Lens choice for Canon 30D

Planning to get a Canon 30D and I'm looking for some help selecting lenses. I'm considering getting the 30D kit with the 17-85 IS for general purpose and either the 70-200 F2.8L or the 70-200 F4L IS as a second lens. I definitely want to be set up well for wakeboarding, but I also need to shoot the kids year round indoors and out and quite a bit of shooting in a 5000 s.f. banquet room. I can use a tripod or flash for most of the banquet room shots, but not always.

I was planning on the F2.8L until I realized both lenses are similarly priced and then I thought the F4L with the IS might be a little better shooting inside, more portable and nearly equivalent for wakeboarding..?

This is my first DSLR and it will probably be a while until I can convince the wife that I need to upgrade again so I need to get the right stuff now... Wakeboarding set-up is the priority. Any help would be appreciated.

John

Has anyone even used the 70-200 F4L IS yet?

john,

i had the same question awhile back...during the interium a friend loaned me a 70-200 f4...needless to say it is a awesome lens...i really like it alot and will be getting a 70-200.

but the 2.8 speed and low light capability gets my nod at $1000-$1100 budget" (i am looking for one now)..

what is amazing is how well canon lens hold their value...you cant go wrong with either...

I picked up the 30D kit with 17-85 IS. I also purchased a 24-70 F2.8L and honestly have only used the 17-85 once. If I had it to do over again, I would probably just get the body and put the extra money into a different lens.

If most of your shots with the 200 are going to be outdoors in a boat, I would go for the F4 IS but if you plan on doing anything indoors (lower light) I would get the F2.8.

IS is very helpful for indoor shots that don't have a lot of motion.

I liked the 17-85 IS I had a lot on a 1.6X crop body (like the 30D.) 17mm is just way wider then 24mm. 24mm is plenty wide for full frame sensors though. I think the 17-85 and 70-200 would make a pretty good usable combo on the 30d. If you plan on shooting the kids in full play mode, running around then the f2.8 lens would be better indoors.

Thanks for the info. Still haven't made up my mind. Spent all night on Fredmiranda.com reading reviews. Started looking at the EF-S 17-55 F2.8, but if I get 2 $1000 lenses I won't be able to afford the camera body to put them on!

The 70-200 F4 lens is getting some great reviews. Would the IS come into play at all for wakeboarding, or is it strictly for shooting stationary objects? I was at the kids school concert this evening about 75 feet from the stage trying to get any picture with my Canon G2 - couldn't be done. I think the f4 IS would have been the solution for that, but thinking ahead to a basketball or volleyball game inside, I'm not sure if the IS would help at all.

Any shooting where you need fast shutter speeds like wakeboarding or other action kind of negates the benefits of IS. What IS does allow you to do is handhold your camera at shutter speeds that would normally cause you to blur the image. A general rule of thumb is it's tough to handhold your camera at any shutter speed less then the focal length of the lens (ie shoot at 250th of a second with a 300mm lens). Canon's newest IS is normally good for 3 more stops so you might be able to handhold that 300 at a 30th.

IS is always nice to have if you can afford the premium cost.

john,

i had no problem with the 70-200 f4 for wakeboarding, worked great in my newbie opinion..

however, there were other instances (low light) where the 2.8 would have really helped..

btw, another advantage of the 2.8 is you can add you can add a canon 1.4 extender which would take the 2.8f to a 4f vs 5.6f with the 4f