Learning from my experience, I have made a firm conclusion that for zoom lenses, f/4 is the most suitable choice for my preference being an amateur enthusiast. The main reason was that their weight fits comfortably for outdoor sessions which I mostly do such as street, travel, and photojournalism. On the other hand, for those type of photography, the one stop advantages – both in lighting and beautiful bokeh – are not making significant difference.
I do agree with the general thumb advising that every lens performs at its best starting from two stops darker than its maximum aperture, which means f/2.8 lenses get their best at f/5.6 whilst f/4 lenses have to go down to f/8 to reach their top. But with the latest lens technology the difference is hardly visible especially with top quality lenses like Canon’s L series. Therefore to fill up the mostly needed range spanning between ultra-wide to telephoto I chose f/4 zooms of Canon L series.
With arrival of the brilliant 24-105mm f/4 L IS which offer general purpose range with Canon’s proven image stabilizing technology into my drybox, I have completely cover the favorite range between 17mm to 200mm all in Canon f/4 L series. The new comer accompanies 17-40mm f/4 L ultra-wide zoom and 70-200mm f/4 L medium telephoto I bought before. In my opinion, in term of focal range, all the three fits each other perfectly, with a bit overlap among them giving extra comfort especially as I only own one camera body. As the numbers shows, the ultra-wide goes to 40mm whilst the general purpose starts from 24mm, the general purpose ends at 105mm whilst the medium telephoto starts from 70mm.
Unfortunately the more capable my setup is, the less chance I have to spen my time using it. But that’s the way life goes, I think. Just like the most of us, it takes more time to make more money to spend on hobbies. However, with better set on hand I believe that I can make the less chances I have more enjoyable ones.
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