Sunday 22 August 2010

What's In Your Bag

A question I get asked quite alot is "What lenses do you use?"

So, I'd like to introduce you to my little glass family!

The baby: 50mm 1.4
This was my first lens with my Canon 5D MkII. It costs around £300 and is a nice starter lens. It produces gorgeous bokeh and has a pretty big aperture which is great for shooting in darker places. I'm going to upgrade this to a 50mm 1.2f eventually.
Taken with the 50mm 1.4

The Mother: 85mm 1.2
This beauty is my most expensive lens to date, a whopping £2000 (priced at £2600 some places). I saved for months to buy it, and it is so worth every penny. The huge aperture (1.2f) means it's my best lens for shooting at night, it brightens up any room and has astounding bokeh perfect for portraits.
Taken with the 85mm 1.2

Little Sister: 100mm 2.8 Macro Lens
I bought this macro lens a couple of weeks ago as I'd been having trouble at weddings getting the nice close up shots. At £500 it's a fantastic buy, the depth of field this lens gives out is stunning and will produce some gorgeous shots.

Big Bro: 24-70mm 2.8
This lens was my 2nd ever lens and I bought it because I was sick and tired of not being able to get any full-room shots with my 50mm 1.4, and I didn't like the distortion of wide angle lenses. You can buy it for around £1400. This lens has served me very well and works fantastically for "wide" shots and full congregation shots at weddings, however the DOF isn't very shallow and if it was I think I'd love it just a liiiitle bit more.
Taken with the 24-70mm 2.8

Big Daddy: 70-200mm 2.8
This lens is probably tied favourite with my 85mm 1.2. It cost me £1000 (I did some serious bargain hunting online) and without it I would be lost. I borrowed my friend Ali's 70-200mm 2.8 for a whole year before caving in and buying my own when Ali went on holiday with it (that's right, couldn't last 2weeks without one!) This lens is fantastic in so many ways, it's my Ninja Lens in that I can be across the room from someone and still get a great headshot of them, completely unaware I am taking a shot. The DOF is nice and shallow and the zoom lets you have loads of fun and be really versatile. The only thing that would be great is if they had this lens come with a 1.2f, that would be heaven on earth!
Taken with the 70-200mm 2.8


And in some happy news, I am pleased to announce I am expecting!
Last night at 2.30 I ordered a Tilt Shift 45mm 2.8 lens!
Taken with a TSE 45mm 2.8 lens
(a gorgeous picture via Chachahavana!)

Let me know if anyone has any ideas for names :D

Have a great day guys!

18 comments:

  1. Woo, I have to thank you again for all the information you give us about all the lenses you use. For sure it will help me when I can buy one of those $_$ :-P

    I'm really looking forward to see all the photos you'll do with that brand new lens :-D

    Thanks for sharing!!!

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  2. This was an awesome post!!! Thank you!

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  3. 85 is a dream.
    and the 70-200 is SUCH a fantastic lens. in borrowing my friends, I also cannot live WITHOUT it.

    ash x

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  4. This is so very helpful!! Where did you order your TSE 45mm 2.8?? Thanks again for these great posts!

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  5. Ordered it from ebay :D Very excited! xx

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  6. thanks for this post!! very helpful. i have used the 70-200 for weddings before and it really is a useful peice of equipment.

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  7. I so sharply intook breath when I saw you were getting the tilt shift that a room full of people turned to ask what had happened.

    Beautiful, beautiful.

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  8. Rosie,

    Can you give me some more details about your 70-200mm? is it the II or the first edition?

    I'm planning on buying the First edition of the 70-200mm, but wanted to see if people can see any difference between the II and the I

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  9. Thank you for the lovely introduction of your babies :)

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  10. Thanks for this great post and I think ur new arrival should be called Ur crazy Aunt Tilly. The tilt shift does take "crazy" shots and we ALL have a crazy aunt in our family. LOL

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  11. This is a really great post. I've returned to it several times...(but then again, all your posts are pretty awesome :-)

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  12. Uau.... I'm so jealous! Well, I also have a 50mm f/1.4 and absolutely adore it! My next buy is going to be a 70-200 f/2.8.... as soon as I get the money for it.... lol

    Just wondering, how many camera bodies do you have? :)

    By the way..... love your work! :)

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  13. I have an 18-250mm zoom. I NEVER take it off one of my bodies and often shoot and entire event with it. If I don't have time to fuss with extra bodies, that lens will cover everything.

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  14. Great post! Tilt shift could be a twisted sister ;)

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  15. I also think it should be a crazy aunt! The one who dresses in sunflower hats all the time.

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  16. Fantastic post, thanks for sharing with us the contents of your camera-bag, as a beginner photographer, I find it very useful :-)
    Andrea
    www.andreavassphotography.com
    @andi_photo

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  17. Hey Rosie ,
    Excellent post you have share , Thanks .

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