Lens suggestion for speakers at conferences

Pepege wrote:

Hi,

I own a Canon 80D and I want to use it for shooting speaker photos and sometimes videos at conferences. So it is an indoor low light situation, but not awfully low. And speakers are moving (walking, gestures) but not as much as indoor sports.

What would you recommend for new lenses?

Currently I have the following:

• Canon EF-S 18-135mm 3.5-5.6 IS STM (nice general purpose, e.g. for video)
• Canon EF 50mm 1.8 II (sharp only stopped down to 2.8)
• Canon EF-S 60mm 2.8 Makro (never used it in low light)
• Canon EF-S 24mm 2.8 (great for wider shots, fast and sharp)

I am quite new to this kind of shooting, I am doing it for my company (but I am not a professional photgrapher). I have a budget for about 2.000 EUR/USD for lenses...

I have read many posts here and reviews from the-digital-picture.

I would say I need:

• fast lenses to stop motion
• IS might help for longer focal lengths (but not really on shorter focal lengths).
• Currently the sharpness of my pictures are diminished because of high ISO values, and not because of low lens quality. I even sometimes get better results with the 50mm wide open at 1.8 than stopped down to 2.8 (and increased sensor noise).
• Nice bokeh / background blur is important to show the speaker and not the stage behind

Would you agree with my list of requirements?

I have though of the following two lenses:

• Canon EF-S 17-55mm 2.8 IS USM
• Canon EF 70-200mm 4.0 L IS USM

And maybe some faster prime lenses for the most important focal lengths. I checked my best shots so far. There are many with 55mm, 80mm, and some great portraits with 100 or 150mm. So maybe on of the following make sense:

• Canon EF 85mm 1.8 USM
• Canon EF 100mm 2.0 USM
• Canon EF 135mm 2.0 L USM

They would be a good addition to the two zooms lenses, wouldn't they?

Or would you recommend the Canon EF 70-200mm 2.8 L IS II USM instead? It is definitely more versatile, but quite expensive and heavy compared to the others...

Thanks a lot!

Peter

I would say that most people who do this kind of shooting probably are using the 70-200 f2.8L II like you said.  That would probably be the first choice.  If that one was too much you could go with the Tamron 70-200 vc if you wanted the IS, or you could go with the 70-200 f2.8 non-is as well.  You will need to keep shutter speeds at 1/200th or higher at the long end, but if people are moving around, you will probably be at 1/125th or higher anyway.

The other ones you could consider are the Sigma 50-150 f2.8 OS, which covers all your most frequently used focal lengths with great iq and IS.   Another option is the Sigma 50-100 f1.8 ART which has a much wider max aperture, but a smaller focal length.