Wedding photographers..Which prime?

mr tommo

mr tommo

mr tommo

Soldato
Joined
13 Dec 2004
Posts
5,398
Location
Stoke-on-Trent
Two Weddings this weekend and looking to hire a prime lens.

2 Photographers & current kit is :

2 x Canon 5D mkII
2 x Canon 24-70 f/2.8 (mk1)
1 x Canon 70-200 f/2.8
1 x Canon 70-200 f/4

I'm looking for a fast prime as never used anything under f/2.8 and looking to experiment a little this weekend.

I'm currently thinking of getting the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 L II but worried about reports the focusing is quite slow. Don't want focusing issues in the evening?

Which would you go for?
 
Thanks for all the replies.

70-200mm is indeed a bit of a brute and only usually gets used by the second shooter from another angle. Will be interesting to see how much we can get away without using the 70-200mm and 24-70mm this weekend. Looking forward to having a play with the lenses tomorrow evening.

Treated myself to the 35mm and the 85mm in the end. Pick them both up tomorrow at 3pm and drop them off Monday 10am for the grand price of £90 with insurance :)

Granted I've had to leave a £1000 deposit incase I don't return them but thats not too bad.
 
That was my thought! :p

Its usaully full RRP per item but as we have an account there they did it for £1000. This is only because it's the first time I've hired from them, afterwards I'm not even sure a deposit is required.

BTW incase anybody is interested, Calumet Rental currently have an offer where a Friday (can collect Thursday after 3pm) to Monday hire only costs 1 day of hire. For example the 35mm f/1.4 is only costing me £39.60.

Not bad if you've got a short trip away planned and want to try a new £1000+ lens out. Also have DSLR's from around £100.
 
I'd agree usually however this weekend was a little different as we have a Wedding on the Friday, Saturday and the PhotoBooth is out on the Saturday night so plenty of income this weekend. The hire works out at £45 per Wedding.

We've also not got enough spare to buy a new lens until after Christmas with our budgeting. If we both feel like that these Lenses are worth it then we will definitely be purchasing them after Christmas. To me its like a test drive. If our photos improve greatly over the f2.8 offered by our 24-70mm then it will be worth it in the long run.
 
Just to update on this thread.

Used both lenses extensively at this weekends Weddings. I tried to stick with the 35mm and 85mm, took a while to get the hang of not using a 24-70mm zoom but got there in the end.

35L really is a stunning lens. Absolutely perfect and it's definitely convinced me to get one. Every shot just pops and it really did allow me to get shots that previously at f2.8 I was unable to get. (will probably opt for the cheaper Sigma though to save some pennies)

Onto the 85L, again IQ amazing. Found myself taking shots and being a little gobsmacked every time I looked at the back of the camera. I've not shot lower than f/2.8 before. Only criticism of this lens was the very slow focusing speeds. For the first dance I used the 35mm and the 85mm on two bodies. I found that the 85mm was pretty much useless for this job. Low light, slow focusing and a dancing B&G meant that the majority of my shots we unsuccessful. So I gave up and went over the the 35mm which was much better.

Overall, very impressed. Despite people seeing the rental as a waste of money, its certainly convinced me that going for fixed primes is the way forward.
 
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