Must Have Lenses?

[Bill Doyle]

Alex,

We’ll need more info on exactly what your primary focus is before you’ll get some solid suggestions. Are you looking for primarily a DSLR for photos or video. If you’re shooting sports photos outdoors, for example, the 7Ds shots per second and great weather-sealing would give it a strong edge over the 60D. The 60D has the articulating screen and the money saved can go where it belongs– lenses. If you don’t plan on upgrading to a full-frame sensor like the 5D any time soon, you can look at lenses like the EF-S 17-55 f/2.8, but it would be a waste of money if a cropped-sensor camera was yours for a short time.

Primes v. zooms is always a big consideration, but it depends on whether you’ll be doing controlled shoots in a studio-type environment or whether you need the quick-change ability of zooms. If you’ll be shooting primarily events indoors, even a f/2.8 zoom might not give you enough light.

If your focus is video, you’ll need an external digital recorder for audio and a good on-camera microphone and I’d highly recommend a viewfinder.

Bill

27″ iMac i7 quad-core, 16Gb RAM, Final Cut Pro 7.0.3, OS 10.6.7, 23″ ACD

[Alex Wishart]

Thank you Bill. I really appreciate your view. I never really got passed prices, which is a huge mistake on my end that I should have seen a mile away.
I’ll primarily be shooting sports in video. I’d like to stay away from photography. Plus, video is my passion so I’ll stick to what I love.
I’d say it would be about a 70:30 mix of outdoors to indoors: Football, Motocross, Streetbike racing, Weddings, and a few locations with incredibly poor lighting.

[Bill Doyle]

Alex,

For you, I would start with a few zooms. They will give you reasonable apertures and a lot of flexibility in the field so that you don’t have to change lenses or have a second camera body with a different lens. It sounds like you could go without a wide angle at this point, like the Tokina 11-17 and get the EF-S 17-55 (only good for cropped sensors) or 24-70 , and the 70-200. As you’ll see, this is where the money gets spent, but a top lens can last you 10-20 years. For the 70-200, you’ll have to decide on the f/2.8 or the f/4 (there is a huge price difference), but if you’re indoors the 4 might not be enough. If you’ll be hand-holding the shots, you’re also going to have to spring for the stabilized version. I would advise against the variable aperture zooms. They’re OK for photos, but a real pain for video; if you zoom while shooting, you’ll see the exposure change and if you simply rest the shot, you’ll still have to adjust for a new exposure. If you’re unsure, check out Lens Pro To Go and rent one for a week before you buy.

For the sports stuff, especially, I would recommend a monopod with legs and a fluid video head, like the Manfrotto 561BHDV-1.

You can then add prime lenses, sliders and the all the other great stuff that’s out there.

Hope that helps,

Bill

27″ iMac i7 quad-core, 16Gb RAM, Final Cut Pro 7.0.3, OS 10.6.7, 23″ ACD

[Danny Grizzle]

For sports video, I’d give serious consideration to a Sony NEX-5n. You can inexpensively adapt any lens known to man onto it, except Canon EOS due to electronic aperture. 1080p @ 60fps!