Nlaw1219 wrote:
The camera I purchased is a EOS M5 which is light weight and perfect in my hands for a 61 year old. Now I need to know what lens is best in a decent price range for portraits. I was looking at the 70-200 f4 but I really like the reviews on the 70-200 f2. Advice please, should I save for the most expensive?
One of the "problem" with the Canon M-series cameras is lack of native lenses for them. Five years after introducing their mirrorless cameras and after finally upgrading them to competitive standards and offering models with electronic viewfinders (M5 and M50)... Cann to date they has only produced 7 or 8 lenses, total... most are pretty modest, slow zooms;.. and all Canon EF-M are STM focus drive (none offer faster USM lenses, so far).
I am planning to buy an M5, too. I want it mostly for candid portraiture and street photography. I will be using it with
Rokinon 12mm f/2, 21mm f/1.4, 50mm f/1.2 and a vintage
Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 lenses. These are all manual focus, manual aperture lenses. All but the Tamron are available in EF-M mount (no adapter required). The Tamron is an interchangeable mount Adaptall lens, and those are available in EF-M too... so I won't need the EF/EF-S to EF-M adapter discussed below. With all these, the camera does need to be set to "shoot without lens", because it doesn't know this type lens is mounted). With manual aperture lenses such as these, the camera can be used in Manual exposure mode, Av auto exposure mode or Manual with Auto ISO AE mode... but not in Tv or P or any scene modes. Thanks to the M5's electronic viewfinder and focus peaking features, manual focus lenses are much more usable on it than on modern DSLRs. The EVF also helps with manual aperture control, by giving "exposure simulation".
If you want autofocus, for portraiture I'd recommend a
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM ($125) or
EF 50mm f/1.4 USM ($350)... either of which will require an EOS EF/EF-S to EF-M adapter.
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM ($400) would be another good choice, also requiring an adapter.
Canon EF/EF-S to EF-M Adapter is pricey at around $200. Vello, Fotodiox and others are making more affordable adapters that do the same thing for $60 or less. Using modern AF and electronic aperture control lenses via these adapters make both those features usable on the camera.
Or, for a fairly small, unobtrusive option...
Canon "Pancake" 40mm f/2.8 STM (also requiring the adapter, making it a lot less compact, but able to AF and set aperture).
The best "portrait" lenses among the native EF-M (made for use on M-series, no adapter required, able to autofocus and set aperture via the camera) are the
EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.5 IS STM and
EF-M 18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM zooms. If you got the camera in kit with one of those, there's also an
EF-M 55-200mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM that might be used for portraiture at greater distances. NONE of the EF-M lenses are particularly fast either (small max apertures). A previous response mentions a Tamron 18-200mm, which might work too (though I completely disagree with something in that post... I use large apertures a lot for portraiture... see below).
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 will work, too (with the same adapter). But it will seem pretty darned large on an M5. And it's "only" f/4. I want a bigger aperture for portraiture... especially candid shots on location where I can't control backgrounds and will often need the ability to blur it down a lot. There are three versions of Canon 70-200mm f/4L.... cheaper non-stabilized.... IS stabilized version... and a new IS "II" version that's just been announced, but isn't in stores yet.
70-200mm f/2? I don't think that exists... if it did it would be HUGE, heavy and very expensive (Canon DOES make an EF 200mm f/2... costs $5700 and weighs over 5.5 lb. Uses 52mm drop in filters because its front element is about 120mm in diameter... too big for filters! Lens alone is over 5" in diameter, 8" long... plus it's coffee-can-size lens hood).
You probably mean
70-200mm f/2.8.... Canon makes two (and has made a third one in the past... and just announced a fourth, new one coming shortly... along with that new f/4). There are also
Sigma and Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8. All these will seem quite big, heavy and "nose heavy" on a small M5. Be sure to check them out in person (or rent and take a test drive), before committing to buying and using one.
If you REALLY need a longer, fast lens, I'd recommend
Canon EF 100mm f/2 USM or
EF 135mm f/2L USM instead. Those are a lot more practical size and weight (though the 135mm ain't no lightweight, by any means).
For kids and pet portraits, I like to use a zoom and my favorite on a crop sensor camera is
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM... but that's a fairly large, heavy lens too.... and would seem especially so with an adapter added and an M5 behind it!
A cheaper, somewhat smaller and lighter weight, but still quite capable alternative is the recently discontinued
Canon EF 28-135mm IS USM. It can be found used for around $200 (and will also need to be adapted).
Portraits done with some of the above lenses (plus a couple more), on various APS-C cameras (same crop as M5)...
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 (at f/2)...
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 (at f/2)....
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L (at f/5.6)...
Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM (at f/7.1)....
Canon 135mm f/2L (at f/4.5)...
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM (at f/4)...
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM (at f/5.6)...
Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM (at f/4)...
Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM + Canon EF 1.4X II Extender (700mm, at f/5.6)...
Hope this helps! Have fun shopping!