Tuesday, 7 February 2017

How do I choose a lens that does portraits, star photography and landscapes?


I'm wondering if you can help me to choose between Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM Wide Angle (without IS) and the Canon EF 24mm f/2.8 IS USM Wide Angle Lens for portraits, landscape and star photography.


I am currently using a Canon T3i.Is the IS more important than maximum aperture?


I'm travelling to Africa and one of these lenses will be with me isA, so I hope it is good for portraits for the people and so.


Any other suggestions are appreciated.



Answer



You've really got some competing needs there. Portraits typically call for a normal to short-tele lens -- starting at 50mm or so (full-frame) or 35mm (crop). Landscapes and star photography tend to lean toward wider lenses, and on the crop-sensor T3i, you'd want to be at least as wide as the 28. As a point of reference, Canon's 10-22mm lens is generally considered one of the better options for landscape photography for crop-sensor bodies.


Both the 24 and the 28 offer reasonably wide maximum apertures, though, which can be helpful for astrophotography because you typically want to keep exposures below 20-30 seconds if you're trying to avoid star trails. One possible option to combine a landscape & nighttime lens would be to look at Tokina's 11-16mm f/2.8 lens, which usually ranks right up with Canon's 10-22 for landscape photography, and offers a reasonably fast maximum aperture. Maybe add in Canon's 50mm f/1.8 lens for portraits, and you'd have a fair chance at meeting all those needs.


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