Help Me Pick My Next Camera Lens

One of the aspects of photography that is a bit hard to swallow is the price of the gear, and with that comes the choice of what camera gear should be on my list next. The more that I get into photography the more I find myself thinking, “Oh man, wish I had such and such with me”, when I am at an event I am photographing. I look over my current gear, and wonder what would compliment what I have and what I should look at getting next. The choice for me is almost endless, but I am hoping with all the photographers out there, I can get some good feedback, suggestions, advice in my hunt for my next camera lens.

These are my current lenses:

• EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS
• EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS (aka kit lens)
• EF 50mm f1.8

Remember now, I do use a Canon XSi (450D) which is a cropped sensor (APS-C) body. If the lens I look at is not an EF-S then I multiple the focal length by 1.6x to get the focal lengths.

These are the lenses on my Wish List:

Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS – This would be great for wildlife photography, at least until I can afford the big prime lenses! On my camera, the maxium focal length would be 640mm, which isn’t that bad when I want to get up and personal with an Eagle or Osprey.

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f2.8 IS - This would be something I would want to replace my kit lens with. Though being designed for an APS-C camera body, if I were to upgrade later to a full-frame it wouldn’t be any good. It still has a nice wide reach to it and being for a APS-C body, it would be just that, 17mm wide. The f2.8 IS would be a great addition to any indoor photography I might set out to do, such as company launch parties, concerts, weddings etc.

Canon EF 24-70mm f2.8L – I was just looking over the Canon EF 17-40mm f4.0L lens and noticed that the 24-70mm was at f2.8. Again I really do like the f2.8 quickness though with my camera, it would not be very wide. The 24mm really becomes a 38mm. Though, if I were to upgrade to a full-frame body later, it would be a great companion.

I’m not too picky am I? Each lens of course has its place for when I am out and about. The more lenses I have in my arsenal, the less chance of me missing a great shot. I found that while shooting with my 70-200mm lens during the Women’s Hockey at GM Place, I didn’t have any wide shots. 70mm on my camera body becomes 112mm and since I don’t have a second camera body, I missed some great wide shots of the players on the ice.

Canon EF 100mm f2.8 Macro – I would love to have a dedicated macro lens. Often on my outside photowalks I see many flowers, plants and insects I would love to have close up shots of. The 100mm would allow me to stay a bit further back, but because of the Canon design, the barrel does not protrude out when you zoom in. I would hate to bump into a wasp on a flower and get stung! Sigma does have a 50mm macro lens, but I would then have another 50mm lens and find that a bit redundant. Yes, there is a Canon 60mm but it is of the APC-S type, though perhaps one day I might borrow Gus’ since he has that particular lens. I’ve also read on various camera forums that the Canon EF 100mm is like the cream of the crop.

Fisheye – After seeing what people such as John can do with a Fisheye, and what I have seen among sport photography, a Fisheye lens would be fun to have in my camera bag. I was briefly looking at the Sigma 15mm f2.8 fisheye I thought it would be great for the snowboarding season coming up! I also remember seeing some pretty cool candid photos Robyn showed me of a coworkers wedding.

My list can go on and on and on, but those would be the ones I know I would use on a more daily basis. If you can recommend me some alternate brands to the lengths above (such as Sigma etc) I would look at those too. Though I have found that typically the features on the Canon lenses are things that the other manufactures have left out. Such as the Canon EF 100 f2.8 Macro, the barrel doesn’t extend when zooming, while the other brands such as Sigma or Tamron do, but yes they are less expensive.

If you shoot Nikon, what Nikon equivalent would you look at adding to your collection if you had my current gear? Yea, don’t say sell my Canon stuff for Nikon, that just isn’t going to happen. I want too much, and it all costs a lot of money. I want ultra-wide lenses so I can capture landscapes, but then I want longer focal lengths so I can capture the animal world around us. But at the same time I want something that can be general purpose too! How does one decide? What would you get if you were me, if you had to pick only one of the ones above. Why would you pick that? What else might you recommend I might look at that is not on the above list?