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What Is Your Favorite Lens?
- Thread starter trewyn15
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Nex
I love the Nex system. The lens choices are improving and the size of the camera versus the image quality are just outstanding. I've got some issues with some of the functions, like not saving the Raw files when using the in-camera HDR, not having any way to attach an external trigger tike TriggerTrap and the menu system takes a little getting used to, but on the whole the system is superb. I generally travel with the Nex 7 body, the 16mm pancake, the 18-55 kit lens (which is very good for a kit lens) and a light weight tripod. I also have the original 18 - 210 which is not bad but I rarely use it as I'm usually taking landscapes on a trip and the Canon's have much faster autofocus for sports (I'm usually at home taking shots of my 12 year old).
Checkout Trey Ratcliff's 'Stuck in Customs' website, he's pretty much ditched his Nikon's and gone with the Nex. I can't recommend the system enough if your interest is landscape / urban ... not recommended for sports.
I love the Nex system. The lens choices are improving and the size of the camera versus the image quality are just outstanding. I've got some issues with some of the functions, like not saving the Raw files when using the in-camera HDR, not having any way to attach an external trigger tike TriggerTrap and the menu system takes a little getting used to, but on the whole the system is superb. I generally travel with the Nex 7 body, the 16mm pancake, the 18-55 kit lens (which is very good for a kit lens) and a light weight tripod. I also have the original 18 - 210 which is not bad but I rarely use it as I'm usually taking landscapes on a trip and the Canon's have much faster autofocus for sports (I'm usually at home taking shots of my 12 year old).
Checkout Trey Ratcliff's 'Stuck in Customs' website, he's pretty much ditched his Nikon's and gone with the Nex. I can't recommend the system enough if your interest is landscape / urban ... not recommended for sports.
Nikon 400mm f/2.8 AF-S II. Good reach, great low-light performance and pairs really well with the TC-20E III.
Paul
Paul
All Canon, When travelling my favourite is my 70-200 f4 IS, when i'm doing my urbex projects my favourite is my 16-35 II, and when it arrives my favourite portrait lens will be the 135 f2 (using the 50mm f1.2 at the moment but not loving it, and I have played with a 135 and love that lens), I dont have one favourite, its more a case of my favourite lens to choose subject depending 
Favorites in no particular order
Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VRII, Nikon 17-55mm F2.8 DX, and Nikon 105mm f2.8 micro.
Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VRII, Nikon 17-55mm F2.8 DX, and Nikon 105mm f2.8 micro.
My favorite third party lenses I use are the Tokina 11-16 with my 7D, and the Tokina 16-28 with a 5DII.
Canon EF-200mm f/2.8L USM II
Canon 135L
Canon 70-200L f/4
There three lenses are nothing but outstanding, and relatively cheap; each under $1,000.
Canon EF-200mm f/2.8L USM II
Canon 135L
Canon 70-200L f/4
There three lenses are nothing but outstanding, and relatively cheap; each under $1,000.
At this point in time, I'm in love with my new el-cheapo tilt-shift from Samyang! I do wish they had left the red stripe off it though...
Yes, I see quite a lot of amazing photo samples taken with the 14mm, and your tilt-shift lens above. The 14mm Sanyang is a favorite for night photography of the stars.
For portraits my top three are:
70-200 2.8 II is, unbelievable and unbeatable.
100mm 2.8 macro, this lens is extremely good for portraits. Like unbelievable. In I think it beats the 70-200 in a lot of situations. It's not as fast (focus wise), but the beautiful softness it gives portraits has to be seen.
Sigmas 50 1.4. Just for when I haven't got any space. Very fast. Great quality not to expensive.
70-200 2.8 II is, unbelievable and unbeatable.
100mm 2.8 macro, this lens is extremely good for portraits. Like unbelievable. In I think it beats the 70-200 in a lot of situations. It's not as fast (focus wise), but the beautiful softness it gives portraits has to be seen.
Sigmas 50 1.4. Just for when I haven't got any space. Very fast. Great quality not to expensive.
Favorite lens of mine is the Canon EF 400 f/5.6. Although its slow at 5.6, its sharp sharp sharp, light, and focussing is fast.
I shoot with a crop sensor body so, for me, the one lens I use the most (and, by default, my 'favorite') would be the Tokina 11-16mm because of how wide it is and its quality and build. When I make the jump to a full frame Nikon, the one lens I will immediately get is the Nikon 14-24mm. I've shot with it on several occasions and that lens is definitely worth all of the praise it often gets.
This was shot with my Tokina 11-16mm:
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Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort by WDW Shutterbug, on Flickr
This was shot with my Tokina 11-16mm:
Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort by WDW Shutterbug, on Flickr
Schneider Xenon FF-Prime Lenses. I haven't even held these yet let alone shot on them but they are simply BEAUTIFUL! They render colors and edges like a Zeiss with sharpness but soft fall off but they have a warmer and less cold clinical tone to them thats closer to a Cooke lens or even a Canon lens. These are cine lenses but I really can't wait to get an EF mount one to use when the time is right. (I do not own these)
Zeiss Compact Primes (EF mount version). I love the Zeiss look. It is sharp, and has a unique fall off unlike others, it is very cold, and resolves allot of resolution. I like the 35, 50, and 85, can't really comment on the others. (I do not own these)
Canon EF 70-200mm /4L IS. I love this lens, and that says allot since I prefer glass with the largest aperature no matter what. My current collection as of this post has glass that is no slower than /2.8. I wasn't a believer in IS but this lenses IS is amazing, I was doing low light theater work today (with my 85mm as well) and was able to shoot insanely low shutter speeds of the couple in the theater during the engagement shoot. Even though its only /4 its ultra sharp wide open and one of those lenses I see no reason to need to stop down with other than maybe to /4.5 if I'm paranoid or if more if the exposure situation needs less light and Ive already cranked the shutter up and lowered the ISO. Really like this lens and have used it frequently (I do not own this lens)
Canon EF 85mm /1.8. Its very very sharp and its a low light monster. I got a reminder of that doing some low light theater work today. (I own this lens)
Sigma 10-20 4-/5.6. Its not sharp even when its stopped down, at least not to what I'm used to from my glass I normally use. That said I like using this guy at 10mm indoors for architecture shots. It renders colors quite well and creates star shaped flares both wide open and stopped down that are beautiful and look almost too good to be true! It flares quite a bit which is a minor thing for me but with really really really old lighting (like 1910 lighting!) It was flare city! Still its great and I would like to see ultra high quality wide angles in the 10mm and even 8mm range for APS-C and APS-H. (I do not own this)
Canon EF 35mm /2.0. Its my walkaround lens on APS-C and even on full frame would likely be my walk around lens. (I own this lens)
As to what I consider a "normal" lens will always be +/- 5-10mm of what most people like as a normal lens. For example my friend with a 60D considers his 50mm a normal lens, hes only ever shot on cropped/Super35 too. I consider 50mm a short telephoto on Super35/APS-C even though its only a change of angle of view its significant for me. 35mm works out perfect but I imagine a 28mm 1.8 or 30mm 1.4 would be nice too but I don't think I could get away with a 28mm and call it "normal" since that starts to become wider. I consider 28mm and less wide angle.
Anyways thats it for now. I have a bunch of other lenses I like but dont want to quite favorite too many lenses I havent had the experience with! Love Lomo Anamorphics and uh anamorphics in general! I'm an anamorphic junky and love every aspect and flaw about them (its true unconditional love! ). But thats another thread.
Zeiss Compact Primes (EF mount version). I love the Zeiss look. It is sharp, and has a unique fall off unlike others, it is very cold, and resolves allot of resolution. I like the 35, 50, and 85, can't really comment on the others. (I do not own these)
Canon EF 70-200mm /4L IS. I love this lens, and that says allot since I prefer glass with the largest aperature no matter what. My current collection as of this post has glass that is no slower than /2.8. I wasn't a believer in IS but this lenses IS is amazing, I was doing low light theater work today (with my 85mm as well) and was able to shoot insanely low shutter speeds of the couple in the theater during the engagement shoot. Even though its only /4 its ultra sharp wide open and one of those lenses I see no reason to need to stop down with other than maybe to /4.5 if I'm paranoid or if more if the exposure situation needs less light and Ive already cranked the shutter up and lowered the ISO. Really like this lens and have used it frequently (I do not own this lens)
Canon EF 85mm /1.8. Its very very sharp and its a low light monster. I got a reminder of that doing some low light theater work today. (I own this lens)
Sigma 10-20 4-/5.6. Its not sharp even when its stopped down, at least not to what I'm used to from my glass I normally use. That said I like using this guy at 10mm indoors for architecture shots. It renders colors quite well and creates star shaped flares both wide open and stopped down that are beautiful and look almost too good to be true! It flares quite a bit which is a minor thing for me but with really really really old lighting (like 1910 lighting!) It was flare city! Still its great and I would like to see ultra high quality wide angles in the 10mm and even 8mm range for APS-C and APS-H. (I do not own this)
Canon EF 35mm /2.0. Its my walkaround lens on APS-C and even on full frame would likely be my walk around lens. (I own this lens)
As to what I consider a "normal" lens will always be +/- 5-10mm of what most people like as a normal lens. For example my friend with a 60D considers his 50mm a normal lens, hes only ever shot on cropped/Super35 too. I consider 50mm a short telephoto on Super35/APS-C even though its only a change of angle of view its significant for me. 35mm works out perfect but I imagine a 28mm 1.8 or 30mm 1.4 would be nice too but I don't think I could get away with a 28mm and call it "normal" since that starts to become wider. I consider 28mm and less wide angle.
Anyways thats it for now. I have a bunch of other lenses I like but dont want to quite favorite too many lenses I havent had the experience with! Love Lomo Anamorphics and uh anamorphics in general! I'm an anamorphic junky and love every aspect and flaw about them (its true unconditional love!
). But thats another thread.The 43 f/4.5 for the Mamiya 7. The sharpest, contrasy-est, most distortion-free lens I have ever used on any system.
Beautiful shot! I'm going to have to look more into Tokina, I see lots of good things about them.
Hands down, my favorite lens is the Zeiss Distagon T* 2.8/21. It practically is glued to my 5D3.
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Light and Shadow by nburwell22, on Flickr
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Brotherly Blues by nburwell22, on Flickr
Light and Shadow by nburwell22, on Flickr
Brotherly Blues by nburwell22, on Flickr
Thanks! Yeah, I definitely love my Tokina. In fact, it's often rated higher than Nikon's & Canon's wide angle lenses and costs about half the price.
If its anything like the EF 70-200mm ƒ/4L IS then agreed! I love those shots! I'd love to have a 36'x24' or 20'x30' print of those!
Do you use it as your everyday lens or just so often? I love wide angles and I love Zeiss and those shots are beautiful!
The reflection of the resort is amazing!
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Great lens. The only one that gets close to it is the Canon 17mm and 21mm TSC lenses.
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Love that lens, even without IS:
I usually tend to shoot on the wider end, so for the most part, yes, it is used everyday. Although I just purchased the TS-E 24mm II, so both of those will be competing for attention.
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I couldn't agree more. I just picked up a used TS-E 24mm II, and it's right on par with my Zeiss 21mm.