Please HELP ME purchase LENSES for my CANON 5D

[rjk]

Very useful thread.

After mainly shooting medium format, (Mamiya 645afd) and Kodak 645 digital back, I am adding a Canon eos 5d and EF 24-105 mm kit to my armoury. Taking delivery tomorrow. Price is now a remarkable £2,089 for the camera and lens.

I am considering the 70-300mm DO due to its small size as I think this will work well for candid street shots.

85mm portrait lens looks a must have.

Will keep reading and let you know how the kit expands!

[TimothyHughes]

Mistybreeze,

I've had a 5D since it was introduced and absolutely love it. If I could choose just one lens for the camera it would be an 85mm f/1.2L II unquestionably. But until the big checks start rolling in I'm sticking with my 50mm f/1.4.

[marcmccalmont]

I owned the 24-70 2.8 but sold it because for general purpose the IS in the 24-105 4.0 IS was of great value to me. once corrected in DXO optics one cannot tell the difference between the two. If F2.8 is important and you generally use a tripod the 24-70 is a good choice but if F4.0 works for you, the IS is invaluable.
I use my 24 105 IS 90% of the time and the 70-200 2.8 IS 10 %, the 50 1.4 is so reasonable why not (at least that was my logic)
Marc

PS please don't underestimate the value of DXO optics I was coming from film when I decided to first get the 24-70 F2.8 because you only need IS for a long lens right? well I have learned otherwise. Also along the journey removing lens distortions with DXO optics made me evaluate the lenses after the distortions have been removed not before. You have to process the RAW file anyways so you might as well remove the lens distortions at the same time. Some otherwise soft images ended up tack sharp after the processing with incredible depth of field. It is a free 30 day trial and at the end they offer a $40 discount. so improving $3000 worth of lenses for less than 10% of their cost I'd say thats a good value.