coco1964 Loc: Winsted Mn

I would check out the Canon, non-L 85mm, 1.8. It's a great lens for portraits and comes at a pretty sweet price. A prime will give you some great sharp photos and with a 1.8 aperture it's as fast as you'll need and also faster than the 24-70, 2.8. To be honest if I was looking for a 24-70,2.8 I would look at the Tamron version---it's not cheap but it has surpassed Canon's L and Nikon's version in a number of independent revues. Check out the review by Ken Rockwell's review of the Canon 85mm, 1.8, I think you'll like it......

Dave Johnson Loc: Grand Rapids, Michigan

I have to concure with others on the merits of the 105mm focal length. I use my 105 Sigma Macro f2.8 for portraits. It is definately the sharpest lens in my bag.

Murray Loc: New Westminster

If you are going to quote-do it accurately.

Joelbarton87 Loc: Hereford u.k

That was my thoughts lol

cecilia delacroix Loc: near Seattle

Ideal lens for portraits will have a large aperture for selective focus, f/1.4 - 2.8. Ideal focal length (fixed or zoom) would be 50-85mm for cropped sensor (like your Canon 60D), 85-135mm for full frame (Canon 5D or 6D). (And "ideal" doesn't mean a lens of a different focal length couldn't also be advantageous depending on the situation.) I have the Canon 85mm f/1.8 and I love it.

gessman Loc: Colorado

Another thing you might want to think about is that you cannot micro-adjust your lens with the 60D and it could be that part of your unhappiness with your current lens is due to a need for your lens to be micro-adjusted or calibrated to your 60D. YOU/WE can calibrate lens for the 50D, 5D?'s, and 7D as well as the upper end pro bodies but not the 60D. If you get a L lens and your sensor is off, the new expensive lens could just as well need calibrating and you'll need to send the lens and camera to Canon to be calibrated.

A lot of uhh'ers who shoot the 60D will come to their defense but if you google for complaints about focus problems with the 60D, you'll get way more hits than you'll want to read. Some of those images you've seen that failed to impress you may be soft for a known reason and the owner doesn't know the difference or that the problem even exists or that there is a solution and what that solution is. Personally, if I owned a 60D I'd buy a L lens first, if it's soft, do the calibration thing with Canon and start looking for another body to trade for with people like KEH, Adorama, B&H, or Canon even, maybe a refurb 7D.

Joelbarton87 Loc: Hereford u.k

You may have just hit the nail on the head and I have to admit I did not know about that problem. Presumably if I had a lens calibrated for the 60D when I bought a new body I would need it recalibrating for that body? If I upgraded my body it would be to a 5D mkiii as I have been talking to my misses and managed to persuade her to let me do it.

PhotoGator Loc: Florida

Before you spend money on lenses or a new camera try your other alternatives:
Tripod, off-camera flash, light modifiers.
Then when you master what you have then you will have the knowledge to make purchasing decisions based on your own needs and experiences. Figure out what you photography niche is; portrait, landscape, nature, sports, macro.

Joelbarton87 Loc: Hereford u.k

already done this I have 5k of equipment already and am making money from it and am fully confident with my equipment and how it works just looking for something that will take me to the next level.

Pepper Loc: Planet Earth Country USA

You're good to go! :thumbup:

emmons267 Loc: Arizona, Valley of the Sun

I envy you, you've 5K invested in equipment, and you want to take it to the next level...lol - this would be a level I'll never experience. Enjoy.

gessman Loc: Colorado

Not necessarily. It may be that it is just the combo of the lens you have now and THAT 60D body. Obviously, some 60D's must come from the factory working with several lens okay or there would be more complaints, but that's where it gets to be a little complicated. When you calibrate, we say "calibrate a lens to this body," when in reality, it is actually calibrating the body to the lens. The body is adjustable, not the lens, but it seems that it is the precision or lack thereof in the construction of the lens that makes THAT lens is okay for one body and not the next so it may be that moving the lens from one body to another accidentally finds a perfect match because the new body may have the calibration perfect for that particular lens.

We have to face a fact here - Canon started including the option to calibrate lens in their bodies fairly lately. That could have been a result of the imprecision in lens building and people who were not satisfied with what they got and sent it back, hence Canon came up with the idea of allowing the customer to calibrate their own equipment rather than creating all the returns. Each of the cameras that allow micro-adjustment retains a record of the calibrated settings necessary for up to 25 lens and you may need to calibrate each of the lens you have to those bodies to create that onboard database of minute adjustments so each time you mount a lens the body knows what it has to do to return to the calibrated setting for that particular lens.

Calibration may involve more than I know about it but it appears that doing a test to determine if a lens is soft because it is focusing in front or back of the precise spot you want to be sharpest and during calibration the sensor moves back or forward to that precise focus spot when you adjust and then remembers those settings for when that lens is remounted later. There is a reason that all of a sudden Canon decided to include that feature. It apparently allowed them to put the onus for sharp focus on the customer and give them the ability to do the adjustments so they didn't have to and also permitted them to be much less precise in building the lens while not suffering all the complaints and returns. In the "prosumer" line, the ability to micro-adjust first appeared, I believe, in the 50D, and has been put in the 5D, 5d2, 7D, and 5D3 in that order but for some un-explainable reason, left it out of the 60D. Crazy. So, the rest of the answer is that if you upgrade to the 5D3 and your new L lens is soft, you can fix it by using Google.

Before you do anything, you could, maybe should, perform a test on what you have now. The latest craze is to use a coke can, totally secure your camera so you don't have to touch it while testing, and aim at the fine lettering on the can, tripod, mirror lockup, remote release, or use the 10 sec timer so after you press the shutter button all vibration or movement has time to settle before the shutter fires. There is ample info on procedure and technique using both Google and Youtube if you prefer video. Using a Coke can replaces the necessity to buy or build a test target and shows how quick focus falls off as the can turns. Search of instructions on how to use a Coke can to micro-adjust or calibrate as opposed to just searching on those terms alone.

One further thing - there is a marvelous piece of software that allows you to calibrate with your computer when you have a body YOU can calibrate and offers some other advantages for you as well. It is called "Focal" by Reiken. There are three levels and good advantages with each rung on the advantages ladder. You order and download so you're working it in minutes.

http://www.reikan.co.uk/focalweb/

Several uhh members including myself use it and everyone seems to really like it although certainly one can calibrate without it pretty simply.

Joelbarton87 Loc: Hereford u.k

this is a combination of flashes an other studio gear

emmons267 Loc: Arizona, Valley of the Sun

Sounds like fun!

Joelbarton87 Loc: Hereford u.k

no your location sounds fun