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50mm 1.8 STM vs 24-105mm F4L IS II USM

mlamb01
Contributor

So I jumped from a t5i to a 6D2, and got the 24-105 lens as part of the kit.  I bought the 50mm prime when the t5i was my only camera, and I thought it was much better IQ that the 17-55mm kit lens that came with it.  Everyone seems to rave about the 50mm 1.8's image quality, that it is excellent.  But if I compare an image taken on the 50mm prime @ f4 with an image I take on the 24-105 @ f4 and 50mm, I think its better.  Seems to have better color?  I suspect they aren't even in the same league.  If I end up selling the t5i, should I sell the 50mm along with it?

13 REPLIES 13

My most used mode is manual exposure but that is because I shoot sports more than anything else.  There is rarely as much available light as the camera and photographer would like and that means most of the time I am shooting with a 300 or 400 f2.8 on one body and a 70-200 f2.8 on the other and both are wide open.  That leaves either shutter speed or ISO as the variable and I will take noise over motion blur any day so shutter speed is going to also be fixed and set fast enough to avoid blur due to player motion.  When I was using a 1D Mark II (which didn't have auto ISO), depending upon lighting conditions I would run it set to Av or Tv priority depending upon the situation with fixed ISO at the highest setting that was less than pure noise but I love the auto ISO capability of my 1DX series bodies (and the incredible high ISO performance compared to my 1D Mark II which was very ugly at ISO 1,600).

 

For stationary images I often do switch to Av priority for simple control of depth of field and set ISO to a reasonable level for the light.  For most photography, Av priority is a great mode and if I were shooting sports under great lighting I would use it some but sports with great lighting at below the NFL level is about as common as a bright sunny day in Seattle.

 

The priority and P modes are very "smart" on current Canon cameras and I have used P mode quite a bit with Canon speedlights.

 

Rodger

 

EOS 1DX M3, 1DX M2, 1DX, 5DS R, M6 Mark II, 1D M2, EOS 650 (film), many lenses, XF400 video

"Your camera allows you to set a minimum shutter speed of your choice."

 

Thank you jrhoffman75 for the tip

I'm begining to think part of my problem could be that the AF needs adjusting on my 50mm.  Also realizing that an "L" quality zoom lens just really doesn't compare to this bargain bin prime.

"My most used mode is manual exposure but that is because I shoot sports more than anything else."

 

I usually say to use what works but my experience with full time sports pros is, they use Av way more than any other setting

What they are looking to do is by setting and fixing a large aperture such as f/2.8 or f/4, whatever the lens allows, ensures that the most possible light is allowed in. This tells the camera that a fast shutter speed is required for correct exposure. More light in allows a faster shutter speed helping to freeze the action.

 

Also, not on topic, but sport pros don't shoot Raw very much. They shoot jpg because they use burst and high speed drive and want speed over anything else.

EB
EOS 1D, EOS 1D MK IIn, EOS 1D MK III, EOS 1Ds MK III, EOS 1D MK IV and EOS 1DX and many lenses.
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