Hi, I’m Elizabeth and I’m addicted to glass. In the past 2 1/2 years, I’ve owned 10 lenses to the tune of $6500.
80% of the questions I get in my inbox and see on forums is about what lens to buy. It’s probably a more confusing decision than what camera to buy. So many numbers, so many opinions, so many personal experiences. All of these factors can make an accurate recommendation for someone next to impossible. The best thing I can do is share my own experiences and let you draw your own conclusion about where you want to take your glass collection next.
So let me start at the beginning. I started with a Canon 350D with 18-55mm kit lens. But I wanted a really zoomy lens and found a Sigma 70-300mm lens which was only around $200 brand new. Now, I had no idea at this point about aperture or focal length. I took it out a couple times and was so so disappointed that my hand-held shots were so so blurry and camera shakey. I don’t even think I was shooting in manual yet so I didn’t have the power to control this myself. I ended up selling it on eBay.
By the time I’d upgraded to a 450D, I was also now working with the kit lens from that camera which was an 18-200mm.
I had a photography crush on an amazing area wedding photographer and I convinced him to meet with me. So we met and I proudly brought my baby 450d complete with my ‘special’ lens (18-200 kit lens). And oh I so totally cringe when I think about that meeting. How. Totally. Embarrassing. I was very proud, mind you, and he was very gracious not to laugh me down when he suggested that I try a different lens and I was like, “um…but…like…why?” He introduced me to the concept of prime lenses which I understood and tried to explain to me about full frame sensors which I did NOT understand. But I still remember everything he said about it which meant that later on when I started getting it, what he said made sense. Moral of that story? Don’t filter out information just because you don’t understand it. Accept it as seeds and they will grow. But when he suggested I try fixed lenses, I was confused. “But it doesn’t zoom. How do I zoom?” I asked. His answer: “you’ve got legs, don’t you?” He sent me away with an assignment:
Set my zoom lens and leave it. Set it at 24mm and shoot for a day. Set it at 50mm and shoot for a day. 85mm. Etc. Then, I’ll have a good idea about what length fixed lens I should start with.
So I did this experiment and I loved it! I sold my little kit zooms and bought two Canon lenses: 24mm f/2.8 and 85mm f/1.8. For newbies, 24mm is a wide-ish lens and 85mm is nice and long – a great portrait lens.
So then I found out that there was this lens that people called a ‘nifty fifty’ – a 50mm f/1.8 lens that was super cheap. I bought one online and promptly put it on eBay after testing a few times. It was plastic and cheap, noisy and slow to focus and so not suited for fast moving kids. The best thing that came of that lens was that it helped me understand aperture better and of course, now I knew that I loved the 50mm focal length. Shortly after, I bought another 50mm, but this time it was the mid-range 50mm f/1.4. This lens was wonderful. Sharp, fast, gorgeous. It was pretty much permanently affixed to my camera.
Now just to catch you up: my camera was a 450d and I had three lenses {24mm, 50mm and 85mm}. I was a children’s portrait photographer also dabbling in weddings and as I now know, doing a wedding with only 1 camera was a dumb idea. But ya know, you live & learn. Hopefully without any lawsuits for ruining a couple’s wedding! But I digress…
Since I was so hung up on prime lenses now, I decided to buy a second camera so instead of switching lenses so much, I could just toggle the two cams as I needed them and I’d also have a backup. The problem with this set-up? I was running around a lot. Like a lot a lot. And this isn’t so great when you’re supposed to be a fly on the wall at a wedding.
Enter the L series lens.
I asked a photog friend if he had a zoom lens I could borrow for a wedding and he said that he had a 24-105mm f/4 which I knew was an L series lens from Canon. L for luxury. I fell in love and promptly sold my 85mm and 24mm lenses to help purchase this almost-a-thousand-bucks lens. A few days later, I was in love yet again with another fabulous piece of glass. So now, I had the 24-105 zoom and 50mm fixed and was shooting with a 7D. A side note about selling those two lenses to buy the new zoom: they were both absolutely fantastic lenses. The 85mm was especially beloved because I’m a portrait photographer and it was super sharp and crystal clear but being a children’s photographer and, at the time, shooting on a cropped sensor camera {click here to see the difference}, I felt that it put me too far away from the children to be able to interact as intimately as I wanted to. And the 24mm, well it was just quite wide and I didn’t appreciate it at the time.
Shortly after, I added the 5DmkII to my little family of gear and for my next wedding, I hired the 70-200mm f/2.8 L ‘big boy’ lens. I used that one on my 7D and the 24-105 on my 5D and then I used the 50mm for a few of the detail shots like the shoes, flowers, etc. This is still the way I shoot weddings.
Now, after experiencing my first L series lenses, I started to dream about what the L series 50mm f/1.2 must be like and when I caught one on eBay {from a private seller} that was a super great deal, I swiped it up and sold my f/1.4. And if you think it doesn’t get any better than the already impeccable 50mm 1.4, it so totally does. The 1.2 is everything I hoped it would be and so much more.
I’ve rented the 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II about 4 times now and decided that I love it enough to buy it. So last week, I bought the mkI version thinking it couldn’t possibly be that different. But boy, oh, boy was I wrong! I sent it back today and will be getting the mkII version instead.
So now? I’m shooting with a 7d and 5DmkII cameras and 50mm f/1.2 and 24-105mm f/4 lenses.
When I look back on the past couple years, I wouldn’t trade all that experience because of course, my job is all about telling you about my mistakes so you don’t have to make them. But you know, I really sorta feel like I earned my way up to where I am now in terms of gear and I know the difference in quality between all those different lenses and that’s very valuable knowledge to have.
{Further Reading}
- Prime Lenses – What’s different besides the length?
- Lenses aren’t UGGs – You get what you pay for
- What about lens envy
- The little numbers on the rim of your lens
- Lens lingo – What do all those letters and numbers even mean?
