I had intended to stop by Best Buy in recent weeks to see how their camera department is doing. Yesterday as I drove home from the funeral for a high school classmate who had died suddenly, I did stop. They seemed to be doing very well, with a good range of Canon lenses, as well as a lot of Sony and Nikon stuff, though I didn't really look at them.
A salesman who is very knowledgable and whom I have found to be trustworthy found me after I had been otherwise greeted. He and I caught up a bit about my experience with the 6D2 he sold me, as well as his developing photographic career. He was especially interested in my video experience.
I told him that I was considering the 16-35mm f/4, and he offered me some opinions about the f/2.8 model and the 17-40mm, the main Canon alternatives. He pretty well confirmed what I had read here and in reviews that indicated the f/4 lens would be my best choice. The extra stop of the 2.8 doesn't seem to be worth the extra money and weight for my purposes. He had used the f/4 around the store to document things for corporate, as they like having done periodically. He is considering buying the lens for himself, as he is about to get a real estate client. Since I shot some houses for a realtor a few years ago, we later discussed some of the issues involved.
But in the meantime, perhaps being more aware than usual of the brevity and uncertainties of life, I decided not to wait until October to buy the f/4 for my birthday.
After braving the Charlotte rush-hour traffic to get home, I was not inclined to go out into the 96-degree heat to try out the lens. After I got out of my good clothes, I dozed off for a bit, so it was getting dark outside by the time I got the lens out and put it on the camera. I made some test shots just sitting in my den. The light was a dim CFL in a floor lamp just behind my chair. For the following picture I zoomed out to 16mm and focused on the wing of the chair I was sitting in. The camera chose f/4 for 1/30 second at ISO 12,800. Below is the full frame reduced for posting and a 100% crop of the same shot. The forum software will likely blow them up further in your browser. I didn't do anything I can recall to it in ACR/Photoshop, and certainly didn't correct vignetting or reduce the noise from the high ISO. You can see the blue Best Buy bag on the table.
A salesman who is very knowledgable and whom I have found to be trustworthy found me after I had been otherwise greeted. He and I caught up a bit about my experience with the 6D2 he sold me, as well as his developing photographic career. He was especially interested in my video experience.
I told him that I was considering the 16-35mm f/4, and he offered me some opinions about the f/2.8 model and the 17-40mm, the main Canon alternatives. He pretty well confirmed what I had read here and in reviews that indicated the f/4 lens would be my best choice. The extra stop of the 2.8 doesn't seem to be worth the extra money and weight for my purposes. He had used the f/4 around the store to document things for corporate, as they like having done periodically. He is considering buying the lens for himself, as he is about to get a real estate client. Since I shot some houses for a realtor a few years ago, we later discussed some of the issues involved.
But in the meantime, perhaps being more aware than usual of the brevity and uncertainties of life, I decided not to wait until October to buy the f/4 for my birthday.
After braving the Charlotte rush-hour traffic to get home, I was not inclined to go out into the 96-degree heat to try out the lens. After I got out of my good clothes, I dozed off for a bit, so it was getting dark outside by the time I got the lens out and put it on the camera. I made some test shots just sitting in my den. The light was a dim CFL in a floor lamp just behind my chair. For the following picture I zoomed out to 16mm and focused on the wing of the chair I was sitting in. The camera chose f/4 for 1/30 second at ISO 12,800. Below is the full frame reduced for posting and a 100% crop of the same shot. The forum software will likely blow them up further in your browser. I didn't do anything I can recall to it in ACR/Photoshop, and certainly didn't correct vignetting or reduce the noise from the high ISO. You can see the blue Best Buy bag on the table.