Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM

The Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM is on sale for $1250 at Downtown Camera. Seriously considering getting it (but having second thoughts after only shooting about 100 shots with the 50mm and that the 24-70 weighs nearly a kilogram).

Need to shoot some more downtown landscapes with the 50mm to see its limitations. Maybe I'll just get a 24mm prime used by the backstage photographers featured on Behind the Lens.

Choosing the 50 mm lens

The article that convinced me to choose a 50mm prime lens over the usual multi-function lens that Canon ships as a kit with the camera body (Wed Jan 21 16:00:26 2009I noticed I had the wrong URL linked).

This review looks at the three Canon 50mm lenses, el-cheapo, mid-range and high-end; additional review sites are listed at the end.

And of course, there is the famous Zeiss 50 mm f/0.7 lens that Kubrick used to shoot the candle-lit gambling scene in Barry Lyndon, without additional artificial lights.

Canon 75-300 mm f/4.0-5.6 III USM Lens

The New York State sentence for a Peeping Tom is six months in the workhouse.
— Rear Window

Jim brought in his 75-300mm telephoto lens and I had a lot of fun shooting with it today. He said this lens was purchased in the days before there were digital SLR cameras.

First impressions (I have nothing to compare it to): the lens is great for daytime shooting. I managed a few twilight shots but I found that it had the annoying habit of losing focus completely for no discernable reason (maybe because I was shooting through glass?) which required me to manually recompose/zoom-in and focus again. I was able to read the text on a letter-sized sign (in 48pt font?) from half a block away. I was able to read the text in the photograph; it was too shaky to read-it while shooting hand-held. The best descriptor of the the zoom-ring would have to be, "clunky with a bit of wobble". Update Wed Oct 22 23:51:38 2008: This is not an internal zoom lens; the length of the lens changes as you zoom in, unlike the EF 75-200 mm f/2.8 L IS USM (US$ 1700, that Eric recommends, non IS version US$ 1200).

I was hoping to catch someone undressing in front of their window in the many apartments around the university, or a murder being committed, but no such luck.

Update Fri Oct 24 18:36:20 2008: Photos now available.

Update Fri Oct 24 22:12:23 2008: David suggests some alternatives:

What are you planning on take pictures of?

If you're going to take pictures of objects far away that you need to zoom into, then the 75-200 would be useful (remember to multiple by 1.6x to get the "true" length though).

If a good portion of your pictures will be indoors, or for close- to medium-distance objects, Canon's 24-70mm may be of more use.

There are also 70-200 f/4 lenses (IS and non-IS). Both are about US$ 700 less expensive than their f/2.8 counterparts.