lens question?

Question

what portraiture lens and what telephoto lens would you recommend for my canon eos 400d?

(under about £200)

thanks in advance

Answer 1

Your camera has a 1.6 x (cropped sensor), hence any lens would be 1.6 x of its focal length. A Canon 50 mm f 1.8 (cheap, only $80 in the states) is really perfect for it. I had it, and it worked beautifully with my old Canon Digital Rebel (350D) and when I upgraded to Canon 5D--it worked fine, too, as a "normal lens".

When mounted on your camera, it works as a 80 mm f 1.8. Pretty cheap for one, isn't it?

A Canon 80 mm f 1.8 would work as a 128 mm lens. A little tight for a portrait lens. And besides, it's more expensive ($300 here).

A perfect telephoto zoom for your camera would be Canon 70-200 mm f 4 L. It's $550 in the states. I had that lens--it is so sharp and it focuses without a sound. The focus and zoom rings are butterly smooth and you can touch up focusing at any time (as it has FTM, full time manual focusing). The 50 mm f 1.8 does not have that. You have to switch to M (manual) to touch up focus. And unfortunately it does not have ultrasonic motor so it focuses quite loudly.

I had the Canon 100 mm f 2.0. It, too, is very sharp, but it will work as a 165 mm lens on yours, a bit "long" for a headshot.

I upgraded to Canon 100 mm f 2.8 macro. It's very sharp for me, and works perfectly fine for my 5D.

I am able to talk about these lenses because I have used them. Others have given you different answers, but I am not sure if they have used one themselves.

Answer 2

Canon 85mm f1.4 or f1.8

I fit were my money the f1.4 would be the one.