UKC

It's time to go lens shopping. I recently picked up a Nikon D800 and a 24-70 (sigma) for a really good price and now I'm thinking about getting something longer for climbing photography.

Do you have a go to lens for sport and trad climbing photography?
Do you find most of your shots are in the same focal length range?
How often do you wish your 70-200 was actually a 50-500 or 150-600?

Thanks,

Gwilym

In reply to GwilymR:

I mostly use a canon 24-105 on a 1.3x crop camera so make what you will of that. Generally when it comes to climbing photography you don't want a long lens but rather a short one that and get closer. This gives more of an illusion you are there whereas with the longer lenses it feels a bit more detached. That said I wouldn't go without a 70-200 f2.8 since sometimes you simply can't get closer. I rarely feel I need anything longer than about 300mm

In reply to GwilymR:

My Tokina 11-16mm is almost permanently on my camera. It's definitely my 'go-to'.

In reply to GwilymR:

I too had a sigma as my GOTO lens however mine was an 18-70 macro version. Sadly it died and I replaced it with a Nikon 19-105.

To be truthful I much preferred my sigma lens as it was more sharp and focused quicker.

I also have a 55-200 lens but it must be several years since I fitted it. Climbing wise, I prefer a wide angle rather than zooming in on the whites of their eyes.

In reply to GwilymR:
nikon 18-200, you do loose a little of the IQ but its such a handy lens.
Id still plump for my 12-28 for cityscapes or landscapes though

I might opt for something longer than 200 but then I cant afford / justify one

In reply to GwilymR:

24-105 on full frame Canon. I had one on a crop body before this and, not only does the focal length make more sense on full frame, the lens seems to perform better.

50mm 1.4 is pretty fab for portrait stuff at a reasonable cost. I have yet to try 85mm equivalent but that may be better.

I don't use long lenses much, the 105mm seems fine for most purposes (cropped if needs be).

In reply to GwilymR:

I have a Tamron 18-200 on my 350D and I see in old reviews of it online that it was well rated as a do all, go to, walk around lens - which is pretty much why I bought it at the time, as well as not wanting to change lenses in climbing situations.

But pretty much from word go anything near the 200 end was simply not good enough and no tripod or workarounds helped. So I would not try and cram that much into a lens again, as I probably never use over 140 or so.

I'm doing my annual will I or won't I upgrade DPreview trawling and thinking I won't go over 105 on whatever I get. I have reasons why I could use 300+ but not sure it's worth the faff in actual mountain use.

In reply to Damo:

Yeah, 18-200mm quality is not so good (I had it, I regretted it).

I now use Lumix 20mm F/1.7 and Sigma 60mm F/2.8 on my Olympus E-PL5 (MFT camera, hence 2x crop factor). While 40mm (135 equivalent) is not the greatest FOV for close shots, it's not too wide for a little bit more distant shots. The reason I love E-PL5 with 20mm F/1.7 is that it's a pancake lens and it's super compact (the main reason why I sold my DSLR with couple of lenses).

In reply to GwilymR:

I usually go for a 75mm f3.5 Zeiss Tessar, or 80MM f2.8 Zeiss Biometar for the Rolleiflex T and Pentacon Six TL medium format film cameras, respectively.

In reply to GwilymR:

I have the D800 and my go to lens is the Nikon 24-70. It all depends on your 'style' but I like close and wide with fast apertures. I generally find the compression on teles makes pics look flat.

Also with 36mp, you can do some pretty amazing crops if you need to get closer in.

In reply to radson:


Show-off !!!!!!

Mine is my 10-22mm Canon. on my 7D it's a good combination for my climbing shots, anything else it's usually my 24-70

In reply to GwilymR: The advantage with the D800 is that you can crop and maintain high resolution

In reply to GwilymR:

17-40mm F4L spends most time on my camera. 70 - 200mm F4L with 1.4 extender comes with me most times along with 11-18 Tamron. All this on Canon 7D. Wouldn't really lug something like a 500 into the hills unless I had a specific shot in mind which required it. F4 Canon 70 - 200 is better bet in the hills than F2.8 as it's significantly lighter.