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Building a system - EOS RP

Started Nov 1, 2021 | Questions thread
thunder storm Forum Pro • Posts: 10,139
Re: Building a system - EOS RP

the_mac wrote:

I recently dipped my toes into more serious digital photography, and picked up:

EOS RP

RF 24-240 F4-6.3 IS USM

RF 35 F1.8 IS STM MACRO

I'm using the 24-240 as a jack-of-all-trades lens, for family pictures when we're out hiking, or candids of the kids out playing, pictures of my wife baking, or taking as a one-lens solution on road trips and vacations.

The 35 gets used for low-light shots, indoors after hours, around the campfire, or for street walks.

So far, I've been thrilled with the system that I have, and it's lived up to my expectations. Just need to keep practicing and taking lots of shots.

We were in Costa Rica recently and found that we loved spotting and taking pictures of wildlife, and the long end of the 24-240 still needed some big crops. I found myself wishing for an RF 100-500, but the budget isn't there for it.

I also find that I'm wishing for better lighting indoors, or for some fill flash out and about.

As a next step, I'm trying to decide between:

  • Godox V860 and X2 trigger so that I can have some lighting. Worried that the V860 will feel too big when mounted on the camera and I'll never use it as a walking-around flash.

A flash helps indoors in a room with white walls and white ceilings.  For me a flash is not a walk around tool anyway. Indoors some added weight isn't a problem, as you can simply put the gear at a table or so between the shots.

A flash is nice, but a bright lens combined with a flash is better. If you can't bounce to the ceiling forget about the flash, a bright lens is what you need.

  • Canon RF 100-400 F5.6-8 IS USM. I'm worried that it overlaps a lot of the range of my current 24-240 and isn't really buying me that much more reach.

Overlaps are good, as it saves you lens changes. A zoom starting at 240mm is a pain.

  • Canon RF 800 F11 IS STM. I'm worried that between the lack of close-focus and not having any zoom that I'd miss a lot of opportunities, but maybe that just means carrying the 24-240 and switching lenses as needed.

Maybe the 600mm is the more practical option. More affordable, smaller, less weight, but most importantly: 800mm can be easily too long.

Trying to figure out where to go from here, any feedback?

Some of the shots that I've enjoyed so far:

Hummingbird, but wished for a lot more reach

A landscape that I really enjoyed

Monkey just posing for us. Wished for a little more reach

If you had to change to 400 or 600mm, you probably would have missed the shot.

Anhinga posing on the shoreline for us, felt my framing worked out well here

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I love 50mm (equivalence)

 thunder storm's gear list:thunder storm's gear list
Canon EOS 6D Canon EOS M6 II Canon EOS R5 Sony a7 IV Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM +24 more
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