Recently given a Canon 60D by my wife with EFS 18-135 IS lens. Great setup that I am still learning to use.

Looking to get an additional lens to use indoors, mainly to photograph people. The zoom lens I have is great but maximum aperture opening is limiting for indoor / low light conditions. I like trying to use available light or subtle flash lighting to capture people when possible.

Any recommendations for a good, reasonably priced, lens around 50mm and f 1.8? Some zoom range nice but not necessary. Macro capability also nice but not necessary - may need a separate macro lens eventually.

Appreciate suggestions from the group.

In addition to the plastic fantastic 50mm...the Canon EF 35mm f/2 is a stellar lens.

Here is what I'd suggest. (and I know this goes against the grain but I've been down the "faster lens" road to the tune of many thousands of dollars....)

Instead of getting a faster lens, get a speedlight and learn to bounce flash. You will spend less money than a good lens, and you will get better results.

Why?

Because under typical "low light" conditions you are talking about ISO's of 1600, 3200 and up...that makes the quality of the images degrade some.

Not only that, to get the benefit of the large aperture you have to shoot wide open and even the plastic fantastic isn't as sharp as it should be wide open. Also your depth of field will be TINY TINY TINY and you will miss focus and shots because of that....but if you shoot at f/4 to get better DOF then you've negated the reason to use a fast lens in the first place!

If you learn to effectively bounce flash and flag flash, not only do you learn a very valuable skill, but you also get better images because you are creating great light...not settling for what's there.

That's just another point of view, but I think it's a valid one.

Here is a link to a post I put up showing the advantage of this approach

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-93761-1.html


And here is a link to learn to bounce and flag flash:

http://neilvn.com/tangents/the-black-foamie-thing/

Just so everyone on this thread knows (and this isn't a dig at you sarge) you don't have to blind people with a speedlight to use one effectively inside.

If you flag it (put something on it so that it won't shoot forward) and point it up at a 45 angle so that the bounce to the subject is "upper side light" then the light cannot blind anyone; add to that the fact that you are just "supplementing" the available light so that f/4 or f/5.6 or whatever is usable, then the "pop" of light is very small and not hardly noticeable.

You can also put a speedlight up in a corner of the room (or two opposite corners for better coverage) and turn them down so that they are consistent "fill" lights to just get the ambient light level up to a usable level...nobody even realizes that they are going off after a few minutes...

Again..not a dig at you sarge, you are right...deer-in-the-headlight-flash doesn't work.

Learning to use your flash is always a good idea. As for a lens, I would suggest these two that you might be interested in.

A wide angle:
http://www.adorama.com/CA1740U.html

The 70-200mm lens:
http://www.adorama.com/CA70200AFL.html

Same lens but with IS:
http://www.adorama.com/CA702002ISU.html

They also make an f4.0 version of this lens. The 70-200mm lens is a very common lens that most of us eventually end up with. All of the Canon versions are great lenses.

Jim D

In addition to the plastic fantastic 50mm...the Canon EF 35mm f/2 is a stellar lens.

Here is what I'd suggest. (and I know this goes against the grain but I've been down the "faster lens" road to the tune of many thousands of dollars....)

Instead of getting a faster lens, get a speedlight and learn to bounce flash. You will spend less money than a good lens, and you will get better results.

Why?

Because under typical "low light" conditions you are talking about ISO's of 1600, 3200 and up...that makes the quality of the images degrade some.

Not only that, to get the benefit of the large aperture you have to shoot wide open and even the plastic fantastic isn't as sharp as it should be wide open. Also your depth of field will be TINY TINY TINY and you will miss focus and shots because of that....but if you shoot at f/4 to get better DOF then you've negated the reason to use a fast lens in the first place!

If you learn to effectively bounce flash and flag flash, not only do you learn a very valuable skill, but you also get better images because you are creating great light...not settling for what's there.

That's just another point of view, but I think it's a valid one.

Here is a link to a post I put up showing the advantage of this approach

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-93761-1.html


And here is a link to learn to bounce and flag flash:

http://neilvn.com/tangents/the-black-foamie-thing/