick the 70-200 on it then whatever lenses I have available to me on the 40d, even if it means keeping hold of the 17-50 I currently have.
 
Steeps said:
Ah I need to clarify this part. I currently use a 40d (do have access to another in the family which I usually use but I don't want to guarantee it as my own) along with a 17-50 2.8 ef-s lens and a sigma 10-20 which are both mine, I was considering selling these 3 to fund the 5dII with cash as those lenses won't work on FF leaving me with my own 5dII and 70-200 f2.8. At this wedding I will have access to another 40d and I believe a 24-70 f2.8 (need to double check, it's the groom's kit which is why they asked me to help out, as he can't shoot his own wedding)

I will have access to 2 bodies, if I go down the 5dII route I'd love to stick the 70-200 on it then whatever lenses I have available to me on the 40d, even if it means keeping hold of the 17-50 I currently have.
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Can you not use crop lenses on the Canon full frame? My D3 has an option for that although it reduces res and you lose the benefit of having a full frame, but could be used in a pinch.

You could shoot an entire wedding on the 24-70 with a FF and if I could only take one of my lenses that would be the one. Pair it up with the 70-200 and its a great combination.
 
lensflair said:
Can you not use crop lenses on the Canon full frame? My D3 has an option for that although it reduces res and you lose the benefit of having a full frame, but could be used in a pinch.

You could shoot an entire wedding on the 24-70 with a FF and if I could only take one of my lenses that would be the one. Pair it up with the 70-200 and its a great combination.
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You can't use EF-S lenses on FF bodies. You can use EF lenses on crop bodies.

In this instance, I would go down the 5d2 route, great high ISO. If you think the 70-200 is too long on a 40D, ie 112-320mm, then you're not actually gaining all that much by moving to FF though - 70-112mm, doesn't sound much, though does cover the 85mm spot.
 
The ef-s lenses I have will fit, but will need to be cropped in PP so there's always that.

I'm only saying the 70-200 was long because I never really went above 150, and a lot of the photos I could have done with were in the 50-70 gap I didn't have covered so I was either keeping to the edge of the room using 70mm or standing further in using 50mm. That 42mm difference would have been great at the last venue.

24-70 for me would be ideal on a crop.
 
Steeps said:
The ef-s lenses I have will fit, but will need to be cropped in PP so there's always that.
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Are you saying that your EF-S lenses will fit a full frame camera?

If that's what you are saying I think that you need to check. My Sigma and Tamron APS-C lenses will fit my "real RAW" :) camera but as far as I know you need to take a hacksaw to a EF-S lens before it will fit on a FF body so maybe I misunderstood you.
 
If you use an EFS lens on a full frame body you'll damage your mirror as the rear element sits further into the body.
 
woof woof said:
Are you saying that your EF-S lenses will fit a full frame camera?

If that's what you are saying I think that you need to check. My Sigma and Tamron APS-C lenses will fit my "real RAW" :) camera but as far as I know you need to take a hacksaw to a EF-S lens before it will fit on a FF body so maybe I misunderstood you.
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I've only ever tried the tamron 17-50 (efs fit) on a 1dII which worked fine, none of them stick out at the rear like the 18-55 kitlens I used to have, they're all flat and in line with the electrical contacts. I just referred to them as ef-s because I know they won't create an image over the full FF sensor.
 
Steeps said:
I've only ever tried the tamron 17-50 (efs fit) on a 1dII which worked fine, none of them stick out at the rear like the 18-55 kitlens I used to have, they're all flat and in line with the electrical contacts.
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The tamron isn't an EFS lens.
 
Ah, yes, Siggy and Tamron will fit but Canon EF-S has a different build and physically will not fit to a non EF-S compatible body and that includes FF and earliest APS-C bodies (won't fit to a 10D will they?) unless you do surgery on the lens.

If you look on the net you can find sites that'll tell you how to mod a EF-S to fit, apparently it's just a matter of sawing bits off and the actual optics don't hit the mirror... but obviously there are no guarantees...
 
Ok had a read around, the lenses will fit but will get heavy vinegetting as they're designed for crop sensors. I don't own any other ef-s lens (always referred to them as ef-s though due to them being designed for crop) so I don't need to look for any mods, thanks though :)
 
I would go for the body at this stage. The 5dii perform much better in low light condition than 40d, the lens you current own with 5dii body would be far than enough for the wedding job.
 
Something else to consider...

Even if you get faster glass you are not going to really get the benefit from it that much as the DOF at F1.4 is rather thin - so you have to be very careful with how folk are positioned to ensure everyone is in focus.

F2.8 and higher ISO would be a better option IMO (Read 5DII)
 
RichardtheSane said:
Something else to consider...

Even if you get faster glass you are not going to really get the benefit from it that much as the DOF at F1.4 is rather thin - so you have to be very careful with how folk are positioned to ensure everyone is in focus.
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That's sort of true but it's not the whole picture (no pun...:)) DoF is going to be shallow at f1.4-f2.8 and at close range DoF is going to be paper thin and obviously so but at a distance DoF increases slightly and the size of subjects in the frame can also add to our perception of DoF, so DoF and our perception of it really do depend upon a number of things and not just the aperture setting.
 
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