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

[devina.livejournal.com]

Is this my first lens, or do I have some others?

Off the cuff, I'd prefer the first. But I like to get close up to things to take pictures, and don't tend to shoot from a distance. I also prefer natural lighting to a flash. So I'd find it more useful to have a lens that can handle low light.

[contessagrrl.livejournal.com]

e)

[tk7602.livejournal.com]

i would go with #2.

at the low end, 70 is essentially useless for anything even vaguely close up. so that leaves me mostly looking at the high end.

when i'm zooming in on something far off like that, thus far it has almost always been relatively well lit, and someplace where i can have a monopod/tripod. so the lower light and faster shooting aren't all that meaningful, given the special purpose of the lens.

but, that's based on what i tend to do when i'm zooming. for example, stonehenge wasn't really going anywhere, and it was outdoors on a sunny day. so for that, being able to get that much closer to the details in the stones would be neat.

[sensesurfer.livejournal.com]

70-200 2.8 and then you can teleconvert that to a 140-400 5.6

[bratling.livejournal.com]

70-200 f/2.8.

i so often shoot in low or marginal lighting that i value the ability to gather more light more than i gather the ability to zoom. i can almost always walk closer to my subject. (i don't do birdwatching.)

if your regular subjects are far off and in daylight, sure, go for the 80-400. but me, i do close-ups and medium, so i want light and optical clarity more than ultimate zoom.