| Photography Forum: Camera Equipment News Forum: |
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Q. Portrate Lens
Asked by Johnny Brown
(K=69) on 12/6/2003
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At the moment i am using a Sigma 28 - 135mm Macro lense. And i am looking at getting a high quality sigma EX lense to go onto my Canon EOS 30 for doing maintly portrait and studio work. What would you recomend?
Jonny
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Bob Atkinson
(K=393) - Comment Date 12/6/2003
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I'm thinking about the Sigma f.2.8 70-200mm for portraits.
Postings and threads seem positive. I prefer doing portraits at 140mm or so, (personal preference).
Comments?
:) Bob
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Jeroen Wenting
(K=25317) - Comment Date 12/6/2003
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The 70-200 is certainly to be an excellent lens.
It's currently #2 on my list for a lens in that range, falling behind the Nikon 70-200 only because that is is more silent and has image stabilisation which makes it easier to use in lowlight situations where flash is not an option.
Another excellent EX lens with good portrait opportunities is the 105mm f/2.8 Macro. You might think it might be superfluous in your current kit but the optical quality is so much better than that of your current lens it's well worth the investment.
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Dmitry Gringauz
(K=1157) - Comment Date 12/8/2003
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Sigma 70-200 2.8EX is a very good lens, and produces fine-looking bokeh (out-of-focus areas), and has good DOF control. In-focus areas on it are a touch softer than what you would get on a prime lens, but that is to be expected.
Depending on your budget, and if you are not necessarily set on a zoom lens, you might also want to consider the following prime lenses:
Canon 135mm f/2.8 soft-focus
Canon 85mm f/1.8
Canon 100 f/2.0
Canon 135mm f/2.0L
The last one, 135mm L lens, will set you back as much or more than the Sigma, but it is considered a better portrait lens. 85mm offers the best DOF control.
If you are looking at Sigma 105mm Macro, make sure you try before you buy, there are some conflicting reports on the quality of bokeh in this particular model.
For my portraits, I use either Sigma 70-200 or Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens.
Before you decide which one to buy, see if you can try them out and check out how the bokeh (out-of-focus) areas look like. It is entirely a matter of personal taste, but some people pay a lot of attention to it, and it may make a difference in a portrait shot.
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Johnny Brown
(K=69) - Comment Date 12/8/2003
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Im still in confusion, Price is kind of a matter i am a only 17 and a student, but i do work at jessops and can get small discounts on things. Im aiming for around £200 - £400 and something that can give me a good DOF. Soz for being annoying but i want to get the right lense
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Dmitry Gringauz
(K=1157) - Comment Date 12/8/2003
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Sorry adding to the confusion. My currency is different from yours. Given a rather wide price difference on the same items in different countries, I might not be of much help here.
However, I can give you some tips on looking for the portrait lens overall.
You already mentioned one item, Depth of Field. A good portrait lens should have a capability to produce very shallow DOF, so it needs to have large maximum aperture, at least f/2.8 or larger (2.0, 1.8, etc). In this area, you will fair better and cheaper with a prime (non-zoom) lens.
Second item to consider is whether a lens produces sharp images wide open. This is where you'd need to do some research and read equipment reviews. Again, prime lenses fair better in this area than zooms.
Third item to consider is bokeh, or the quality of image a lens produces for out-of-focus areas. This item is rather subjective, but there are some lenses where a significant difference can be seen. You should dig up articles on bokeh to look at some examples to see what suites your taste (see, for example, http://luminous-landscape.com/essays/bokeh.shtml or http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/bokeh.htm. Also, it seems that prime lenses fair better than zooms in rendering bokeh.
The fourth item is a focal length. Good portrait lenses are usually of a "telephoto" variety. In short, being farther away minimizes the distortion of the facial features, and also makes shooting more comfortable for the model. How much of a tele you need depends on what you are comfortable with and how big your studio is. For home studios, anywhere from 70mm to 135mm should work, some pros use 200mm and up. Zooms have an obvious advantage here, although some are rather large, and you might get tired if you prefer to hand-hold it.
If you are interested in a zoom, Sigma's 70-200 f/2.8EX is a good choice, and less expensive than a Canon equivalent.
If you prefer a prime lens, Canon's 85mm f/1.8 or 100mm f/2.0 are excellent, and cost less than Sigma zoom(here in US at least).
Canon also makes a lens that has what amounts to a built-in soft filter that allows you to control how soft you want the image to be. It's focal length is 135mm, and it might be pricier than the two primes I listed above, but would not require a soft filter should you decide to experiment with it.
Sigma 105 Macro should be tried before buying, I tried it and decided to get a different lens.
Hope this clarifies the picture.
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Ricardo Villagran
(K=1901) - Comment Date 12/8/2003
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Johnny, if you want more quality you should go prime... I think your best bet will be Canon 85mm 1.8... fast, sharp, not so expensive. Regards, Ricardoc
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