Quote:
Originally Posted by The1
don't forget even when the 135 is with the 1.4tc it's it's still a faster lense then the 200mm F4, so you may not really need the IS if you're shooting a lot of shots at the wider end of things.
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It's all about comfort. Me, for example, I've never been comfortable with a 135mm. It's longer than I usually shoot portrait and it's too short for almost any critter, other than pets that let you relatively close. I remember borrowing my brother's in the 1960s, at a time when I had a 200mm preset f/3.5 Pentax lens. It just didn't match what my eye was looking for.
All this talk about speed drives me crazy, since I started in the Kodachrome 25 era, then "graduated" to Ecktachrome 200. I had a 50/1.4 and a 200/3.5 and longed for a 35mm (24mm and 28mm was extravagent in those days). In 1969 I served in the Army with a pro photographer that had something like a 30-70mm Nikkor zoom and fell in love with the concept of a competent zoom, but there were few to be had in those days.
Now, my default ISO on my 7D is ISO 800. If the sun's too bright, I'll usually stop down rather than reduce ISO (except for landscapes). As we see earlier in this thread, I'm never too reluctant to push on up to ISO 6400. The 5D3 will free me to go a stop or two higher with ISO. If I were shooting a lot of indoor basketball or stage work, then I'd consider an f/2.8, but that's pretty rare for me, so f/4 really does do the trick 99% of the time.
Yet, people are still gaga over fast lenses. I'm going for fast cameras instead and really enjoying the flexibility of zooms. I've shot lots and lots of images with primes and still do with my 500mm, but I don't miss them at all. Using my 70-200/f4 for a portrait lens doesn't get a second thought and I'm not wishing for some 85/f2 that I dreamed about back when I was shooting at ASA 25, 50 and 200.
So... I get it and I don't. If a 70-200mm seems clumsy and inconvenient, then it IS clumsy and inconvenient. (I walk miles most weeks with one literally slung around my neck, so I've grown imune to its bulk and feel naked without it when I'm in the woods). The part I really don't understand is the big desire to get fast, shorter focal length primes. They seem like a relic of the past to me except in a few, special purpose situations.
Dave