sercheese wrote:
Thank you for all your insightful answers! Few more things to consider. I imagine I would like to take beatiful photos as the Profis, but the reality is that not each picture has to have a blurred background. Maybe those suggestions with more flexibility are right. I can see me sitting on a sofa with my wife, so very close, wanting to take a picture of her with the child. And not want to go to the opposite site of the room to make those cool photos (sometimes, yes!).
There are moments of taking pictures and there are moments to lay the camera down. Don't mix it up, and don't compromise between the two.
We live alone, so all the responsibility will be only on us two. On one side, some light STM lenses like RF 35 would be great, on the other site, as someone mentioned, the situation can change rapidly (especially when the kid will start to move around), giving no time to swap the lens.
If a kid moves around you will have a lot of chances, also predictable ones, giving you lots of opportunities to make the pic you want. It's not like a wedding photographer having just one chance to picture the first kiss. Fast AF is important, but a fixed focal length isn't as long as it's not too telephoto.
The best low light AF lens indoors is the Sigma EF 40mm f/1.4 Art HSM, and it can also handle fast moving subjects. It will beat all the Canon RF L zooms for light gathering, and it will beat all the Canon primes (save the RF 135mm maybe) for AF speed.
I have no d500 anymore as I run over it with my car š The insurence paid for everything so I can start new. I've rented the R6 once for 2 weeks. As we visited our family for 1 week I took a lot of pictures, some art style portrait of a 4 years old, others just the funny moments while playing together. The 2nd week I took none pictures as we came back home, the weather was awful and my wife moody. I found that those pictures with blur where seen as beatiful for the family members.
Was it blur caused by a larger aperture or blur caused by a more telephoto focal length? If the latter it could be the audience doesn't prefer the blur itself but the "compression" of a telephoto focal length.
The other one where like from a smartphone. So also beatiful, but IQ nothing special. I indeed want to change my phone after 5 years. And my wife roll her eyes while I'm talking about the new camera.
Don't. We are here to listen to you.
She's no tech freak. So maybe the camera should be sometimes light for those situation when she uses it.
Never bother about the IQ of the pictures taken by your wife. You can order a kit zoom with the body if that helps to justify the purchase of the body, but never think about lenses for the wife, it's not worth it.
It could be heavier for me indoor or near home.
I have lenses I use mostly at home, and the Sigma f/1.4 40mm and 85mm Art lenses are amongst those lenses. If you want a light weight prime for traveling that's never a bad thing, but buy it for yourself, not for the wife.
And again light for traveling.
For traveling the RF 35mm f/1.8 IS stm is a good option, the RF 50mm f/1.8 has it's benefits as well, and the RF 85mm f/2.0 IS stm packs a lot of usability in a portable lens.
I ask one more time, are photos taken with STM lenses of worse IQ than those taken with i.ex. RF 24-70?
Stm is about the AF-system, it has nothing to do with IQ. Generally stm gives you slower AF (although the f/1.2 USM L zooms AF slower than the RF 35mm f/1.8 stm), not necessarily worse IQ. When comparing the RF 35mm f/1.8 stm to the RF 24-70mm f/2.8 the zoom might have better quality bokeh, however, the prime lets in more light. With less complex backgrounds in a dimmer situations the prime might create a more pleasing image. With a bit less low light and a more difficult background the zoom might win.
There's another question in play here as well. If you need light weight lenses for traveling, can deal with the fixed focal lengths of primes and de necessary lens changes while traveling? Maybe it could be wise to simplify things, as life with younger kids can be complicated enough even without taking pictures. And maybe just one very good standard zoom simply works the best in everyday life. The RF 24-70mm f/2.8 IS USM is a very good zoom with pretty nice bokeh. It has crazy fast AF. It's kind of a jack of all trades, while still not too far off from some masters. When traveling it's not light weight, but it is versatile. You can do portraits, but it's also very nice for walk around stuff, and, you can do both without lens changes. You will be always ready to take a portrait in less than one second: Step back, zoom to 70mm and select f/2.8, and boom: there's your portrait. You can carry a lot of primes in the bag, but sometimes immediacy is all you need.
You can always add the 40mm Art for low light at home indoors or the RF 85mm f/2.0 IS stm for a bit nicer portraits or the light weight RF 100-400 for telephoto stuff, however, that standard f/2.8 zoom can handle a lot of situations for a lot of purposes, especially given the very good signal to noise ratio of modern camera sensors. Never a bad thing to own such a lens imo.
One last advice: Buy a camera bag with good weight distribution to the hips, twice as big as you would need for your camera gear. Use one half of that bag for the gear, and the other half for toys, food, and other stuff of the kids, and I'll promise you your wife will love your hobby. My wife has actually claimed my former camera bag and uses it even though don't bring a camera most of the time. It's just a very easy way to carry a lot of kids related stuff, which can be a lot of weight all together sometimes, just like camera gear.
