Distortion in Zoom Lenses

Just a quick post. I have always used prime lenses in the past fifteen years and only bought a zoom lens a year ago. One thing you need to look at before buying a zoom lens is distortion. I can not believe how much distortion there is in a £600 - £700 lens. I have found the Canon 70-200 f4 IS lens has very little distortion at 100mm - 180mm andso I use this lens for all portrait and engagement shoots. My Canon 24-105 IS lens does suffer from distortion at the 24mm-35mm end of the zoom range but is O.K at about 85mm. I use this for close portraits hand held indoors at 1600 ISO. So go out and get your zoom lens and photograph a brick wall. You will see what I mean by distortion.

Portrait Lenses 2

A good start is to use a zoom lens zoomed to 70 - 85 or 105 and approach your subject. Most people will want to run a mile as you will be very close to them if you are trying to capture a head and shoulders crop. Professional models will not be worried but the average person would rather you go back and be further away until they are comfortable. I have found most people to be happy when you are at between 135mm and 200mm on a zoom lens, they relax more and you are able to produce more natural images.

Camera Canon eos 40D
Lens 70-200 f4 set at 189mm
Shutter 1/1000
Aperture f4
ISO 800

Which portrait lens to buy? I would go for the 135mm on a full frame sensor<5D>, or the 85mm 1.8 on the cropped sensor <40D> or just buy a 70mm-200mm zoom lens.

Portrait Lenses

What lens should I buy for portraits? I about to buy a portrait lens and thought I would share with you my thoughts on the perfect portrait lens. I have used different lenses 85mm 1.8, 50mm 1.8, 75-300mm and have found that it is not the lens that matters so much its the person you are photographing.

Focal Length 105mm
Camera Canon eos 5D
Shutter 1/80th
Aperture F4
ISO 1600