Advice on new lens

[LewisB]

Hi all,

I'm after some advice and hoping you can help me out.

Im looking for a new lens for my 60D. At present im shooting weddings, landscapes and candid/urban street scenes. Im after a lens with low aperture such as 2.8, well built, sharpness, colours etc etc... budget is around £300 to £500. Iv been looking at the sigma 17-70 2.8 DC HSM around the £350 mark. Has anybody had any experience with this lens? Would it be worth taking a punt on? Or would you suggest going for one of the canons? around the 2.8 to 1.4 aperture range.?

Any help would be much appreciated.

[graham_c]

Hi Lewis
I don't have this lens but i have only heard good reports on it. You could also look at the 50mm lens. Hope this helps ... graham

[canismajor]

Hi all,

I'm after some advice and hoping you can help me out.

Im looking for a new lens for my 60D. At present im shooting weddings, landscapes and candid/urban street scenes. Im after a lens with low aperture such as 2.8, well built, sharpness, colours etc etc... budget is around £300 to £500. Iv been looking at the sigma 17-70 2.8 DC HSM around the £350 mark. Has anybody had any experience with this lens? Would it be worth taking a punt on? Or would you suggest going for one of the canons? around the 2.8 to 1.4 aperture range.?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Hi, as for Canon's 17-55mm, it retails for app £789.99 which is the f2.8 version. The slower version, f4.0-5.6 does retail for app £352.99. Quite a difference in price!. Personally, I find that my Sigma 10-20mm f3.5, £499 does a great job for those wedding group photos where an amazing number of people can be included in the pic, and all without the photographer walking back half a mile. All the best.

[Phil Hall]

Hi Lewis,

You don’t say what existing glass you’ve got at the moment, but there are a couple of options out there that you might be interested in.

If you want to improve on your existing standard zoom, then the 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM is a great choice. It hasn’t got the fast maximum f/2.8 aperture, but it only drops down to f/4 at the long end. It’s also got a Hypersonic motor to reduce AF noise and an Optical Stablizer (OS) to combat camera shake. On top of that, it also has a Macro function to produce almost half life-size images. It’s a very versatile lens that we scored 91%.

The Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM is a great option for landscape photography and group shots at weddings as already mentioned, while the relatively fast maximum aperture makes it well suited to street photography.

A wildcard suggestion is the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM at a shade under £500. This would be a great addition for you’re kit if you’re shooting weddings – especially candid shots and pics of the bride and groom. The maximum f/4 aperture not be as fast as some, but will allow you to blow the background out nicely, while results are excellent.