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Lenses

Lesson 16 from: Canon 1DX Mark II Fast Start

John Greengo

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Lesson Info

16. Lenses

Next Lesson: Shooting Menu

Lesson Info

Lenses

So let's talk a little bit about some of the lenses. Canon has two primary lines of lenses: the EF line and the EFS line, and these are designed for different size sensors. And so with this camera, you wanna be looking at the EF lenses. The EFS lenses have white lettering and white squares rather than red dots. And the difference is that the EF lenses are designed to have full coverage on a full-frame sensor, so that it casts a circular image of which you can grab your rectangular coverage of your full-frame sensor very easily off of that. The APS-C sensor used in lower-end Canon cameras has a smaller image circle but big enough to fit the smaller size sensor. Now this camera will not physically allow you to mount an EFS lens on this camera. Even if you could it would not cover the corners, so luckily it can't even be put. But your EF lenses will work on the other cameras that Canon has. It'll work on all of their cameras but you're kinda overshooting and you're not using the entire im...

age area, you're using a cropped area in the middle of the frame. And so just make sure that you get EF lenses with this camera. And so there is actually a third choice in lenses beyond EF and the EF-S which you don't wanna use because they will not work on the full-frame camera, as they also make a mirrorless system which is a whole different system unto itself, and those lenses will not work on the SLRs at all, and so make sure you are clear about which Canon lens you are mounting on your camera. So on the lenses themselves we mentioned the red dot for mounting, zoom lenses will have a zoom and a focus ring. They'll be a auto-focus and manual focus switch on pretty much all the lenses. You'll have a focusing ring on I think all of the lenses although it varies quite a bit in size. Most of the lenses will allow you to put a filter on. The size of that filter will vary from lens to lens; make sure you check that before buying a polarizer for instance. Most of their lenses have removable lens hoods and each lens has its own specific, matching lens hood. You don't wanna be switching lens hoods from one lens to the other because the coverage may not be right, and it may interfere with your photograph, and so make sure that you have the correct hoods which is supplied on most/all of the L lenses, but it's usually not supplied on the non-L lenses. We then have our focusing and our distance scale which is something we will find on our higher-end lenses which is nice to have. So there's a number of great lenses and so the holy trinity as it's sometimes called of lenses is their combination of two-eight zoom lenses, the 24 to 70, and the 70 to are just super favorite combo lenses, workhorse lenses of most pro-photographers. Those who are shooting a little bit faster action, wide angles, wedding photographers, photo journalists, they got the 16 to 35. The new version three 2.8 just came out recently, it looks to be a very nice lens. So those are some easy recommendations. I'm a big fan of the f/4 series which has a lot of different lenses in here and so the little 24 to 70 f/ is a really nice little lens if you don't need that 2.8 aperture, and f/4's gonna do the job for you. The new 24 to 105, haven't seen that in person yet, but it looks to be a pretty good lens, and 200 to 400, definitely not a small lens, but a very very versatile lens for shooting wildlife, very good lens for that and so all of these are their L series but a little bit slower, and in most cases a little bit smaller, a little bit lighter weight, or something a little bit different in the 11 to 24 case, just a little bit wider. So those are some very good options that I would recommend. If you have a need for one of their prime lenses, these are just some of the best that you will ever find in their respective categories, and so all of these lenses are fantastic. There's a number of very fast lenses that Canon has, one of the things they can do with the very large mounting system that they have, and so if you have a need to rent or own one of these, this is where it's really gonna be matched up quite well on a camera body of this nature. And I expect somebody who has a 1D X to end up using it with one or many more of these lenses for sports photography. All of them are just absolutely fantastic and enjoy to use, they are big and they are heavy, but the image quality that you get from these is fantastic and even if you don't use these on a regular basis, I would highly recommend renting one for the weekend just to have the experience of using it with this camera. It's just, it's one of my favorite aspects of photography because it yields results that you're just not gonna get with any other type of smaller system. So with each of the lenses you're gonna find there's a lot of different features to them. We're not gonna go through all the different characteristics and features of the lenses themselves, but if it achieves a certain notable significance they tend to want to put some letters and a badge on the camera to advertise what that particular feature is on the lens. One thing I will talk about for just a moment about is the weather sealing of particular lenses. And so I'm gonna put up on the screen a list here and the first list on the left are lenses that have excellent dust-proof and drip-proof performance, and so these are the lenses that are typically the best at weather resistance. The next list, the short list here, that requires a filter to complete the dust and weather-resistant performance, and that's because there's usually a front element that's moving back and forth in there. And then there's some other ones that they have some weather sealing on but because of the movements of the lens like the 100 to 400, there's a lot of lens movement, back and forth in that, it extends and telescopes out quite a bit, they're not able to have quite the same level of protection on that. And if you do use any of the extenders, they have at least a rubber ring around it. They don't have any much in the way of moving parts, so they do have that aspect to help keep it protected. And older lenses back before are gonna have various levels that don't quite meet up to these standards, so the newer lenses tend to be a little bit better weather sealed than the other ones. So if you wanna know more about those aspect of lenses or more about lenses in general, I have a very in-depth class on Canon lenses. This is a two-day class, it's probably about, I don't know, 10 or 12 hours of information where I go through pretty much everything you would ever want to know about Canon lenses. We talk about all the different lenses that are available, and so I think that's a good matching class with this one to get you all straight and away on lenses along with your camera here.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

CanonĀ® 1Dx Mark II Recommended Settings
CanonĀ® 1Dx Mark II Fast Start Class Slides

Ratings and Reviews

Joe Berkeley
 

I quite enjoyed John's course on the 1DX mark ii. To be frank, I should have taken it 122,000 shots ago when I bought the camera. I learned quite a bit. There were only a few occasions when I thought my cranium could explode. But I walked away from the course with some great tips and in the grand scheme of things, the money I invest in education is always more valuable than the latest and greatest camera strap, lens, or bag. It will probably take a few months for all of the information to sink in but I'm feeling good about what I learned and the price I paid for it. All in all, a good value.

Fred Innamorato
 

John does a great job as usual. He provides so many visual aides and demonstrations which really helps you understand how to operate and set up your camera. His step by step explanation of the entire menu and each tab is excellent. In addition to his many photography tips and instructions. What an excellent class and a great value for all the detailed instructions provided. Much better than the manual you get in the box. Plus you get to watch this as many times as needed. I highly recommend this course and all of John's other classes.

Ian Sherratt
 

Great video. Loved the clear explanations, great views and mixture of video and slides. Iā€™ve read a lot of manuals and books on settings and use of various Canon cameras but this is the first time Iā€™ve really understood the full range of functions.

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