2.8L Use of 2.8

From what I read the 2.8 is often too soft.
So how often can it be used?

Isn't that the idea of a 2.8 compared to a 4.5 - to be able to make use of the lower light situations through this setting?
I am just starting out, so excuse my ignorance.

I use it at indoor events, Live theatre and the indoor part of Weddings, in these situations my 28-70L and 80-200L are superb producing very sharp results regardless of aperture, in fact in theatre, the lenses are rarely away from F2.8 and with the 1DS realise poster sizes.

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Please ignore the Typos, I'm the world's worst Typist

I use it alot as well. Is it soft at 2.8? I don't think so. Is it as sharp as it is at f4, 8 or 11? No, but when you need 2.8 you need it. If you are going to be taking alot of natural light photos in low light meaning indoors, action photos early or late in the day, etc. then the 2.8 is great to have. For full daylight a 4.5 is fine. In low light a 4.5 is fine if you can use flash. Without flash a 4.5 runs out of light pretty fast in my experience for sports and indoor candids, theatre, etc.

aussieannie said:

From what I read the 2.8 is often too soft.
So how often can it be used?
Isn't that the idea of a 2.8 compared to a 4.5 - to be able to make
use of the lower light situations through this setting?
I am just starting out, so excuse my ignorance.

Click to expand...

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Jim
http://www.pbase.com/jflynnpa
Another work in progress....

I am curious on this as well. So any advice is greatly appreciated as I just got a 24-70L.

For 2.8, I can get a great shoots with still objects in low light (with a tripod). However with moving objects (such as kids , I usually have great difficulty to capture good shots. The image is often blurred (either kids moved or my hand was shaking) or at best "soft" especially the depth is quite shallow with 2.8.

Should I crank up the ISO? I am worried about the noisy. If anyone could share the common settings for indoor party situations? I am using 20D.

Jim Flynn said:

aussieannie said:

From what I read the 2.8 is often too soft.
So how often can it be used?
Isn't that the idea of a 2.8 compared to a 4.5 - to be able to make
use of the lower light situations through this setting?
I am just starting out, so excuse my ignorance.

Click to expand...

--
Jim
http://www.pbase.com/jflynnpa
Another work in progress....

Click to expand...

When shooting sports in low light, I'll take all the speed I can get. The faster the lens, the faster the shutter speed I can use.

I use a 135mm f/2.0 lens for a lot of my indoor sports and even at ASA 1600 I often find myself shooting at 1/400 sec at f/2. I don't need anything in the background in focus. And the more background blur I have the more the subject is going to pop out.

Yes, I do miss some shots because the depth of field at f/2 is low and sometimes I'll find a players chest in focus and his face is a bit soft. But I loose more photos from motion blur when I shoot at f/2.8 and 1/200 sec. And shooting at f/4 with 1/100 sec - well that won't stop much action.

A good 2.8 lens will not be soft wide open at 2.8 otherwise there would be no point in producing them.

These lenses are very often use wide open as they are built to allow you to shoot at lower light.

A lot of people think lenses are at fault when often it is user error. Shooting a fast lens wide open generally means having less depth of field so any focussing error or camera movement will result in blurry pics.

Also often people blame lenses or camera when it is clearly camera shake as shutter speed gets too low which happens often with inexperienced shooters at low light.

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Michael Salzlechner
http://www.PalmsWestPhoto.com

Thanks to all those replies.
This sort of advice is like gold when you are learning.