{"id":10539,"date":"2010-08-20T18:23:28","date_gmt":"2010-08-20T18:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philipbloom.net\/?p=10539"},"modified":"2010-09-09T16:21:56","modified_gmt":"2010-09-09T16:21:56","slug":"which-lenses-to-buy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philipbloom.net\/blog\/which-lenses-to-buy\/","title":{"rendered":"Which…lenses to buy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This has become THE number one question asked to me. “I have xxx amount of dollars or I have xxx camera, which lenses should I buy”? It’s a question that is very difficult to answer, not least because it gets asked 20 times a day. Hopefully this will cut down on those emails! Try not to ask which lenses to buy in the comments. This blog gives you all the information you need. Read it, decide what is important to you and go from there! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

What follows is not the definitive list of lenses to buy. It’s my opinion. Please treat it like that. Many will disagree and may well be quite right too! All I can do is base this post on my own experience, with the plethora of lenses I own and have used.<\/p>\n

I want to cover other makes of cameras with this evolving blog post but for now it will be purely for Canon lenses. I will cover the GH1, Nikon, Sony at some point later. My most experience is with Canon Lenses.<\/p>\n

First let us cover the fundamentals of what you need to know about sensor sizes and how your camera will affect which lenses you buy.<\/p>\n

Currently there is just one solitary Canon that has a full frame sensor for Video and that is the 5DmkII. The 1dMkiv is an APS-H sensor and a 1.3x crop. All the others are a 1.6x crop called an APS-C. The full frame sensor is massive compared to the APS-C. It’s easy to forget just how much bigger it is. Look at this image below and you will see what I mean.<\/p>\n

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This is the most important factor you need to think about when buying lenses. Is it worth spending over $2000 on a wide angle lens that is no longer wide for your crop sensor camera? Personally I think no. For full frame users, there is nothing like it, it’s amazing. But for the rest, don’t get this lens unless you are planning to upgrade to a full frame sensor very soon.<\/p>\n

That is the biggest issue really. Do you buy lenses designed especially for your 1.6x crop (called EF-S by Canon) or do you get lenses which are future proof if you decide to move up to a full frame camera (called EF by Canon)? All the EF lenses are compatible with all the Canon cameras. It does not work the other way around. Some lenses by third party manufactures will work on the 5Dmkii despite being designed for the crop but will vignette heavily, unless they are zooms so you can zoom in slightly to avoid this…more on that later.<\/p>\n