Right lense for the situation?

[Dropy]

So some thoughts on the perfect lense for certain situations. Let me put out a few scenarios and maybe some folks will kindly suggest a few choices.

I shoot Canon btw... so canon useable is nice, but PLEASE feel free to chat about other manufacturers also so that we can broaden this thread some.

Sceanrios....

Little bug on a flower.
A flower garden.
A deer grazing 500 yards away.
A bird in flight 150 yards away.
Family photo.
kids soccer game.
a large majestic landscape.
A herd of horses in full gallop at 700 yards.
Christmas lights around the neighborhood at night.
A fireworks show at night.

Also feel free to add in what special changes to normal camera function and equipment you might suggest.

Many thanx in advance, i am sure your input will be VERY helpful to many of us.

[savona]

There are a lot of variables that come into play when you decide which lens to shoot. Sometimes lens decision is based on what feel or look you want from the subject, other times is just a "What do I have with me" kind of decision.

Here is a scenario... Let's say you want to shoot a flower in the garden. You have many options in lens choice all based on what look your going for. You can use a macro lens and capture the fine detail up close, or you can use a wide angle lens and show a single yellow flower in a field of dead grass. The fine detail would be considered a macro shot and be more personal with the subject because you are not showing the context of the rest of the scene. If you used a wide angle lens and shot the same flower but included the dead grass all around it you would get a different reaction to the photo. It could be interpreted to be life amongst death.

So you see there is no perfect lens for any given situation. Of course this is only my opinion.

With all my opinion out of the way, here is the answers on the basic or most common lens choice for each subject (Again, this is just an opinion).


Little bug on a flower.
I would probably use a macro lens for this. The most interesting macro lens that has the best magnification is the Canon MP-E 65. The link below you can see the lens and some sample shots:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=e...ed=0CDAQsAQwAw


A flower garden.
A macro lens or a regular prime. Macro lenses because you might want to get close and a prime for the sharpness and color reproduction.

A deer grazing 500 yards away.
You would probably want a long sharp lens for this, Canon 600mm ?? 500 yards is kind of far...

A bird in flight 150 yards away.
Again you would probably want a long fast lens for this - 500mm??

Family photo.
I like to use longer lenses on my portraits 70mm - 125mm. But if your limited in space you can go down to 35mm or so. I would not go much lower because you start to distort the image on the wider side.

kids soccer game.
Another longer lens, maybe a zoom for because you will be following the action on the field. 70-200mm ???

a large majestic landscape.
I don't shoot many landscapes, but I would stay away from wide angle lenses if possible. Again for distortion reasons.

A herd of horses in full gallop at 700 yards.
I am not sure any production lens will be able to shoot anything at this distance, but I could be wrong.

Christmas lights around the neighborhood at night.
I would probably take my 24-70 2.8. I think the focal length is good for a normal street. I would also bring a tripod because it will be night.

A fireworks show at night.
These are difficult, I would again probably bring my 24-70 and a tripod.

[JohnQ]

WOW Savona, thats a lot of info!

[Dropy]

Yes it is. Made my head hurt soaking it all in. Then i looked up all those lenses and it made my wallet hurt even worse!!!!


Someday.....

[JohnQ]

Yes, long lenses are not cheap at all. You can buy cheaper lenses but your image quality will suffer.

[Dropy]

The Macro lense was about 1400$ itself......

[Z-Eyes]

I agree mostly with Savona, with a few other considerations, for instance Tamron makes a relatively inexpensive 28-300mm (f3.5-5.6?) that I use (on my Sony or Minolta bodies) and can get pretty decent shots for many of the indicated scenarios! Except Macro.
RE: Horses at 700 yards, Even a long Prime (for instance 400mm ) would probably not reach well for that scene, without cropping with your editor, but it could work, when used w/ tripod.
Fireworks are great w/ the 28-300 as well...you can get the large view, and then zoom in for small blasts with great detail, and with a longer shutter speed, you can get some interesting effects(trails) pulling the zoom in while shutter is open...you can see a couple shots like this if you want to check-out my ( http://picasaweb.google.com/zekeisaac ) album dated 4 july, 09
For some of the scenarios requiring long/fast lenses, try to find a photo shop where you may be able to Rent lenses!

[Adaptive]

The Macro lense was about 1400$ itself......

100mm Macro can find for like $400 used.
This lens is awesome, I have one too