Lens Help - 17-40 & 70-200 f/4 or 24-70 f/4

[Niterider]

I do a lot of walking/hiking.  I don’t like carrying a ton of stuff, and almost never bring a tripod.  So my landscapes tend to be handheld wherever I am.  I wasn't into people pictures until we had our first kid.  Now she seems to dominate my subject matter.

Then the 17-40L is not for you - you can shoot @high iso with the 6d and thus gain higher shutter speeds that compensates for the missing IS, but at the same time you will loose a lot of dynamic range that is important for landscape. And if you're shooting hdr brackets, it's best with a tripod or at least IS so that the frames overlap as much as possible.

Only you can determine if you'd miss the 17-23 range, it's quite a lot, but it's not "general purpose" on full frame and as KR (in this case correctly) says: an uaw lens is not for "taking it all in" landscape but for the uwa effect, esp. when shooting objects near to the lens (the 17-40L has a very good min. focusing distance).

As for the tele zoom, I'd also recommend to have a look at the 70-300L because of it's small pack size (extending zoom) vs. the internal zoom of the 70-200s. Then add a used 24-105L and you're good to go, the overlap of the two lenses is nice because you can skip changing them when outdoors or in a hurry.

As for the 24-70/4: Yes, completely overpriced, near-macro capability sounds nice but it lacks working distance - and the 70-300L has a good max. magnification because of 300mm + small min. focusing distance.

+1 on the 70-300L. Its a beautiful lens and a great alternative to the 70-200 for hiking.

I am going to go against the grain here, but if you are into landscape, look into a 14mm F/2.8 samyang/rokinon/bower (get whichever brand is cheapest at the time). My copy at least is unbelievably sharp across the frame. It goes on sale for $300 occasionally. Let me know if you want me to post some pictures I have taken with that lens.   

[wickidwombat]

I am going to suggest something a little left field
I have a kit that i pretty much take everywhere because its convenient and light and covers basically everything

I use the 5Dmk3 you have the 6D so both FF with great iso ability

I love the little voigtlander 20mm f3.5 color skopar SLII

they can be had for a reasonable price second hand
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/VOIGTLANDER-COLOR-SKOPAR-20mm-F3-5-SLII-SL-II-WIDE-ANGLE-LENS-FOR-CANON-/190788561779?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item2c6be26b73

its got electronic aperture control, manual focus but its got AF confirm with works well. Very well controlled distortion and is wonderfully made and all round a nice lens

it take 52mm filters (this makes buying CPL of 10 stop ND filters for landscape shots VERY cheap) a 10 stop B+W ND filter is only like $50 in 52mm!

move onto lens 2

the 40mm f2.8 shorty forty by canon
also a 52mm filter thread so you can use those small cheap compact filters on this bad boy too!
its damn sharp and a brilliant general purpose lens of full frame, ligth and compact
this lens is about equal of the 24-70 f2.8 mk1 in the center and much sharper than that lens in the corners

The other lens i go everywhere with is my sigma 85mm f1.4
its just such an awesome portrait lens i cant leave it at home

but you could go with the 70-200 f4L IS instead if the extra reach is important

costs?

20mm voigtlander $600 new but can be had for $450 ish second hand
40mm f2.8 $150
sigma 85 f1.4 around $800

edit: i see you already have the canon 85 so may as well skip the siggy and go with the 70-200 f4L IS
about $1000

[jdramirez]

So you have about 1700 to spend?

Ebay via Bigvalueinc has 24-105's for 750 and as low as 740.  They are removed from kits and are 100% new... or at least appear that way.  That way, you can get that and maybe find another couple of bucks and get the 70-200.  I've tried both the f/4 USM and the f/2.8 USM, and I wasn't as impressed with them as I was with my 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro when it came to taking sports photos.  I don't know why, but the zooms left me wanting more... not in a good way. 

As for macro... I obviously have a macro lens but rarely do I actually use it for those exact purposes.  That's just me though. 

[bholliman]

One more recommendation for the 24-105L.  Terrific general purpose lens for a reasonable price.  Not a fan of the 24-70 4.0.  The 24-105 has similar IQ and better reach for nearly half the price of the 24-70 4.0.

Both the 70-200 4.0 IS and 70-300L are excellent lenes, can't go wrong with either, but the latter might be out of your price range right now if you spend $800 for the 24-105L.

[jdramirez]

One more recommendation for the 24-105L.  Terrific general purpose lens for a reasonable price.  Not a fan of the 24-70 4.0.  The 24-105 has similar IQ and better reach for nearly half the price of the 24-70 4.0.

Both the 70-200 4.0 IS and 70-300L are excellent lenes, can't go wrong with either, but the latter might be out of your price range right now if you spend $800 for the 24-105L.

I don't like variable apertures... especially if you are shooting in manual... it can be a pain having to do the math on the fly to make sure your exposure is right.  Sure the camera will adjust for you if you shoot in aperture priority or shutter priority, but still... I like to know regardless of the focal length, my settings are locked in.

[jdramirez]

You can buy from Amazon a day or two before the rebates expire and select the free super saver shipping which takes a few days to process and if the rebates are extended, cancel your order and then reconsider which route you want to go.  If they aren't extended, then at least you were able to jump in on the deal.

[Marsu42]

I don't like variable apertures... especially if you are shooting in manual... it can be a pain having to do the math on the fly to make sure your exposure is right.

The latest magic lantern have an "exposure lock" option for m mode that keeps exposure constant when changing t/f/iso (and that includes changing f by zooming in or out) :-)

[PJL]

You can buy from Amazon a day or two before the rebates expire and select the free super saver shipping which takes a few days to process and if the rebates are extended, cancel your order and then reconsider which route you want to go.  If they aren't extended, then at least you were able to jump in on the deal.

Thanks again guys, and this is great advice on the rebates.  After spending far too long reading the endless debates over the 70-200 f/4 IS vs the 70-300 f/4-5.6 (and determining that both are really excellent) I'm going to follow the above advice and order the 70-300L via amazon while the rebates are intact.  As a hiker I'll be outside a lot and think I'd appreciate the compact size and newer IS more than the downside of the variable aperture.  Sounds like you can't go wrong either way.

I'll then start hunting around on ebay and craigslist for a good deal on a whitebox 24-105.  With the current kit pricing on the 6d I'm hoping I can get one in the $700's.  We'll see.  Maybe that way I can pretend I didn't make a mistake not getting it at first :-)

And Niterider - I would love to see some of your photos from the 14mm samyang.  Not going to get it now but would be interested down the road for sure.

[Niterider]

Here are a couple photos taken with a 14mm F2.8:
These are reduced in size for Flickr. I can send you the raw files if you would like.


Untitled by Live By The Night, on Flickr


IMG_1510-1 by Live By The Night, on Flickr

This next one is just for the purposes of illustrating how wide (on a full frame) this lens really is. I was in 15-20mph wind and given that it was a 30 second photo, I think it tuned out pretty good:

IMG_1843-1 by Live By The Night, on Flickr