I don’t get into Dublin city centre very often these days but on Monday night I made the trip in for a birthday party. On the way home I passed I don’t get into Dublin city centre very often these days but on Monday night I made the trip in for a birthday party. On the way home I passed Conn’s Cameras and had to do a back track to lustfully gaze in the windows at all the pretty camera toys. Most camera shops I’ve seen in Dublin are the dingy variety and they never have quite what you’re looking for in stock. It’s always a case of them having to look it up in one of their giant catalogues and order it in for you. All I want to do is have a look though and if they had to order it in well then I’d feel like I had to buy it. So, the next day I made yet another trip into Dublin and made straight for Conn’s. I’ve wanted to buy a telephoto lens for my camera (a Canon 10D) since I bought it 2 years ago. At the time I chose the 17-40mm L lens which I love but when it comes to capturing candid shots of people it’s just not the best method when you have to poke the camera right into their face to get a good shot. I like to be able to stand back a bit and stay as unobtrusive as possible but you can’t do that with a wide-angle. Another consideration are my incredibly shaky hands. It’s not a problem when it comes to drawing strangely enough but when trying to get those lovely sharp photos it’s a curse so image stabilisation was invented just for me.
The two lenses I have narrowed it down to after much googling and review-reading are:
The Canon 70-300mm USM with Image Stabilisation and
The Canon 28-135mm USM with Image Stabilisation
Conn’s had both in stock so I was able to pop them on my camera and give them a test run. I’ve put some of the resulting images on Flickr.
When it came down to it there was very little between the two. Both lenses did well even though I was in a dark alley on a gloomy day in Dublin. The following two images were taken with the 70-300, the first is at 70mm and the second is at 200mm and shows the beginning of shaky hands even with image stabilisation. It was really only at 200mm and below that things came into focus:
The 28-135 on the other hand was much better in the low-light and didn’t feel so huge on my camera. Plus at 499 Euro it’s a whole 100 Euro cheaper. For what I want…candids and portraits and an all-purpose carry-round lens I think it’s going to have to be the 28-135. The following two were taken with this lens. The first is at 28mm and the second at 135. Both show nice image stabilisation even though the shutter speed was slow enough to get nice blur on the moving figures:
7 replies on “Lens Testing”
YOU SPEAK-A DE EENGLISH!? NO COMPRENDE!!!! i spent a couple of minutes reading that…i’ll never have those minutes back 🙂
Interesting. I agree the 28-135 is better for most purposes. From what I understand the Canon 10D image sensor has a 1.6 multiplier to show equivalent focal lengths on a conventional 35mm camera. If so then the lens you mention is presumably equivalent to about 44-216 range on a 35mm camera. This would be about very slight wide angle up to decently good zoom. It would seem ideal range for portraits and candid people shots as you mentioned, as well as for standard photos. I’ve heard it said in 35mm days that 100mm focal length is ideal for portraits. As you know the further back from the subject the less facial distortion for portrait subjects. Digital cameras with their small image sensor areas (compared to 35mm film image area) tend to have big depth of field. Hence if you want the background nicely out of focus for portraits then you tend to have to use even larger zoom than 100mm – further reason to justify your choice of lens.
These gyro image stabilisers are amazing on modern lenses, but certainly add to the cost I guess.
Do you also have a wide angle lens? They are great for dramatic shots and interiors. But the zoom lens would be top priority to get really good shots of your child and people generally
Price it online before you buy anything from rip-off Ireland 🙂
I get the majority of my lenses & other bits and pieces from a hong kong seller on ebay (http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Kea-Photo). Normally works out a good bit cheaper than buying locally… and that’s taking 3 day fedex shipping into account too!
My next buy will probably be either a Sigma 70-200 f2.8 or 50-500. Take the 50-500; It can be gotten for around €850 from hong kong or around €1300 here.
@John: Yes, I have a wide-angle that I love and use all the time. The only problem is that if I want a nice portrait I have to get right up into the person’s face.
@Ryan: Thanks for that! I checked it out and sure enough that ebay store has them for over 100 Euro cheaper.
I have a Sigma 70-300 and haven’t been happy with it at all. Mind you I think if a lot of it is down to me just starting out in this whole photography stuff and not really knowing what I’m doing yet.
Yes, and the problem when you take portraits with wide angle – apart from the intimidation of going close – is how it makes noses bigger and generally causes facial distortion. Of course it can add drama sometimes, depends on what you are trying to achieve.
Yes, I know what you mean. I do like the effect you get from taking a full-length shot of a person with the wide-angle. It gives shots a real sense of character.
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