What gear and lenses should I get next?

[Caps18]

I currently have a 5Dm2, and a 16-35mm, 85 f/1.8, and a 300mm f/4 lens. I am trying to write this post to keep my thoughts straight, but any suggestions would be good. Or maybe Santa is real and this is my Christmas list.

I am probably going to get a WFT grip, and the GPS adapter to geotag my photos when I take them. I would still like a better option from Canon to automatically geotag photos, but this might be it. Expensive, but better than doing it in post processing for thousands of pictures.

Next, I am going to get a bigger Pelican case. I travel by airplane, and need to be able to fit my camera, tripod, laptop, and clothes into a case to get past the two bag carry on rule...

The lenses are the next thing, and this is where it gets complicated. The 50mm f/1.2 is at the top of the list for it's ability to shoot in lower light situations than my 16-35 f/2.8 or the 85mm f/1.8. But, I am also considering the 14mm, the 8-15mm, and the 17mm TS-E. After shooting at 16mm for a while on a FF camera (and I have borrowed an 8mm f/2.8 Olympus lens that is interesting for the Milky Way galaxy), it is the distortions in the corners of the 16mm focal length that I would like to correct. I am thinking that the 14mm or 8-15mm won't be 'different' enough from the 16mm-35mm (at 16mm). I would have to rent them for sure. The 17mm f/4 TS-E is probably the best choice for me and the landscape pictures I take, I just worry about the f/4 not being fast enough in low-light conditions. It will take a lot of practice to use it right...

Down the road, I would like to get into astro and Sun/Moon photography...I am looking to get a good tracking telescope that I can mount my camera to, with easy GPS setup of the tripod... And high enough zoom to allow me to stack images and get something good, but figuring out how to do that, without spending over $2,000 isn't easy. (I'm not saying it can't be done, I just haven't researched it enough.) I wish it was like, there is one 50,000mm 12" telescope with a Meade tripod with easy star finding and tracking ability...maybe there is.

 

[dr croubie]

So you don't like the 16-35 @ 16mm because of the Barrel distortion (3.26%)? It's easy enough to correct in PP using something like PT or similar (even DPP has a 'distortion correction' feature). But if you don't like that then the 8-15mm fisheye is a no-go. You'd get wider, of course, but it's just as much work in PP to straighten everything out (and corners go soft from straightening out a fisheye-shot.

That leaves you with the 14/2.8L II or the TS-E 17. The 14mm is fairly well rectilinear (1.73%), half the distortion of the 16-35 @ 16, but can still be noticeable in some architecture shots. It's way better than the Samyang 14mm for barrel distortion (but the Samyang is sharper and cheaper).

The TS-E 17 is a bit better again (1.14%), but you go down to f/4. It's also about as sharp as the 14mk2. And you get the added benefit of tilting and shifting, invaluable for architecture. If it's wide enough, it gets my vote. (don't forget if it's not wide enough, you can shift-stitch photos together for parallax-free panoramae and get effectively wider than 14mm).
The hyperfocal distance for 17 f/4 and 14 f/2.8 for a 5D2 are practically the same (just over 2m). So that means you can get completely handheld shots wide-open for either lens. But for a night-shot, even faster than 1/50s, i'd be using a tripod if i were you, and i'd take the ts-e 17, it's just that much more versatile.

There's also the Sigma 12-24, mk1 and mk2. I've only seen a review of the mk1 version, which has almost 0 barrel distortion (what's left is hard to correct, but probably doesn't need it). The mk1 isn't so sharp though, if the mk2 is sharper and keeps the distortion the same then that could be worth a look...

 

[neuroanatomist]

@Dr Croubie: Great advice! Couple of minor points.

The shift-stitching with a TS-E is parallax-free only if you 'shift' the camera, back-shift in view camera parlance. Just using the shift feature on the lens (front-shift) will give you parallax. So, ideally you'd have the camera on a rail and adjust both lens shift and rail to move the camera while keeping the position of the front element static - that would avoid parallax.

Also, the review of the Sigma 12-24mm is on APS-C. PZ actually has a review of the MkII version, and it's on FF which is more relevant here.

 

[dr croubie]

The shift-stitching with a TS-E is parallax-free only if you 'shift' the camera, back-shift in view camera parlance. Just using the shift feature on the lens (front-shift) will give you parallax. So, ideally you'd have the camera on a rail and adjust both lens shift and rail to move the camera while keeping the position of the front element static - that would avoid parallax.

Ah yeah, forgot to mention that. What I was thinking of is even easier: one of These, although it's about 20% of the cost of the lens again...

(And yeah, seems i missed the mk2 review on FF, I got confused because they put all the primes in front of the zooms and i skipped over it). At 17mm the barrelling isn't so bad, but the sharness isn't the best still. I vote TS-E 17mm (and that's not only because I can't afford it).