Is a 24-70mm lens worth renting or buying for family, maternity, and future wedding work on full frame?
Asked 2/27/2016
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I currently shoot on a full-frame camera and have mostly been using a 50mm lens. I’m starting to get booked for family and maternity sessions, and I may want to move into weddings in the future. Someone suggested renting a 24-70mm lens. For these types of shoots, how useful is a 24-70mm—especially a 24-70mm f/2.8—and is it a lens I’d likely use often enough to justify buying?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
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Most professional setups start with a 24-70/2.8 and 70-200/2.8 two-lens combo on full frame and work outwards from there. These are the two general-purpose bread'and'butter lenses for a lot of pros simply because they're versatile being both fast (f/2.8) and zooms in the most common focal length ranges. Whether or not they'll be ideal for you, however, is not something we can answer. Lens choices are individual and a lot of factors such as what/how you plan to shoot and your personal budget are also huge determining factors that only you really know. People can tell you what works for them very easily. Telling you what will work for you is less easily arrived at.
It's super-easy to tank a photography business with gear greed. A 24-70/70-200 f/2.8 combo is expensive (upwards of $2500) as is a full-frame body. If you have to make your business go into the red to purchase these lenses, it's probably a very bad idea. Because we all know a lens alone isn't enough to guarantee an image. In addition, the 24-70 is designed for full frame. On a crop body, a 17-50ish/2.8 lens is FoV equivalent to what a 24-70/2.8 does on full frame.
But maybe you only need an 85/1.8. Or specialized software. Or a flash. Or off-camera flash gear and knowledge. Before buying something, you should know whether or not you need it, and it doesn't sound like you do. What is your 50mm not doing that you need to do? Start there.
Renting can be a good way to use only a small amount of money to try a lens before sinking money into purchasing it. Until you gain a wide degree of experience with lenses, it's tough to know what you want, and renting is one way to experience a lens with enough time to learn its ins and outs.
Originally by user27440. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user27440
10y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
On full frame, a 24-70mm—especially an f/2.8 version—is widely considered a very useful general-purpose lens. For many working photographers, a 24-70mm f/2.8 plus a 70-200mm f/2.8 is a standard “bread-and-butter” setup because it covers common focal lengths while staying relatively fast.
For family, maternity, and weddings, a 24-70mm is helpful because it gives you flexibility: wider for groups or environmental portraits, and longer for tighter portraits, without changing lenses constantly. That makes it a strong candidate to rent and try.
Whether it’s worth buying depends on your shooting style, how often you’ll use it, and your budget. No one else can say for certain if it will be ideal for you. Lens choice is personal, and it’s easy to overspend on gear before you know what actually fits your work.
Best advice: rent one for a few shoots first. If you find yourself using that range constantly and it solves real problems your 50mm can’t, then buying may make sense.
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