Hi everyone, although I like to study the photography topic, I’m really a noob when it comes to practical terms.

I would like to take pictures at a family event which will take place in a garden in the evening/night.

Well, my gear is quite modest, and I know I don’t have what I need to take good pictures of both the place and the people there. I’m looking to rent a nice lens to carry around as I take pictures (and enjoy the party too! So I’m just taking one 😅). So I would really appreciate some advice on what to rent.

There are the four lenses I found while digging, two are primes, two are zooms:

  • Canon RF 24MM F/1.8 IS STM: it’s fast, with IS, but I’m not sure about portraits with this focal length.

  • Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L II USM: super fast, no IS, still not sure about portraits with this focal length.

  • Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM: IS, quite fast, zoom lets me take portraits, but I’ve read it’s not very sharp.

  • Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L IS USM: IS, quite fast, zoom lets me take portraits (not strongly as the one above but still).

Here’s my situation:

  • I have Canon Eos R10 with the EF adapter.
  • My hands are shaky, so without IS I need to be at least at 1/125…
  • I like to keep ISO really low (<6400) if I can.
  • I kind of pixel peep (I know I don’t have the right because I’m crap but I can’t resist) so I like to take as sharp pictures as I can.

Which lens would you reccommend? Since I’m renting them I was thinking about going all in with the expensive ones, the cost won’t increase much. The primes are so bright I feel comfortable they will be bright enough, but I don’t know if I can take good portraits at 24mm. On the other hand, zooms let me do more things, but I don’t know if I can handle f/2.8 with my crappy and shaky hands.

Of course, if you can think of other lenses that would be perfect for the job I’m all ears!

Cheers

  • Obi
    2·
    3 months ago

    It depends on what you’re trying to achieve. Are you doing candid portraits where the people are in natural positions and not looking at the camera (that’s the preferred style for things like corporate events), then you want something longer and as fast as you can get, no flash. If you’re going to have people posing in front of you and look at the camera then I’ll join the crowd and recommend getting a flash, with canon you might have a setting for “natural” or “ambient priority” to reduce the whole flashiness of it. In that case the 24s are probably fine, they’ll be a 38mm equivalent on your body, so not actually that wide and should work for single portraits or groups (zoom with your feet).

    Here are my favourite lenses or combos to cover events, but keep in mind I do this professionally and definitely cannot enjoy the event as a guest at the same time:

    • 15-35f2.8 + 70-200f2.8
    • 28-70f2
    • 24-70f2.8

    Personally I would never cover an event with primes as they just don’t offer me the flexibility I need but again different situations, in your shoes I’d probably grab the 24 and enjoy the pleasure of shooting around the 35mm length, my favourite prime length.

    • HKPiax@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      3 months ago

      Thanks a lot for the input!

      Yes, I will be taking pictures of both the place and the people, especially of people being natural and not concerned about me, so I would avoid the flash for that reason too (also, the setup becomes too bulky with one).

      I also enjoy very much shooting at 24mm but I’m not too comfortable with it in these situations, I’d like to be closer to the subjects but further from the scenery (if that even makes sense), but since I’m renting the lens I can go for something expensive which does both!

      That 15-35 f/2.8, is it the RF one? It’s one of the lenses I’m considering. Do you have like a sample gallery I can take a look at?

      • Obi
        2·
        3 months ago

        Yeah the RF, I still haven’t updated my website since I got that one so I don’t have photos to share but this video was pretty much entirely shot on it besides a few with the 100mm macro, when I shoot video I also switch between full frame and a crop mode that gives me 1.6x.

        It’s a great lens very sharp and it has IS and all that. I do question whether it’s ideal for “wildlife” style event photos, I’d rather something a bit longer to give myself a better chance people don’t notice me, but I think for your situation it might make sense since you’re also a guest and won’t spend your time actually hunting, and the 1.6 crop gives you a bit more reach. Be warned the RF autofocus with an RF body is amazing and will ruin EF with adapter for you.