for the photographers

[focalintent]

Would you rather have:

• a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens
  
• an 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens
  

The f/2.8 allows for much lower light/faster shooting. The 80-400mm gives you that much more reach. (Assume that, optically, the lenses perform roughly equivalently, e.g. roughly same levels of vignetting, distortion, softness at certain ends/apertures, etc...)

(Why isn't this a poll? Not only do i want to know which folks would prefer, i want to know the whys : )

Comments

[sol3.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, i think it's time to hit up the rental shops (wonder if i can rent a teleconverter as well, i'd imagine so).

Of course, the 70-200 f/2.8 is more expensive than most of the other lenses i'm flipping around between - and the teleconverter is going to be another $100-300 on top of that. (I'm thinking i'd want to pair up lens mfgr and teleconverter mfgr).

The other downside to a teleconverter is then i lose the 70-140mm range when i've got the teleconverter on - which is the advantage of an 80-400mm.

So many variables, so little time (part of why i'm brain dumping about all of this so out loud).