06-05-2010, 11:29 PM
Hiya everyone!
I have been shooting with my faithful 17-40mm f4 (~27-64mm f5.6) on my 1.6x crop body (see signature) since late 2008 and would like to add another, longer lens for portrait & co works to my kit. However, I wasn't able to find very clear answers regarding the Canon 85mm 1.8, 100mm f2 and the new 100mm f2.8 Macro.
Since I intend to travel as light as possible with a maximum of 2 lenses and an external flash, I do not intent do purchase the 70-200mm f2.8 L IS / IS Mark II due to its hefty weight and steep price tag. (I'm even thinking of selling my battery grip to reduce weight.)
Basically what I am looking for is smooth bokeh at an aperture of f2 to f2.8, high contrast, accurate and fast AF similar to my 17-40mm f4, and preferably as little visual CA (Chromatic Aberration / achromatism) as possible. I downscale and usually sharpen my processed 10MP RAW files to about 4.5MP (2592x1728px) for punchier results.
What I found out is that on photozone.de and the-digital-picture.com, the Canon 100mm f2 is generally sharper, has less CA (wide open from f1.8 to f2.8) and produces slightly more appealing bokeh than its cheaper sibling. However, kenrockwell.com states that the bokeh of the 85mm is better, which might be due to personal preference maybe oO
Also, many users on amazon.com / .co.uk / .de and .fr seem to get slighly more contrasty and sharper results from their 85mm f1.8 primes at f2.8 than with the longer one.
Another question would be if the optional lens hood would be worth investing in. I read that it's one of those cheapo designs that simply snap onto the tread.
Personally I doubt that the 70-200mm f4 IS will deliver very nicely blurred backgrounds and foregrounds at focal lengths between 70 and 100mm wide open, or am I mistaken? Perhaps some of you has either lens and can share their experience.
I hope you can enlighten me here <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' />
Cheers
Harald
I have been shooting with my faithful 17-40mm f4 (~27-64mm f5.6) on my 1.6x crop body (see signature) since late 2008 and would like to add another, longer lens for portrait & co works to my kit. However, I wasn't able to find very clear answers regarding the Canon 85mm 1.8, 100mm f2 and the new 100mm f2.8 Macro.
Since I intend to travel as light as possible with a maximum of 2 lenses and an external flash, I do not intent do purchase the 70-200mm f2.8 L IS / IS Mark II due to its hefty weight and steep price tag. (I'm even thinking of selling my battery grip to reduce weight.)
Basically what I am looking for is smooth bokeh at an aperture of f2 to f2.8, high contrast, accurate and fast AF similar to my 17-40mm f4, and preferably as little visual CA (Chromatic Aberration / achromatism) as possible. I downscale and usually sharpen my processed 10MP RAW files to about 4.5MP (2592x1728px) for punchier results.
What I found out is that on photozone.de and the-digital-picture.com, the Canon 100mm f2 is generally sharper, has less CA (wide open from f1.8 to f2.8) and produces slightly more appealing bokeh than its cheaper sibling. However, kenrockwell.com states that the bokeh of the 85mm is better, which might be due to personal preference maybe oO
Also, many users on amazon.com / .co.uk / .de and .fr seem to get slighly more contrasty and sharper results from their 85mm f1.8 primes at f2.8 than with the longer one.
Another question would be if the optional lens hood would be worth investing in. I read that it's one of those cheapo designs that simply snap onto the tread.
Personally I doubt that the 70-200mm f4 IS will deliver very nicely blurred backgrounds and foregrounds at focal lengths between 70 and 100mm wide open, or am I mistaken? Perhaps some of you has either lens and can share their experience.
I hope you can enlighten me here <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' />Cheers
Harald