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Upgrade from 70-200 f/4 IS to 70-200 f/2.8 II L or Buy 135/f2

Started Dec 1, 2015 | Discussions thread
Alexis
OP Alexis Senior Member • Posts: 2,004
Re: Upgrade from 70-200 f/4 IS to 70-200 f/2.8 II L or Buy 135/f2

Some really good advice so far - I thank you all!

Firstly let me point out that I do maybe 6-8 weddings a year so I am not making a living as a wedding photographer and thus do not have the luxury of writing off costs against earnings - I don't even have a company to get tax deducted etc, so to all intends and purposes I'm just like most of you guys out there where you self-fund your hobby.

If I were starting from scratch I would indeed, as someone mentioned start off with 1x5DMIII equipped with a Canon 24-70 f/2.8 II and another 5DIII body (or maybe 6D) with a 70-200 MkII f/2.8 IS plus a macro lens (100mm or similar) and maybe an ultra wide angle of some description and that's it. Unfortunately my kit "evolved" just like most of you; I have managed to sell some equipment along the way and last year made the jump to full-frame.

Even though the 5DIII is a very good low-light camera I am missing a low-light lens like the 70-200 f/2.8II - having said that, my 2 "workhorse" zoom (Sigma 24-105 and Canon 70-200) are both f/4 and I "get by" at the expense of dialing up my ISO. I think, to be frank my issue is related to the "ideal" setup" that I described earlier that involved 2 FF bodies and lenses - my second camera is a 50D (good for a crop and beautifully built) and my "dilema" is always what lens to put on what camera during a wedding (i have a BlackRapid twin strap) - I end up with using the 5DIII + Sigma 24-105 and the 50D with the 70-200 f/4 with the 85 f/1.8 being used occasionally on either camera and the Sigma 10-20 occasionally used on the 50D for the wide shots. This configuration is not IDEAL by virtue of the fact that I end up using good glass (85 and the 70-200) on my crop camera (50D) so perhaps I may need to look to upgrading the 50D to a 6D as a solution - not sure!

 Alexis's gear list:Alexis's gear list
Canon EOS 50D Canon EOS M50 II GoPro Hero9 Black Sigma 17-50mm F2.8 EX DC OS HSM Canon EF-M 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM +12 more
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