After spending a weekend attempting to photograph an energetic three year old, I have decided that my over 10-year-old lens is not suitable for that job. It looks as if I will need to buy a new lens. The old one is so slow to focus that the child usually moves out of focus before the lens gets there. So – blurry pictures. I think kid photography is somewhat more dificult than sports photography.
So – I’ve been looking at zoom lenses in the 70-200mm range. My current lens is a Tamron 28-200mm, but I have other lenses to cover that “lower” range: an excellent quality Sigma 17-35mm wide angle lens, a “cheapie” Canon 35-80mm which came with my old Rebel and has better clarity than my Tamron 28-200mm.
In my searches, one lens stands out: the Canon 70-200mm F/4 “L” USM lens. This lens is one of Canon’s “L” series lenses. The “L” really means their top-end professional line [and that ususally means $$$]. I looked at the 70-200 F/2.8, but that one costs over a $1000 more than this one – which seems to be the entry point for the high-end professional lenses. I even looked at an equivalent 28-200mm “L” lens, but that one was over $2000, so it got scratched off the list [I’ve even read some reviews about it that give it a “mediocre” rating – not something I’d pay two grand for]. Some of these “L” lenses cost over $6000 [Ouch! I hope I don’t need that one any time soon!] but this one is actually affordable at less than $600. Sure: it’s simple and doesn’t have as many bells and whistles as the others [like image stabilization], but it’s a workhorse and the picture quality is astounding.
Looks like I have something else to save up for!
::: jeffphillips.org ::: 