Just purchased 5D body, now for the lenses.

[keith_downing]

<p>I've just purchased a 5D to get back into amatuer/semi-pro photography. I've got some older lenses that should fit the mount (tamron 28-200mm 3.8-5.6, 20-40mm 2.7-3.5, 200-400mm 5.6).</p>

<p>I've got about $500-600 left to purchase a lens or two. Looking for some advice on what would be the best first step.</p>

<p>As for what I shoot, a little bit of everything, but mostly landscape and nature. Also, I'm a little out of the loop on the new technology. Can someone give me an outline on what exactly USM and IS lenses are? What are the advantages? Also, how high quality do I need to go to take advantage of what this camera body is capable of?</p>

<p>I know they're some broad questions, but I'd appreciate it if you guys could give me some input that would start me on the right track.</p>

<p>Thanks,<br />Keith</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>In your budget, and given you have a fairly good range of zooms, I'd suggest that a set of prime lenses might be the best investment you could make, short of starting over from scratch.</p>

<p>For wide angle, you've already got the (Tamron ?) 20-40mm, but if you want Canon L glass, the 17-40mm L is one of the least expensive L lenses, but a little above your budget, perhaps.</p>

<p>A good normal lens like the EF 50mm (f/1.8, cheap and good, f/1.4 superior but much more $) is one possibility.<br>

The 85mm f/1.8 would be good for portrait work, and a bargain is the EF 135mm soft-focus (optional, of course) f/2.8.</p>

<p>You could get one of the latter and fill out the $limit with the 50mm f/1.8 used for well under US$100.</p>

[gertle]

<p>Hi Keith, Welcome back to the light side. Briefly:<br />'USM' refers to a type of drive-motor used to focus the lens. It allows you to use the camera's autofocusing and then tweak it without having to switch the lens from autofocus to manual focus. Very handy. <br />'IS' refers to Internal Stabilization. The lens has sensors that will compensate for minute movement of the lens. Very handy for steadying hand held shots. <br />Are your older lenses FD or EOS? I can recommend Bob Atkins site for good info about Canon stuff. Check out this FAQ regarding FD vs. EOS mount lenses. http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/eosfaq/eosfaq24/4lenses.html#q3</p>

[waltz]

<p>First off, what are you hoping to get from a new lens that these lenses aren't giving you? Is 20mm not wide enough? Are your images not sharp enough? Are you trying to do handheld photography in low light? Do you just have a need to throw $500 in some random direction? Anyway, plunging ahead...</p>

<p>You've pretty much got the focal lengths covered. If you want to go even wider and see what a better quality lens can do, Canon's 17-40 is highly regarded and a used one is pretty close to your price range at KEH.com. </p>

<p>If you don't want to dump all your money into one lens, the 50/1.4 and 50/1.8 are pretty sharp and are always a good place to start on a budget.</p>

<p>USM stands for UltraSonic Motor, and is a fast, quite mechanism for driving the auto-focus of the lens. IS is Image Stabilization and lets you use slower shutter speeds handheld and still get good images. </p>

<p>As far as I can tell, the better lenses mostly give you better image quality at a broader range of apertures than the middle of the road lenses. In many (but not all) cases, if you can get down to f/8 or f/11, the lesser lens will give you very good results.</p>

[alan_bryant1]

<p>I'd suggest visiting this site and reading lens reviews -</p>

<p>http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/</p>

<p>Remember EF-S lenses won't mount on a 5D. If you're happy with those zooms, you might get a prime - maybe a 50mm or the 85/1.8 or 100/2.</p>

[keith_downing]

<p>Thanks guys. </p>

<p>All three lenses are tamron, all are 5-6 years old but clean and working perfectly. I'm not sure about the mount exactly, but they were originally used on a canon eos A2E. They weren't cheap, but I'm not sure how much technology and lens quality has changed over the last decade. I think the 28-200 came with the camera, the 20-40mm was around $400 new if I recall and the 200-400 mm was around $600 used.</p>

[waltz]

<p>Guess I'm a little slow on the keyboard this morning!</p>

[keith_downing]

<p>Oh, and also, I don't have the camera yet (still in transit), and I leave for 10 days of shooting the east coast and bermuda in less than 2 weeks. That's the reason I'm looking for input on what to buy now instead of just doing some test shooting and then evaluating what things look like.</p>

[steven_f1]

<p>The A2E is an EOS camera just like the 5D. They requir EF mount lenses which is the majority of lenses Canon currently makes. I would test out all the lenses when you get the camera. You have the focal length range of 28-400 covered with your current lenes. I would suggest the <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/279582-USA/Canon_8806A002_17_40mm_f_4L_USM_Lens.html">17-40mm</a>. That would get you into wide angle views and it is a high quality lens. Unfortunately the price has goon up a little bit in the last year and it might be a little out of your price range. You might want to look for a used one.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>You'll need to check that your old lenses do all work when you get your new body. Some older third-party lenses had glitches in their "reverse-engineering" for the EOS mount. Sometimes the lens needed to be "rechipped", if the company made that possible. I think that the problem was mostly with Sigma, and that your old Tamrons should work well, but just be aware of the possibility.<br /> The primes I and others mentioned above are all relative bargains, one of the few cases where you can get all three--"cheap, fast, good."</p>

<p>I have the EOS 5 variant of the A2e and find it a great film shooter. For better or worse, the eye-selection of focal point has not survived into the digital age. I too recently got a 5D and love it.</p>

[markonestudios]

For landscapes and generally wide angle work, you can't go far wrong with the Canon EF 17-40 f/4L. I have one and I love it. I use it on my film SLR and plan to use it on my 5D MarkII when I get one eventually.

<p>Gary, IS isn't "Internal Stabilization" but rather "Image Stabilization" :)

<p>As an eventual walkaround lens Keith, I would also highly recommend the Canon 24-105 f/4L IS. You might want to look into selling a couple of your current lenses and getting this one. Coupled with say a 100-400L, you would have quite a kit. And 24mm is pretty wide. Noticeably wider than 28mm. Also, I know you haven't mentioned accessories, but a circular polarizer or graduated Neutral Density (ND) filter can make for some great shots where <i>you're</i> going, methinks...

[keith_downing]

<p>Thanks for all of the great input. I'll look into probably trying to obtain the 50mm 1.4 and also the 17-40 mm many on here have recommended.</p>

<p>Mark, what advantage does the polarizer and Neutral Density filter offer? I have some older filters from when I shot film, but can't you do a lot of that in post editing for digital photos now? Maybe a stupid question, but I thought just capturing the right shot correctly focused and exposed was enough in the digital world...</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Polarizer will selectively reduce natural light reflections from glass or water. Short of very tedious cloning, there's really no way to do that in Photoshop.<br>

Neutral Density will allow you to use very slow shutter speeds in photographing waves or waterfalls to blur the moviing water. Again, no really efficient way to do this in PS.</p>

<p>Darkening the sky for either of the above? sure that can be done in PS, but the original exposure is likely to clip one or the other end of the histogram without a graduated neutral density filter.</p>

[markonestudios]

Thanks JDM :) Keith, a circular polarizer not only helps cut out reflections, but because its main function is to polarize (direct) light waves, it also allows you to get deep, rich colours e.g blues for your skies. If you get a chance to do so, slap one onto your lens on a bright day with blue skies and rotate the front element to see the effect. Like this: http://www.photo.net/photo/5411305

<br>In a pinch I also use it when I want a wide aperture shot on a sunny day as it reduces the light coming into the camera by a stop or two.

<p>An ND filter (graduated) allows you to 'normalize' exposure where you have say bright sunshine and a more muted foreground. Like this: http://www.photo.net/photo/5412119