RF 15-35mm f/2.8 IS USM

[YuengLinger]

I'm a little surprised the 15-35mm doesn't get more love, but I imagine the early reviews emphasizing its heavy vignetting wide-open play a part. Personally, I admit to not using it much, as events have sort of fallen by the wayside for me. But, anticipating the arrival of the new 10-20mm, I've started using the 15-35mm more at the wide end to start seeing and thinking in terms of UWA again.

This initial shot is not the best, most representative image I've managed to capture, but it does show that having a fresh attitude with older gear can lead to some happy accidents. Plus it is a bit Halloweeny here a few days before October 31st.

This was taken at our local museum in a traveling exhibit about paleontology finds in Antarctica, where, many of you might remember, John Carpenter's The Thing was set.

The glare coming from the face was just reflection from the overhead lighting on snow-goggles. I didn't think to do that when I knelt for a UWA shot, but once I saw it, I did shift a little bit to try to center and maximize the brightness of the glare. In LR Classic, all I did was convert to B&W, add some blue color-grading, and selectively applied texture to the jacket.

Note that the included comparison movie poster was copied from an Amazon product page.

ISO 3200, f/2.8, 1/400th, 15mm

 

[YuengLinger]

And here's another museum shot at 15mm (f/4, ISO3200, 1/125th). Sorry for not including the very tip of one talon, but I was doing my best standing on tiptoes to get the whole beast.

It is a great lens for events: It's fast, light, sharp enough, and with great AF. The vignetting doesn't bother me much, as some vignetting is appropriate for many images, and with modern sensors and photo-editing tools, lifting the shadows around the edges is generally undetectable at normal viewing distances.