Lenses

The “kit” lens that I bought with my 5DMKII, but for glass of this quality and a regular retail price of $1,249, it’s hard to refer to this as a kit lens. The only “L” series lens in my bag right now, this lens has already been very good to me in my first few shoots with it. While not as long as my other telephoto lens, this guy easily covers the wide-to-tele range much better than the lenses that came with my previous DSLR cameras.

The other spec item different on this lens than the others in my bag is the 77mm filter size. Fortunately, I had purchased a few 77mm filters back when I was renting lenses last year, so I was already set there.

Official specs from Canon.

View at Amazon to read customer reviews.

As I was “gearing up” for the ’09 Maui Photo Festival and Workshops, I felt I needed to add something dedicated solely to the landscape photography that was kind of my forte at the time. So, I went looking and found this guy. I actually had my eyes on the 28mm version of this, which was unfortunately backordered with everyone from Amazon to B&H to Adorama. Could it have been that popular, or was it just so old that it wasn’t being made any more?

In any case, I picked this up as a refurbished item from Adorama, which I was a little weary about. Up to now (5 months later) however, I haven’t noticed any issues with it, so I can’t complain.

In addition to being the choice lens in my bag for landscapes, this one got a big thumbs up from me during my helicopter tour over Maui in September. With a helicopter flying much lower than my recent aerial shoot by airplane, I was able to benefit from the fast f/2.8 aperture to capture some lovely works.

Official specs from Canon.

View at Amazon for customer reviews.

Looks can be deceiving. This little guide was bought for my experiments into astrophotography. You might be expecting something a little bit bigger to peer out into space, but after reading Digital SLR Astrophotography, there are some good common sense reasons why a fixed length lens and one this size (50mm) is the perfect fit.

I have played around with this lens a few times outside of just shooting the stars, but not too much. Times that I have used it are for shooting things like artwork or those tiny little Swarovski figurines my wife collects. Haven’t tried in with our rabbits yet, but that could be another option.

It is billed as a great lens for portrait photography, so if you have a large family that loves to be in front of the camera, you would probably get a good deal of use out of this one.

Official specs from Canon.

View at Amazon for customer reviews.

I picked this one up shortly before we left for Maui in 2006. It’s been a very fun part of my arsenal and has given me lots of great zoom shots. It sometimes feels a little cumbersome when you have it on the camera but not shooting, like when you’re walking through a crowd or down a street or something like that. I get a little paranoid as to not smack it against something.

I have a few favorite uses for this guy. I’ve been to a few hockey games and this has gotten me right up to the action from a safe (and affordable) distance. On vacation, this one is great for taking photos from our lanai (balcony) of our hotel as the whales or boats drift on by, as well as on sunset cruises for getting shots of the island from out in the water.

These types of lenses fall into the investment category as far as pricing goes, but if you’re serious enough and have a need for it, you’ll love it.

Official specs from Canon.

View at Amazon to read customer reviews.

This lens came with my camera, and it has been very versitile for me. I think out of the photos I’ve taken with this, have been either wide angle landscape photos (at 18mm) or just portrait shots and close range like that. I would imagine it would be a very useful utility lens for anyone starting out with a DSLR like I was at the time.

Official specs from Canon.

View at Amazon to read customer reviews.