What Canon L series lens to buy?

Question

Im planning to buy a canon 24-70mm F2.8L or a 24-105mm f4L. Basically my need is image quality, second is the range. Can anyone advise me on this? Or recommend other lens. Im trying to find the best all around lens. I'm more on portrait photography and I own a canon 400D.

Answer 1

I'd go with the 24-70 f/2.8 .. it's a much faster lens than the 24-105 and will be better in lower light, and better hand held.  

After that, I'd go for the 70-200mm f/2.8 to extend my range.

Answer 2

The 24-70 mm f 2.8 lens is a perfect "all-around" lens.. for a full frame camera. As you know, it's not so wide on yours due to cropped sensor. However, with moderately fast aperture at f 2.8, (and it is sharp at wide open, see http://www.flickr.com/little_pooky keep in mind these are full frame photos), you can get a decent background blur.

I chose that lens over the 24-105 mm. Nice to have IS, but not for something that wide. I'd rather have a fast aperture than a slower one (2 stops, in this case), and found it very useful for indoor use. (Each photo is marked with the lens used.)

If you want to replace your normal lens, then the 17-40 mm f 4 is great. I had that, and gave it to a friend who has XT. He really loves it.

Your next L lens would be, if you want a telephoto, the 70-200 mm f 4 L. Very sharp and contrasty.

Answer 3

For portrait photography your best bet would be the 24-70 f2.8 L. I say this because f2.8 gives your better separation of the foreground and background, the blur of the background will be much better vs. f4. Also, on a crop camera like the 400D the 24-105mm would have an actual view of 38-164mm which becomes a bit long for portrait shots. The 24-70 would have a view of 38-112mm which would be a bit better.

Now if your talking candid street photography then I would vote for the 24-105mm f4 L because the reach and the IS function. Street photography would mean more lower light situations and the IS would be fantastic because you would be doing street photography handheld.

Now for the best walkaround lens on a crop body like the 400d I would say the 17-40mm f4 L would be the best L lens giving you and effective range of 27-64mm. It has a good wide angle for group portraits and also a moderate amount of reach for head shots and upper body shots.

Answer 4

The two lenses you mention are neither massive telephoto and become very moderate wide angles on your body (remember the 1.6x coversion factor, so a nice workable 24mm wide becomes a rather dull 38mm wide)

If you want more wide angle then the 17-40 f4L is a bit of a stonker for very reasonable cash.   If you want a bit more tele (but it will be at the expense of the wide angle) then the two you mention are fine.

If you want to do portraiture then for around the same cash you could get yourself a very nice 50mm f1.8 & Sigma 70mm f2.8 macro.

Both will give you the sweet spot of portraiture (effective 80mm & 110mm)  and on top of that will give you a very bright f1.8 lens for low light use outside of the studio, and a very crisp macro.

You need to stop down to get the best out of any lens, shooting with the 50 at f2.8 will give you excellent results and retain nice soft bokeh, the Sigma 70mm is pretty much very sharp out of the box and give exceptional resolution from f4 upwards.