Saturday, May 15, 2004

My next piece of gear

Well, who said photography was cheap? Although I never have to buy another roll of film and never fiddle with mounted slides again, the digital equipment itself cost quite a deal. And the moment you get picky about the quality of your images, thats when it becomes really expensive! Thats when you start drooling over Canon L lenses. After buying the Canon 17-40mm L f4 I started realizing what L glass is about. I recently decided to ditch most of my non L glass and start saving for better ones. Although prime lenses are the best, I wanted the flexibility of a zoom, so this is what I am saving for now:


Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

This must be Canons best lens around if you believe what photographers are saying about it. They say its pretty sharp even wide open at both ends of the zoom. I guess I wont know until I have it in my hands. But at a price of $1600 its going to cost. And from what I hear its pretty heavy too, so maybe I need an extra arm installed. Now where did Zaphoid get that extra pair of hands installed? :-)

I usually find that I crave for those extra stops, something I know when I am using my Canon 100mm macro (which is being repaired now). The macro is also said to have L class quality glass. Being able to operate at f2.8 in the 70-200 range will be great! In 10D terms that means 112-320mm. And from what I hear its pretty good with the 2x extender, giving me an effective 640mm lens at f5.6. I guess that will do well until I win the lottery and can afford a 500mm prime from Canon.

2 comments:

Paige said...

So for those of us who are learning about photography, what is L glass? Thanks!

Paige
http://home.rochester.rr.com/djpaige/blogger.html

John Christian said...

Well, the L is often referred to as the L in Luxary lenses, but the difference is that the lenses contain one or more Aspherical lens elements. In addition the build quality is better to withstand the bumps and use of a professional photographer. Generally the sharpness in these lenses are much better than most normal non-L lenses, the exception being some primes like the 100 macro which is extremely sharp. But of course, the Canon L series will cost way more than the amateur photographer is usually able to justify. But for me, as I am moving towards more professional photography, I can clearly see the value of the good glass and wider apertures of the L series. If you dont have the money I guess some of the later Sigma EX series lenses also produce very good quality images. As for me, I've decided to stick to Canon lenses after some problems with earlier Sigma gear.