One of the questions we get asked most often is about the gear we have in our bag – what lenses we love and why. So hopefully this will be a great start to the FAQ posts. As always, if you have any questions about this topic, or other topics, just ask it in the comments and we’ll answer it in a future FAQ Friday post!
NOTE: In writing this post, I realized I want to put a lot of example images taken with each lens, but that’s going to have to wait. So check back sometime soon and you’ll see an updated post.
Before we get started, I want to mention that the lenses we have are the best lenses for us – and your usage may vary. It’s important to have purpose behind each and every lens you own, and it’s definitely not to your advantage to just go out and buy every lens you can get your hands on
We built our kit over time, and when whenever we were unsure about a lens, we just rented it first. Many local camera stores will rent lenses to you at a great price, and there’s also a few awesome online lens rental places (BorrowLenses.com is a favorite around here.)
Here’s the general kit – with everything except for flashes, extra bodies, and the Canon 50mm f/1.2 L. It’s a beautiful sight
Bodies: Canon 5D Mark II’s
We love the 5D Mark II’s for two major reasons: 1) The full frame sensor and 2) the wonderful, true-to-life colors that come out of this camera. The full frame sensor means that all our lenses perform the way they’re supposed to, at their standard focal length. Other cameras have crop factors due to varying sensor sized that make certain lenses perform as if they were “longer” in focal length (ie on a Canon 40D, a 35mm lens would actually perform as a 56mm lens). Additionally, the sensor, since it’s larger in size produces more data and therefor a better color representation of our subjects. The 5D Mark II is the bomb. Erin and I each use a 5D Mark II and then we have several 5D’s as backups (each of us only use one at a time) and I can’t emphasize how important having backup equipment is. If you’re shooting weddings with only one camera, you’re playing with fire. In addition to backups that we keep with us, we have backup bodies that we keep in the car in our “oh crap” kit that we’ll go to if everything else we have disappears
For those of you who are wondering, the hand-strap that is attached is the Canon E1 Hand Strap. Note that you must be using either a 1 series body, or a body with a battery grip to attach this hand strap.
(And yes, we realize we’ve got 5D’s in these pictures, we’ll get some updated images shortly).
The Trifecta
Below is what I call my trifecta of lenses. If I have my way, I hog these lenses all day long and only give them up when Erin steals them from me. Here we’ve got the Canon 135 mm f/2.0 L, the Canon 35 mm f/1.4 L and the Canon 50 mm f/1.2 L. More info on each of these individually, below.
The Zooms
Here’s the only two zooms we own – the Canon 24-70 mm f/2.8 L and the Canon 70-200 mm f/2.8 IS L.
The Wide Angles
Here’s the Canon 15 mm f/2.8 and the Canon 24 mm f/1.4 L
Canon 15 mm f/2.8
This is one of our “fun” lenses that we don’t use all that much, but rather get it out for a specific shot or a specific effect. The fisheye aspect of this lens produces some cool shots, especially at receptions or for scene-setting shots. It’s especially useful in really tight spaces to get a lot of perspective into one shot.
Canon 35 mm f/1.4 L
This is Erin’s go-to lens – she starts out every shoot with this lens on. My favorite aspect of this lens is the commercial feel that it gives to the images, being at such a standard focal length. It’s a great lens for details and cool, close-up shots of our clients where we’re right in their faces. This has all the benefits of the 24 1.4, with none of the edge distortion.
Canon 24 mm f/1.4 L
When the fisheye is too fishy, this is what we use to set the scene at a reception or ceremony venue. It’s nice and wide, but doesn’t have the fisheye distortion. It’s also great for big groups (like a wedding party) but I wouldn’t ever use it to shoot a family formal or something like that – there’s a touch of edge distortion and so you wouldn’t want that on a formal image. It’s super sharp, even at f/1.4 and shines at details.
Canon 24-70 mm f/2.8 L
This was my first lens I bought when I switched to digital. It was my workhorse for a long time, but I must confess that I don’t use it all too often; it sits in my bag most of the time. However, when I do bring it out, it produces awesome images! I use it primarily on a second body during the processional at a wedding since that seems to be a time where unexpected things happen (i.e. ringbearers and flowergirls running around unpredictably) and so I have it ready and waiting to go into work.
Canon 50 mm f/1.2 L
My most favoritest lense ever, of all time, period. If you haven’t yet purchased any L lenses, this should be your first. It’s the sharpest lens I’ve ever used, and is really quite usable down to f/1.4 (even f/1.2, if you’re feeling lucky). It produces the creamiest, most wonderful bokeh (blurry background) and it is absolutely amazing for portraits. I’ve also owned the f/1.4 version of this, and to answer the question in your mind, YES, this one is worth the cost. Totally worth it.
Canon 85 mm f/1.8 USM
We went back and forth between this and the f/1.2 L version, and this one is much lighter, focuses MUCH faster, produces fabulous images even down at f/1.8. This is your standard portrait lens, and it is worth it’s weight in gold. This lens really belongs in most every photographer’s bag.
Canon 100 mm f/2.8 Macro USM
I call this my bling lens because all I really use it for is ring shots or delicate details. It’s really sharp and gets you nice and close into the details. It focuses really quickly, and can also be used as a portrait lens; I’ve actually used it on several occasions as a portrait lens and it’s produced some incredible images.
Canon 135 mm f/2.0 L
For a long lens, this is my first choice, and Erin and I end up fighting for it. It’s really fast (f/2.0) and is perfect for dimly lit churches and getting in close to the action. I also use it a lot for both single-person portraits and portraits of our couples, depending on the look I’m going for.
Canon 70-200 mm f/2.8 IS L
If you had to shoot a wedding with only one lens, and didn’t have to do any big groups, this would be the lens to go with. The range is wide enough to make it a valuable lens in almost any situation, and it’s completely sharp through the whole range. I shoot it at f/2.8 all day long and with the IS turned on I’m comfortable hand-holding it at as low as 1/30th at 200 mm. I know, I’m dangerous
Pocket Wizards
We use the PocketWizard Plus II’s for our off-camera remote flash needs. These are tools that every photographer should have, and learn how to use. We’ll be doing a future FAQ Friday on just these bad boys and how to use them, and also some other lighting tips.
Flashes
We use the Canon 580 EX II’s – they’re fantastic and can crank out the light when we need them to, but are also really easy to control when we just need to slightly accent the natural light. We’re available light shooters most of the time, but we’re not afraid to use our flashes. I know this is a point that a lot of people new to photography struggle with, and so we’ll be talking a lot more about using these later.
Radios
We use the Kenwood ProTalk XLS radios to keep in touch on the wedding day. I can’t tell you how many times these little things have completely saved the day when Erin and I have needed to talk to each other during the wedding day, even to just tell each other to get out of one another’s shot during the ceremony. We’ve got secret-service style earpieces that go in our ears with a long mic cable that we clip to our shirts.
Follow-up questions from the comments:
Anjuli asked: If you could only have 4 lenses to shoot a wedding… what would they be?
This is a great question – and a pretty easy one for me to answer. My list: 35 f/1.4 L, 50 f/1.2 L, 135 f/2.0 L and the 70-200 f/2.8 IS L. Literally, I could definitely shoot an entire wedding with just these lenses, and in many cases these are the lenses I’m using 95% of the time (or more) at a wedding. All of these would work well to cover yourself creatively during portraits of the bride and groom as well as the wedding party. The 35 would be a go-to for the group/family formals along with the 50, and the 135 and 70-200 would be the workhorses during the ceremony. At the reception, I’d be using the 35, 50, and 135 exclusively, and I’d just put the 70-200 in the bag.
Jeff asked: What’s that awesome strap you have attached to your 5d?
The hand-strap that is attached is the Canon E1 Hand Strap. Note that you must be using either a 1 series body, or a body with a battery grip to attach this hand strap. I LOVE this thing, and since I only shoot with one body at a time, it works out perfectly.
Ashley Asked: If you had to choose between the 24mm f/1.4L or the 35mm f/1.4L, which would you choose to buy first?
What we did was purchase the 24 first and THEN the 35, and if we had done it the other way around, I don’t think we would have even bought the 24 at all. It’s not that the 24 is bad, it’s just that you really have to be conscious of what is on the outside edges of your image since the distortion that is present at the edges can really skew things. It’s not a big deal for architectural stuff, but when you’ve got people around you don’t want whoever is on the outside to be all distorted. The 35 f/1.4 is simply a fantastic lens, if I had to choose one or the other, it’s the 35 all day, every day
Deborah Asked: It looks like from the pictures that you don’t use any filters on your lenses – why is that?
Great question! It’s true, we live on the edge and don’t use any filters on any of our lenses. It’s a pretty common thing for people to use UV filters on any/all lenses as a means to protect the front element of a lens. After all, it would be much preferable to break a $50 filter as opposed to an expensive lens. For us, however, we’ve found that shooting at such low apertures (wide open) the filters actually distort the images and cause some strange artifacts to occur on the final images. This is most noticeable when you’re in a room with a lot of bright, ambient light, coming from a single direction that is off-angle to the lens. If that light hits the filter at the right angle it will actually go through the filter and bounce back and forth between the filter and the front element which is what causes the artifacts on the final image.
Since our goal is always crisp, sharp, clear images, we forgo filters on any of our lenses. Yes, we risk damaging them, but damaging a lens is less of a big deal than having a less-than-perfect image to give to our clients.
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