What to do! Opinions wanted and welcome :)

[Phate]

Hi all,

Some of you know already, but most of you don't. I'm going travelling next year. I'll be initially emigrating to Dahab, Egypt and using that as a base with my girlfriend to live and work then travel to the far east countries as/when we can.

So after this year, I'll be doing weddings no more! My kit is as follows:

5D Mkiii with Canon Grip
17-40L
35L
25-70L
Sigma 85mm 1.4
135L

I'm thinking of selling the following:

Canon Grip
17-40L
24-70L
135L

To fund a 16-35 f/2.8 mkii plus some change (tempting to take the mkiii underwater, but thats another discussion entirely )

So considering I won't be doing weddings anymore, mainly landscapes and keeping the 2 primes for walkabout and the odd portraits (plus they are SUCH nice lengths) - what would you do? would you do anything differently?It's tempting to use the money to fund a 24-70mkii as well, but that's more down to pure lens porn than anything

 

[Jase]

I like the 24-70 so I'd have problems parting with that unless it is going to be replaced by the newer version.

 

[dannyjo22]

I think I'd wait to see what the sigma 24-70 is like if you have a 24-70 already. If you have had the old one a good few years you might as well keep hold of it for travelling, rather than buy a new one.

 

[greedy123]

Hi Phate, firstly good luck with your big move! I'm sure everyone here will be sad to see then last of your wedding shots!!

Both the 16-35ii and 24-70ii lenses are amazing (the 24-70ii was a worthy jump in my opinion from the mki). These are my main two lenses and I get a fair bit of use out of both. I usually stick to the 24-70ii where possible as it is sharper and has less CA than the 16-35ii in my experience. If I could I'd upgrade the 16-35ii to the new 11-24mm as it has less CA and less barrel distortion. Doesn't have the 2.8 though but for me that isn't an issue as I mainly do shoots on a tripod and normally step up to f8 anyway.

So i think you're making a good call with the upgrade, it would be a good jump in quality (both lenses). It just depends if you need the jump in quality if you aren't doing the commercial photography any more. I don't think there's a right answer here unfortunately, on the other hand it's always fun to get new gear

(I'm pleased to see you're keeping the 35L awesome lens!!)

 

[Phate]

Thanks for the feedback all! And kind words about my photos. I'll be replacing the Wedding work with stuff from all over the world, so there is that

I hadn't considered the 11-24 at all. How is the IQ on it? That would be a serious contender, especially if I decided to take the 5D underwater. The F Stop wouldn't be an issue as I would be using strobes so shutter speed would always be higher anyway, and there certainly wouldn't be any lack of light. The only thing I'd miss is a lovely DOF!

What is ultra wide with a delicious DOF. Any suggestions? Not ruling out fish eyes here.

 

[greedy123]

Will be looking forward to it!

IQ on the 11-24 is reportedly amazing (link). If it wasn't £3k I'd have one by now!

The new canon fisheye 8-15mm is a nice lens too, I have that one also (though I don't get a huge amount of use out of it). It's much nicer than the old canon fisheye with decent AF and better glass.

Problem with the fisheye and 11-24mm is you can't use most filters on them as they have the bulbous lenses. The filter actually sits on the back of the lens making it awkward to swap and doesn't offer any protection to the glass.

I'm sure there are some decent third party lens alternatives by the way, hopefully someone else can weigh in on those!

 

[Phate]

OK Looking into this more....

The 11-24 is pure and utter lens porn, however the £2700 price tag is not. It's a hell of a lot of money on glass. But then again its pretty much the only alternative without going fisheye. Unless others can recommend anything?

 

[--- Z ---]

Just throwing it out there, and I know yout (and I) are huge Canon fans, but what about hte new Sony A7RII ?

The wight difference will make a significant difference if you are travelling. Plus, there are some really nice lenses for the Sony's.

If I was in the position to change what I had, I might just make this switch myself, the Canon, whilst a beast, is a very heavey camera to lug around all the time, especially when travelling.


Just throuwing it out there.......

 

[Phate]

I've got my Olympus EPL5 I have for traveling

Good idea though!

This is for when I'm in Egypt and underwater work and It'll be used for traveling if I feel like it.

 

[SDK^]

The Canon 11-24 is an amazing lens - very sharp with low distortion. However it weighs 1.2kg so I wouldn't want to use it as a travelling lens.

The Canon 16-35 L F2.8 II is an older generation lens - the newer Canon 16-35 L F4 IS is much sharper (center and corner), lower CA & distortion and with the IS is better suited for landscape shots.

 

[Phate]

11-24 definitely wont be for travelling, nope! It'll be for underwater work in Egypt. It'll be staying there

For travelling I'll be kitting out the Olympus as that's pretty much exactly what I bought it for...travelling!

What I might do is use the money made from selling Canon glass to buy Olympus glass and anything left over goes in the pot towards taking the Mkiii underwater

 

[--- Z ---]

Sound idea.