Canon General Purpose/Event Lens

diness wrote:

I'm not sure exactly what your budget is, but you could consider the Tamron 24-70 f2.8 VC. It gives you the f2.8 AND VC which is nice.

In terms of my budget, I am only really looking at secondhand L lenses, so 3rd parties are in my interest as they are considerably cheaper than Canon's versions. I will have a good look at that Tamron 24-70.

Fixed focal length lenses are very nice, especially if you're on a budget, but obviously you need to be ok with only one focal length. I haven't used the 60mm, but I like the 85mm much better than the 50mm 1.4. The new 50mm 1.8 STM is a pretty nice lens for the money actually

I've had the chance to use the Canon 50mm f1.4 for one of my short films and was astounded by it, I've been considering it for filmmaking and general photography.

After watching a couple of video reviews on the 85mm it seems to be a very sharp lens. I have seen it being used for other reasons than portraits, but is it suitable for general purpose?

On a crop sensor camera, this lens, or it's Sigma equivalent, is probably what I would personally want at an event.

I owned it when I used a crop. IQ is pretty good, not as good as the 24-70 f2.8L II or the Tamron 24-70 VC, but it's pretty good. Build quality and focus speed do not come anywhere near the L's. Focus speed is SLOW on the 28-75... much faster on the 24-70 VC. The build on the 28-75 is not great either. That said, it is dirt cheap and gives you f2.8 and decent IQ.

That's interesting, I was going to look at the 28-75 but I'll take a look at the others first as they seem more suitable.

Like I said, if I were you, I'd probably be looking at the Canon 17-55 IS or the Sigma 17-50 OS.

Thank you for your input, very insightful!