What to rent for outdoor retreat?

I have: 17-55 f/2.8 IS, 50 f/1.8, and 28-135 IS for a Canon XSi and a 270EX flash.


Looking to rent something affordable for a 4 day retreat, with lots of outdoor, active games, night-time campfire, and whitewater rafting.


I figure I have the short range covered well with the 17-55. Thinking about renting an 85 1.8 or a 100 2.0, as either would be $45 for a week at PPR in ATL. 70-200 f/4 IS would be $90, as would the 135L 2.0. 70-200 2.8 is too much weight to haul around, I think.


Goal would be to get good portrait-like candids of individuals & small groups, action shots in the field, at night near the campfire, and shots of people rafting from a decent ways away.


Budget is main constraint, leaning towards 100 f/2, but is the 28-135 close enough in IQ to make getting one of these telephoto primes redundant? The 28-135 doesn't blur backgrounds well at all, however, which is a main reason I want to rent something.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


Randy

The 85 and 100 are very similar, and either one will be excellent for portraits and candids. Image quality is vastly superior to the 28-135, I think you will notice that right away. The ability to control DOF is also really great, but you might find it very difficult to get your shots in focus at f/2.0. (The autofocus alone certainly wont do it!) The 135mm f/2 would also be excellent, and will definitely blur the backgrounds more, but it wont allow that close perspective or wider-angle shots. Personally, I use the 85mm most often on 1.6X, but I notice that many other photographers prefer the 135mm angle of view on 1.6X. It's whatever you prefer.

A 70-200 2.8 gonna give you the range for the rafting...game etc....!


your 17-55 gonna be just fine for the short range !


The 50 f/1.8 can do the trick for thecampfireyou crack up the ISO and/or throw wood in the fire !


My trick forfirecampare to use a tripod and go for longexposurewith low ISO...go for at least 20 second......just enough to go flash everyone one by one manually !...besurethat you flash all the body of your friend or the will have no legs !


You may need a fast lens for the rafting of its cloudy !


I can onlysuggesta 70-200 for thatpurpose but if you are on budget i guess the 100 2.0 gonna do the trick !





Excuse mefor my bad english!





Hope that help

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Originally Posted by randmc

I have: 17-55 f/2.8 IS, 50 f/1.8, and 28-135 IS for a Canon XSi and a 270EX flash.


<span style="font-size: 11.6667px;"]...Goal would be to get good portrait-like candids of individuals &amp; small groups, action shots in the field, at night near the campfire, and shots of people rafting from a decent ways away.


Budget is main constraint, leaning towards 100 f/2, but is the 28-135 close enough in IQ to make getting one of these telephoto primes redundant? The 28-135 doesn't blur backgrounds well at all, however, which is a main reason I want to rent something.





<span style="font-size: 11.6667px;"]

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I would leave the 28-135 home, and I would rent a 70-200 f/2.8 which is great for candids and action shots, if that's too heavy then get the 70-200 f/4. You're pretty much going to need a flash around the campfire anyway, if you hope to have everyone in focus sitting in small groups. So.., I wouldn't worry too much about additional fast primes since you already have the 50 f/1.8 On a trip like this you're really looking for more versatility. If you want to get rafting shots from the rivers edge, you could also rent a 1.4x extender (those are cheap and easy to pack) for the 70-200 f/2.8 and have a 98-280 f/4. This will also double as a good wildlife lens too.


If you get the extender then your kit will cover nearly 17-280.


Rich

I rented a 100mm 2.0 lens for the trip, and it worked amazingly well. Of my ~850 keepers over the four days, about 2/3 were shot with that lens, and about 1/3 were with a 17-55 2.8. The 100 did a fantastic job of letting me pick a face out of a crowd, shoot a small group action shot from 100 feet away, and capture incredible action of the whitewater rafting. Now trying to decide to purchase the 100 or the 85 to use with my XSi.


A 70-200 would have been more flexible, but the size would have been daunting to the participants (and the lens-bearer!). The 100 let me fly under the radar most of the time.


Thanks for the advice and tips!


Randy

Are you the designated photographer, or are you looking to capture some memories? If memories, I'd consider a superzoom so you don't have much to worry about. If you're the DP, I'd think you'd want a telephoto zoom if you're doing this with just one camera. A prime, without anything else to work with unless you change lenses, could really limit you; a zoom would give you options.

I was, in essence, the designated photographer, as a couple other people had point &amp; shoot cameras, but no other DSLs on the trip.


As I said initially, I do have a 17-55, a nifty fifty, and a 28-135, and one camera--XSi. I ended up with 2/3 of the shots from the 100 f/2 prime, and 1/3 from the 17-55. I have about 850 keepers from 4 days of varied activities! The whitewater rafting shots are so cool.


I'm now in love the 100. What an amazing lens for such a reasonable price.


Randy

Glad it went well with the 100mm f/2! Any samples? [:D]

I wish I felt comfortable sharing them, but as a program director at a public university, I'm uneasy about putting pictures of my students in an open forum. I know this is a great community of photographers, but . . . it's not so simple anymore.


Thanks for the interest, as I so wish I felt comfortable to show them to you.


Randy

I agree with Daniel. Go for the 135mm. I have a 1.6x and it looks awesome on it. Decent range for game at medium distances and while you have to stand back a few more feet for portraits, it looks great with the forest behind, all that green