cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

I vote for the 50/1.4 unless you have a Canon and lots of $$. Canon makes a stupendous 50/1.2! Best of luck with you photos, your newborn and your growing family.

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

Agree with the 50mm, f/1.4 or f/1.8 camp. The lighting is most important and it needs to be natural. Open the shades and add a reflector or two. The baby's bedding helps as it is white and won't add unlikely coloring.

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

Don't be impudent. Of course I have seen pictures of infants taken with bounced flash. But the only ones I have seen that came near to the quality of natural light photographs have been taken by people using highly diffused light. And I have seen the results of studies showing the effect of sudden changes in light on neural activity in children from newborn through five years of age. No it's not devastating, but it does indicate a level of discomfort not perceived in normal physical reaction.

Rufus Loc: Puget Sound area, WA

If using a short focal length, don't shoot wide open. Depth of focus is important. Getting the eyes sharp is not enough.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

On full frame...

If you have room to work I'd recommend Canon 85/1.8... unless you have the money for Sigma 85/1.4 or Canon 85/1.2L.

These short telephotos are better for portraiture than a 50mm lens, which can show some perspective distortions if use too close to the subject.

If you have a whole lot of working space, such as a nice big studio, the 100/2 or 135/2 are both top quality portrait lenses.

If you are doing wider shots.... such as Mom and baby... 50mm, 35mm or even 28mm can be useful... just don't get too close with them! They cannot be used for tight face shots.

With kids it's often necessary to move fast and a zoom might be helpful. A 70-200/2.8 would be great, but is rather large. 70-200/4 and 24-105/4 are both smaller and are good, but are only f4 lenses (less control over depth of field). An even lower cost 28-135 can give every bit as good image quality and AF performance as the 24-105L, just isn't as well built and has a variable f3.5-5.6 aperture that's not much fun to use with some lighting. A zoom with a non-variable aperture is a lot easier to use.

24-70/2.8 is my favorite zoom for portraiture on a crop camera, but IMO comes up a little bit short on a full frame camera. It's fine on full frame for weddings, but newborn pics might need to be done a little closer and tighter.

Spiney Loc: Reading, PA

When we had a studio I used a Nikon 24-85 zoom with much success on a DX camera. Now we occasionally shoot in the clients home. I'm shooting a Nikon D7000 DX Camera. I use a 35 or 50mm 1.8 prime. A mixture of natural light when available and White Lightning strobe into a large umbrella or if there is no room for that, I bounce off the wall or ceiling.

Minimum is I use a Speedlight Off Camera. I shoot at ISO 400 shooting at F=2.8 with great results. Make sure you have sharp focus on the eyes of the baby. I bounce the Speedlight off a wall or ceiling or use attachable bounce card.

Grammieb1 Loc: New Orleans

A Canon 100 macro makes a good lens for a newborn. It is relatively fast & you can get good closeups. Bab

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I'm not sure if you are talking newborn, but be prepared to be told "no flash". My newest grandson was born last Thursday. I brought in a small lightbox for use with speedlight and radio trigger. The nurse stopped me and said absolutely no flash. I'm sure any flash, even diffused or bounced is probably traumatic for the newborn. I do have a large light panel that is dimmable, and if the occasion to shoot another grandchild (I hope) arises, I will try the light panel instead. I did slightly open the blinds, and used a scrim to soften the light so I could get a few with directional light.

What I'm saying in this long winded message is that if you intend to do newborns in the hospital, expect to use a very fast lens. If you are just planning on taking baby photos, I think you can get away with something not quite so fast, and can use flash. The newborns probably don't handle flash very well. I was just so excited, I never even thought of that.

Grammieb1 Loc: New Orleans

I don't use flash on small babies. With a 5Dlll, which I have, plus a 2.8 or faster lens, you can do without flash. Bab

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

EF16-35mm f/2.8L II