I'm looking for the most versatile and useful addition to my lens collection. I have the HC 50-110, HC 28 and HC 120. I've covered wide angle, zoom and macro. It's time for a decent telephoto that is useful for head shots at a reasonabley close distance and that can also be used with a 1.7x converter for wildlife.PLEASE NOTE: the last time this question was broached it devolved into an argument about bit depth. Please stay on topic when answering this post for all of our sake. It might be helpful to know that the front runners are the HC 150 and HC 210.[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=127732\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
For head shots 150mm and no tele converters. Anything longer flattens the field and does not benefit the model. Also take a look at the 100mm lens which is great for this purpose. 210mm is longer and heavier and also pushes you much further from the model thus making the bond and interaction so much more difficult to achieve. There are people that like to shoot head shots with DSLR's using 180mm lens but the 85mm is named the portrait lens not by accident. I personally do not use anything longer than 110mm on Aptus75 and Rz and shoot tons of head shotswith lenses ranging from 50mm to 110mm. Nothing beats the expressions that you get from the model when you are just 4 feet away. http://andrenapier.com[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=127741\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
I do not really disagree with anything said so far but why not get the 100mm, 210mm and 1.7x. Based on what you said you would have almost everything covered for wildlife and head shots. The 100mm would be the short tele for headshots but easily converted to a 170mm with the 1.7x. For shots less than 5 feet from the subject you also have the 120mm macro, which gives outstanding detail and bokeh. THe 210 with or without the 1.7x would make an outstanding set up for wildlife.[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=127758\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Well Mark, while you are ultimately right about the 210mm being the best choice for wildlife (especially considering that it can be used with the 1.7x) it would only get used about 2% of the time and would be useless to me in other circumstances. The 100mm, while being superior for head shots is already covered by the zooms range. This leaves the 150mm as the choice that is most useful but nonetheless lacking in ultimate reach- even with the 1.7x I only get 255mm which translates to roughly 159.375mm (-/+ 7mm) in 35mm focal conversion. I'm hopeing that this will be enough to get shots of eagles, whales and bears in Alaska... $3000.00 is alot to spend for 2% use. Is the 150mm somehow flawed and not appropriate?[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=127804\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
The HC 150mm is my bread & butter lens on the H1. I shoot almost only people and have to agree with Andre that anything longer is not good in such circumstances. The 150mm is dead sharp (maybe too sharp) even wide open on my Aptus75. Never used teleconverters with it.If you are looking for a "cheap" way of adding some longer lenses to the H1 - how about getting the CF adapter and some Hasselblad V lenses? Most can be had cheap now a days. This is of course dependent on not needing autofocus. I use this setup for the cases when i need 350mm and 500mm on my H1.Svein Erik[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=127829\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
I might get a little out of the discussion but since some of you use the 50-110, what do you think of it? How does it compared to the fixed lenses? I like strong sharpness and also shoot headshots.[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=127850\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Its an amazing lens. The best zoom i have used. But a little on the heavy side for some. 110mm is a bit short for headshots, but it focuses quite close.[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=127855\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
I agree that it is an exceptionally sharp lens right across the zoom range, but it really is very heavy. I use it on a tripod for landscape work and would be disinclined to use it in a freewheeling photo session shooting people. The H cameras just feel much better balanced in your hands with a fixed focal length normal or short tele lens.[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=127860\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]