Can you really have enough lenses? Well, ask the typical photo enthusiast or working pro and their answer will be, “Of course not!” The reality is certain lenses work better for a particular subject or type of photography. If you’re wanting to take close-up shots of a flower, or insect, a macro lens is what you need. If you’re into landscapes or real estate photography, then wide-angle or tilt-shift lenses will be the lens of choice. What about wildlife photography? The choice here is a telephoto lens such as a 400mm or even that awesome 800mm lens to reach out there and touch that wary bird or wild animal. Weddings? What would a wedding be without the 70-200 F2.8? Not as exciting, that’s for sure.

But how can the emerging pro or serious enthusiast afford all those lenses? The answer is rent. That’s right. Gain access to the fast, expensive glass without the enormous price tag and without it sitting in your camera bag for weeks or months on end between uses. For my last wedding I rented Canon’s EF 70-200mm F2.8 IS USM beauty. This particular model has been around for a while and is still a workhorse (for my next wedding in a couple of weeks I will be using Canon’s new version of this lens and will post a review to let you know how it performed) and a staple of wedding photographers and many portrait photographers. Nikon also has a similar lens in a similar configuration.

As I said, this lens can truly be considered a professional workhorse. The lens is fast at F2.8 and the image stabilization feature helps you shoot at slower shutter speeds when pressed for good lighting and still get fairly sharp images. The F2.8L combined with sharp optics and image stabilization make this lens a go-to lens when the shot is critical. During the ceremony when many churches do not allow flash photography, this is the lens that allows me to continue shooting and not create a distraction. It’s also great if the church has a balcony and you have access. This is a perfect use for this lens to zoom in on the action at the altar and get crisp shots even in low light.

I especially love this lens for my portrait photography. Shooting between F2.8 and F4.0 with the lens racked out to 180-200mm causes the background to melt away into a creamy blur creating beautiful bokeh on background highlights. This truly is a must have lens.

To rent this or other lenses or simply to see what there is available, click on this link to BorrowLenses and check it out. Let me know what you think.

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Tags: 70-200, borrowlenses, canon, lens rental, rent, review

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Photography Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.