Lenses

[wolfkinara]

I shoot with a 5D MKIV and have a nice variety of lenses for portraits and wildlife, but the one thing I lack is a lens wide enough to get an entire room in frame(one client I contacted is asking for this). I just need something under $500(generally USM, gold ring) for the time being so I can get my portfolio going and pick up some basic gigs. Eventually I will invest in better glass once I get more work.

Do you have any favorite lower cost lenses that you use?

[shadowsports]

Welcome,

You've got a great camera.  Real Estate photography.

Plenty of lens options.

Super cheap pancakes

Wide to ultra wide zooms

Refurbs

New

I would go with a 17-40 F4.  EF mount, L glass will pair well with your 5D4.  You'll have plenty of wide angle at 17 and can zoom up to 40 when captuing rooms.

One mistake I see alot of real estate people make is going too wide.  While I realize giving the impression of space is important, I see alot of images that appear un-natural. That's a whole other discussion.  Hope this gets you started.    

[ebiggs1]

"Do you have any favorite lower cost lenses that you use?"

Not only a favorite but perhaps the better lens, the Tokina Opera 16-28mm f/2.8 FF Lens for Canon.

"...I will invest in better glass..."

You won't have to, why buy twice when once will do?

[Tronhard]

I certainly respect Ebiggs1 experience  - if he recommends a lens it's worth looking into.

For what it's worthScott Hargis is arguably one of the top real estate photographers in the USA. He wrote a book called "Lighting Interiors" and said that his go-to lens was the Canon 17-40L.  I have used the same lens for photographing real estate work.

[ebiggs1]

The EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Lens is a good lens. I used one for years. I mistakenly sold it and upgraded to the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Lens.  And that lens is the reason I went searching for another "upgrade". I found the Tokina AT-X 16-28mm f/2.8 Pro FX Lens. Normally I don't recommend any lens from Tokina but this one is different. The only thing that I would suspect is its durability but so far it has done exactly what it should. Its IQ is fantastic.

The EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Lens is an older design.  It has a reasonable price. Decent IQ but you give up a stop.

[Tronhard]

I know that Scott Hargis did all his work on a tripod and did not use a wide aperture so he could get good DoF, and he used remote flash units as well. Much depends on the style of the photographer I think.

[RexGig]

People who guided my start in SLR photography, almost a decade ago, had a high regard for the EF 17-40mm f/4L. To this day, if one is shooting stopped-down, to maximize DOF, this lens will get the job done, for its owners.

If anyone has a decent APS-C body, the EF-S 10-22mm lens actually does interiors very well. I realize that this may not apply to the author of the original post, but may be helpful to others, who may read this.

The EF-S 10-22mm has so very little distortion, one does not need to apply much, if any, correction, if one has held the camera level, during the shots. (When my duties included crime scene photography, I was not allowed to apply distortion correction in post-processing, and the original 7D had no capability to apply distortion correction data in-camera, at the time of capture.)

When my EF-S 10-22mm lens partially disassembled itself, after almost seven years of hard use, I no longer had a need for a lens to shoot interiors at wide angles, so have yet to choose an EF-mount zoom, to replace it.

I bought an EF 16-35/2.8L II, while my EF-S 10-22mm was still functioning. When I added a 5Ds R, the weaknesses of this L II became apparent, so I sold or traded it.