Today I'm gonna talk about a subject you might find really interesting. In the past years, I've been buying lenses and selling them. SLR Lenses are a great way to find what range of your camera you use and like most.

But as most of you, I spent dollars that I could've saved. First because at first I did have a cheap zoom and I decided to buy a slightly better zoom to replace this one, thinking the pictures would be a lot better suddently. At my great regret, I learnt that even though a lens cost more, it doesn't mean it is better - or even as good.

So I started reading review on sites such as
The Digital Picture Reviews (Canon-only)
Fred Miranda Reviews
Ken Rockwell Reviews

Wow! So much choice! I heard all over the internet that "L" lenses were THE lenses to get, so I thought let's go with the EF 70-200 f4L lens. But at that time I had a 30D (crop factor of 1.6) so in fact that lens became a 112-320.

Here's what I thought:
A bit too long for most of my needs (especially on crop bodies) - I don't do nature shots.
The f4 aperture was great outdoors, but indoors it was too dark.
The quality of the image was great though, so I figured I'd keep it for a while (now sold)
I was addicted to L lenses and couldn't go back

So that made me realize some things:
Try to find what you PLAN to do with your lenses. In my case it was indoor/outdoor portraits.
I needed a Full Frame camera because ISO performance is better in low light and my 50mm will become a "real" 50, not a 85 or so with crop factor.

So save some time and money and buy what you need, here is a small guide if your needs are the same as mine - ie. indoor / outdoor shooting. Try to skip the zoom lenses if you want to shoot in low-light on a budget, and go prime. ie: 135mm F2.0L & 35mm f1.4L. This is a great kit, if you only need one of the two, go with the 35 or consider investing in the 85mm 1.2L or 85 1.8. Or for the budget oriented photographer, go with the 50 1.8. Great lens for the price!

For outdoors-only portrait shooting, your needs are MUCH less restrained and just look at the recommendations on the site I mentionned above.

Thanks for reading! J. Enno