Bluesboy1313

Hello. Just picked up a Canon D7 markII looking for a good fast all around lens. Cannon? Tamron? Sigma??? Willing to spend $1000 give or take. Do alot of street shots. Motorcycle events. Concerts. Like wide to intermediate. Thanks.

CO

Tamron has been introducing a new series of SP prime lenses. What's great about them is that they all have vibration compensation. The 35mm f/1.8 and 45mm f/1.8 VC lenses were the first two. They just introduced an 85mm f/1.8. They have pro build quality with a metal lens barrel and are fully weather sealed including a weather seal at the lens mount. I bought the 45mm f/1.8 for my Nikon not long ago. The combination of the large max aperture and vibration compensation make them great for model and street photography.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

24-70 f2.8L or 24-105 f4L IS? If you need faster, there are the primes (50 f1.2L, 85 f1.2L, 50 f1.4, 85 f1.8, 100 f2...)

Bluesboy1313

Thank you. Some say the 24-105 is better for full frame. You?

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Have used it on both. Not very wide on APC (-39mm effective FOV at widest), but other than that, a very versatile lens with good "reach" (~165 mm effective on an APC).

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Welcome to our forum!

Try some lens comparisons.

http://www.dpreview.com/products/compare/lenses
http://lenshero.com/lens-comparison
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/ISO-12233-Sample-Crops.aspx
http://www.lenstip.com/lenses.html
http://www.dxomark.com/Lenses/Compare
http://www.lenscore.org/

insman1132 Loc: Southwest Florida

Can't help you but I can say, "Welcome!"

Anandnra Loc: Tennessee

I have both the 24-70 and the 24-105 with this body and they both work fine. Plan to sell the 24-105 as I don't use it as much with the acquisition of the 24-70 2.8ii. Send me a PM if you are interested in the 24-105.

studavis

I would stay with only full frame lenses so if you grow to a full frame camera you maintain all your lenses. Idid that and now have a 5D (full) and a 7D and ca use any lens on both cameras. I have the news caps marked as the 100mm says 100mm/160mm.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

I don't know much about the Canon line as I am a Nikon user but, I do have a Tamron 10-24mm wide angle that was given to me for my Birthday. I really wish my wife would have spent the extra $300 or so and gotten the Nikon 10-24mm as it doesn't fisheye at 10mm they way the Tamron does. Also, it has better IQ across the board. However, Tamron does make some decent lenses as does Sigma etc. I would recommend that you take your body to a camera shop and try the various lenses on YOUR camera body, go home and develop (process) the test images that you took at the camera shop, and decide. Also, asking here is good to but nothing compares to having the lenses in your hands and trying them on your camera. Also, be aware that in any case of lenses, just as any group of cars, etc., there will be some slight variance from lens to lens even in identical product. The lenses are put together by technicians and will have a little variance from lens to lens. This may not be much but, hopefully you will be testing the actual lens you are getting. I have seen some great lenses and an occasional dog out of the same batch, just as you see a bunch of great cars and an absolute lemon. The bad one might be one in 1000 but it is huge if you get stuck with it. So, Also make sure that if you get THAT lens, you can return it, so verify the return policy. Adorama, B&H and most of the major mail order places have great return/replacement policies. Some such as Best Buy (I tried to purchase a Blu-Ray DVD from them and they refused my Visa debit card when I had $1500 in the account so I went across the street and got the same DVD from Walmart for the same price and there was no problem) or some local camera stores will vary from store to store so get the policy in writing in advance. Once you have a store or stores that you are comfortable with, then you can hit them first when you are resolving your next GAS (gear acquisition situation) attack. But look at all of your options. And avoid 42nd Street Photo in NYC at all cost. They make shysters look good.

fuzzypaddle Loc: Southern Illinois

The Canon EF-s 17-55mm is an excellent lens. All five of my other lenses are "L" lenses and this lens equals them in sharpness. This lens gives you the equivalents of a 24-85mm on a full frame. Believe me, you cannot go wrong with this lens.

BuckeyeBilly Loc: St. Petersburg, FL

Welcome to UHH. You'll always get good-to-great advice on this site with a few oddball, nut cases thrown in every now and then. One piece of advice for you is to consider buying refurbished lenses. These are lenses that have been thoroughly checked and brought into "like new" condition and will come with a warranty. And when it comes to warranties, Canon, in my opinion, offers the best. All of its refurbished lenses, in fact anything Canon has that is refurbished, comes with a 1-year warranty, far better than any other manufacturer. So, once you've landed on some lenses to seriously consider, bookmark this link, visit it, and see how much money you can save. Good luck!

http://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/catalog/lenses-flashes/refurbished-lenses

Here is the link to Canon's EOS refurbished camera lineup:
http://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/catalog/cameras/refurbished-eos-digital-slr-cameras

...and its refurbished Powershot (point-and-shoot) cameras:
http://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/catalog/refurbished-powershot-digital-cameras

If you want a website that offers good, honest reviews of lenses, cameras, etc., then visit this site hosted by Gordon Laing. He puts EVERYTHING through its paces when doing a review and you can rest assured that you're getting EXCELLENT advice on lenses, cameras, etc.
http://www.cameralabs.com/lenses/Latest_DSLR_Lens_reviews.shtml

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

First of all, it's a 7D Mark II (not a D7... that would be a Nikon, except they've only just released the D5 :roll: ).

Did any lens come with your camera? An EF-S 18-135mm STM IS is usually what's sold in kit with a 7DII. That's actually a pretty decent "walk-around" lens.

Fast? Do you mean larger maximum aperture? Or do you mean fast autofocus? Or both?

To get a big aperture, you always end up with a narrower range of focal lengths. Also, the larger the aperture, the bigger and heavier the lens. There are always "trade-offs", with optics.

Canon offers three types of focus drive: micro motor, STM and USM. Lenses that aren't marked either STM or USM use micro motor. This is the least expensive type, tends to be noisier, slower and in some cases less accurate, but is adequate for a lot of purposes. STM is "stepper motor", is a bit faster than and costs about $50 more per lens than micro motor, is near silent and very smoother operating, "fly-by-wire" (requires power to the lens) and is usually preferred for video. USM is "ultrasonic motor", is the fastest and tends to be most expensive and what's used on the more premium lenses, very fast in most cases, not as quiet and smooth as STM, so not the ideal for video, but excellent for still photography and often the best choice for any sort of action/sports shooting (Note: A few USM lenses such as macro and ultra-large aperture f1.2 are not as fast focusing, by design. They emphasize accuracy, over speed.)

Third party lenses use either micro motor (Piezo) or ultrasonic (Sigma HSM, Tamron USD). AFAIK, none of them offer the equivalent of STM.

Canon EF-S 17-55/2.8 IS USM is one of the largest aperture standard zooms and is quite good. It also has fast and accurate USM focus drive. An alternative would be the EF 24-70/2.8L II USM, which is excellent but costs more than your wanted to spend, plus as a full frame-capable lens is somewhat overkill for an APS-C format camera, not particularly wide, as well as larger and heavier.

The EF-S 15-85mm f3.5-5.6 IS USM is another premium quality, general purpose walk-around lens. Note the wider range (including unusually wide angle 15mm, for a lens of this type)... but also the smaller, variable aperture. This is to keep the lens reasonably compact.

The whole point of DSLR cameras is easily interchanged lenses, so the lens can be adapted for use in a wide range of situations. So you might complement a slower (smaller aperture) walk-around lens such as the 15-85mm with one or two "fast" (large aperture) prime lenses. Compared to zooms, a prime can often offer even larger aperture, while still remaining relatively compact and affordable. For example, EF 28/1.8 USM, EF 35/2 IS USM, EF 50/1.8 STM, EF 50/1.4 USM and EF 85/1.8 USM all offer at least one stop, and up to two stops larger aperture, but are all modest size and price.

You also mention wanting wide angle, in particular. With APS-C cameras, there aren't many truly wide primes... you're mostly just looking at zooms. Tokina makes an f2.8 11-20mm), but most other ultrawides do not offer particularly large apertures, simply because with this type lens we're usually stopping them down anyway, looking for depth of field from near to far... plus short focal lengths are pretty easily handheld even at slower shutter speeds. f4 and f5.6 are common among ultrawides. Canon offers one of the best deals of all: the EF-S 10-18mm f4.5-5.6 IS STM... It sells for under $300 (which is $100 or more cheaper than any other ultrawide on the market). Even at bargain prices, it doesn't compromise at all on image quality... is one of the best available. It's also the first ultrawide to offer image stabilization. It's just relatively lightly built (lots of plastic, even the bayonet mount), but relatively compact and possibly more than adequate if someone only needs an ultrawide occasionally.

There's also the EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-5.6 USM. This is now an older design, also has high image quality, lacks IS but is better built than the 10-18mm... and has USM (though, to be fair, ultrawides only need to move their focusing elements a tiny amount... so most are plenty quick and responsive, regardless of the type of focus motor they use).

Either of those ultrawides can nicely complement an 18-135, 17-55 or even a 24-70.

You've gotten some recommendations for the EF 24-105/4L IS USM too... and that's not a bad full frame-capable lens either. However, at about one third the cost the EF 28-135mm f3.5-5.6 IS USM can match it in most respects: image quality, focus speed, close-focusing ability, image stabilization, focal length range (all except build quality/sealing and variable aperture vs non-variable). Once again, these are full frame lenses, so neither is particularly wide on an APS-C 7DII camera, and neither has particularly large aperture. But, once again, might be fine if you complement them with an ultrawide such as the 10-18mm, and/or a larger aperture prime lens.



I'd say DON'T do this.

1. You just bought a crop camera, there's no telling if you'll ever want or need to "go full frame".

2. If you limit yourself to full frame-compatible lenses only, you will miss out on some excellent lenses designed especially for crop cameras... and you'll end up spending a lot more, needing a larger camera bag and hauling around more weight... with no real benefit at all if and until you actually buy a FF camera.

3. You'll particularly not have many very wide lenses available, since there are very few full frame capable lenses that will be very wide on a crop sensor camera. And those few that do are quite expensive... look up Canon 11-24/4L, for example... $3000... or the EF 14/2.8 II... $2100. Those EF lenses would be a serious waste of money for anyone only using an APS-C camera! On your 7DII, those EF lenses won't do anything different than a $300 EF-S 10-18mm or $600 10-22mm.

4. If you eventually DO buy a full frame camera, it's easy to sell off any crop-only lenses then... and replace them with bigger, heavier, more expensive full frame-capable, when needed.

I use both FF and crop cameras... but I still have several crop-only lenses (Tokina 12-24/4, Canon 10-22mm, Tamron 60/2.0 Macro), as well as a number of full frame-capable lenses that can be used on both. In case you don't know, crop sensor cameras such as 7DII can use both types of lenses... full frame and crop-specific. Full frame cameras are limited to using only full frame-capable lenses.

Canon "EF-S" are crop lenses... while their "EF" are full frame designs. Sigma DC, Tokina DX and Tamron Di II are crop... while their respective DG, FX and Di are FF-capable.

Bluesboy1313

Thank you. Thats good to know. I appreciate the response.

Bluesboy1313

Will a full frame lens work on my camera? In the case i eventually step up.