Hi everyone, although I like to study the photography topic, I’m really a noob when it comes to practical terms.

I would like to take pictures at a family event which will take place in a garden in the evening/night.

Well, my gear is quite modest, and I know I don’t have what I need to take good pictures of both the place and the people there. I’m looking to rent a nice lens to carry around as I take pictures (and enjoy the party too! So I’m just taking one 😅). So I would really appreciate some advice on what to rent.

There are the four lenses I found while digging, two are primes, two are zooms:

  • Canon RF 24MM F/1.8 IS STM: it’s fast, with IS, but I’m not sure about portraits with this focal length.

  • Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L II USM: super fast, no IS, still not sure about portraits with this focal length.

  • Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM: IS, quite fast, zoom lets me take portraits, but I’ve read it’s not very sharp.

  • Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L IS USM: IS, quite fast, zoom lets me take portraits (not strongly as the one above but still).

Here’s my situation:

  • I have Canon Eos R10 with the EF adapter.
  • My hands are shaky, so without IS I need to be at least at 1/125…
  • I like to keep ISO really low (<6400) if I can.
  • I kind of pixel peep (I know I don’t have the right because I’m crap but I can’t resist) so I like to take as sharp pictures as I can.

Which lens would you reccommend? Since I’m renting them I was thinking about going all in with the expensive ones, the cost won’t increase much. The primes are so bright I feel comfortable they will be bright enough, but I don’t know if I can take good portraits at 24mm. On the other hand, zooms let me do more things, but I don’t know if I can handle f/2.8 with my crappy and shaky hands.

Of course, if you can think of other lenses that would be perfect for the job I’m all ears!

Cheers

  • chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world
    8·
    7 months ago

    I would stick with a prime. You may think you’ll use the zoom, but I have a feeling you’ll probably end up finding a distance you are comfortable with and shooting from that, instead of adjusting your zoom with each shot.

    Since you’ll be shooting low light and you aren’t confident in the steadiness of your hands, you’ll definitely want some form of image stabilization, otherwise you will miss out on shots. Really, your best friend is going to be flash. I’d recommend getting a speed light to help with AF and lighting, so you can get those crisp low iso shots that you will want. If you aren’t comfortable with an external flash, then I’d say to rent it ahead of time and do some work before hand to learn the ins and outs.

    Out of the lenses you’ve posted, I’d recommend the 24mm 1.8 with image stabilization. Though I would aim for something closer to 35-50mm focal length. Remember, you are running a crop sensor, so all of your focal lengths will be might shorter than advertised. A 50 will act like a 35 and a 24 will be something like a 15-18. I’m a Nikon guy, so I don’t know if that knowledge translates directly to Canon, but I don’t think there is too much of a difference. I had the math backwards for whatever reason, but I stand by my advice.

    Good luck and happy hunting.

    • sic_semper_tyrannis@feddit.chEnglish
      5·
      7 months ago

      You have the crop factor backwards. It’ll increase the effective focal length. Multiply the crop factor by the focal length of the lens

    • IMALlama@lemmy.world
      3·
      7 months ago

      Agree on using a speedlight, but if flash is in the picture stabilization won’t be as necessary. I wrote up a fairly similar reply on the .world version of this post.

    • HKPiax@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      7 months ago

      Thanks a lot for the help!

      I have experience with a 24mm prime and I was never truly satistied with landscape/scenery pictures because it was too narrow for them, and neither with portrait pictures because it was too wide. Of course, this is with it in my hands, there certainly are people out there who can use it better than I do.

      I’m using a RF 15-30 f/4.5-6.3 when it’s bright outside and I like it a lot, I like the flexibility it gives me, that is why I’m tempted by the absolute brightness of the primes I’ve found, but also I’m tempted by the flexibility those zooms give me.

      I don’t think I’ll be using an external flash because I fear my setup will become too cumbersome to carry around, and I prefer the feel I get from pictures when there is no flash involved :(