Congratulations Alex Vincent, March 2024 PFRE Photographer of the Month! The theme this month was "Kitchen". Alex Vincent - #906 Yvonne Raaijmakers - #909 Peter Wingfield - #902 Here's what Alex has to say: Thank you for the award of Photographer of th ...
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As a real estate photographer, you will need to equip your Canon 5D with a lens that can shoot in virtually all real estate conditions. The best lens for Canon 5D should be able to shoot tiny household objects, shoot in tight corners, and zoom where necessary.
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Regardless of the shooting conditions, the best lens for Canon 5D should produce sharp images and facilitate the use of selective focus techniques. In the review below, I focus on the lens that achieves these requirements in various shooting conditions.
Here's a quick recap of my top recommended lens for Canon 5D listed in this article. In this table, I've also included an overview of their top features.
The Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 is a long-reaching telephoto zoom that pairs an advanced image stabilization technology and sophisticated optical design, making it the overall best on my list.
As a member of the L-series lens, it comes with one UD element and one fluorite element in its optical design, which helps to eliminate the chromatic aberrations and spherical distortions for enhanced image sharpness and clarity over the entire zoom range.
Unlike the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8, it uses an Air Sphere technique to eliminate the ghosting and flare for improved image contrast and color fidelity.
On top of it, the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 features a four-stop image stabilization system which helps to reduce the camera shake effect, especially when shooting at longer focal lengths or when shooting handheld.
It employs an advanced rotation zoom ring which works well with the internal focusing functionality to achieve intuitive handling when capturing handheld. Also, it uses an ultrasonic motor to achieve a fast and accurate autofocus performance, making it ideal for capturing action.
Unlike the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4, it's housed in a barrel that is sturdy and weather-resistant, making it ideal for use even in harsh situations. The fluorine coatings on the rear and front elements ensure protection against smudges and fingerprints, which tend to affect the image quality.
The Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 also comes with a collar that enhances the lens attachment and detachment from a camera, ensuring maximum flexibility. The lens hood allows easy control over the filters.
However, with 3.46 pounds of weight, it's the heaviest on my list, making it unsuitable for carrying in a camera bag for a prolonged time.
As a member of the L-series, the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 is a workhorse wide-angle zoom lens that is characterized by advanced optical construction, making it the best deal on my list.
It comes with a series of optical elements, including low dispersion elements and three aspherical glass elements geared towards reducing the chromatic and spherical distortions and aberrations for better image sharpness and clarity.
The elements feature both the ASC and SWC coatings to help reduce the ghosting and flare, significantly increasing the color accuracy and image contrast. Like the Canon EF 85mm f/1.4, it facilitates autofocus performance by employing a ring-type ultrasonic motor.
On top of it, the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 comes with a full-time manual override which gives you complete control over the focusing experience. The manual focus is especially important when shooting camera-sensitive subjects, as it's noise-free.
With a fluorite coating on the rear and front elements of the lens, it is protected from the smudges and fingerprints which blur the images. The physical construction is dust-resistant, allowing you to capture your real estate property worry-free even when the carpets are dusty.
The nine-blade aperture diaphragm enhances the production of impressive and high-quality bokeh. Although it's a zoom lens, the f/2.8 fast aperture allows it to perform well in poor lighting conditions.
However, without image stabilization functionality, there are chances of image blurring, especially when shooting at longer focal lengths. Although lighter than the Canon EF 85mm f/1.4, the 1.74 pounds weight may still exhaust you or make your wrists hurt if shooting for a prolonged time.
Although it has the lowest price on my list, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 is a versatile normal-length prime that offers a natural perspective, making it ideal for capturing both interior and street photos.
With a bright aperture of f/1.4, it works exceptionally well in low-light, making it ideal for shooting when you don't have a flash. Also, this aperture allows a better application of the selective focus technique and the use of shallow depth of field.
The optical design features the Gaussian techniques and two high refractive elements. This helps to minimize the chromatic and spherical aberrations and distortions for enhanced image clarity and sharpness.
Like the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8, it comes with Super Spectra coating on the optical elements, which helps to eliminate the ghosting, surface reflections, and flare for high image contrast and color accuracy even when working in a situation with bright lighting.
The Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 utilizes the micro ultrasonic motor to achieve a quiet and quick autofocus performance, making the autofocusing experience effortless. To make it convenient for videography applications, it comes with a full-time manual override, which is noise-free and allows a precise focusing experience.
For one, this lens weighs 0.64 pounds only, making it the most lightweight on my list and suitable for a prolonged shooting period without your wrists hurting or getting exhausted.
However, the bokeh quality produced by the eight-blade aperture diaphragm can't match the one produced by the nine-blades in the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8.
Also, the lack of weather resistance build quality limits its use in dusty conditions such as roadsides and desert environments.
The Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 is a short-telephoto lens that exclusively excels in portraits, making it ideal for shooting standing interior subjects. It features a slightly compressed perspective which allows it to realize flattering image results.
It comes with a maximum wide aperture of f/1.8, which allows it to isolate subjects. Also, this aperture is ideal for the application of the shallow depth of field and subject isolation.
The f/1.8 aperture allows enough light into the lens such that you can use it to shoot clear and sharp interior photos with minimal ambient light.
The optical elements in the lens's construction are coated with a Super Spectra coating, which enhances the image contrast and color fidelity by reducing the flares, surface reflections, and ghosting.
It, therefore, makes the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 suitable for use even in places with strong lighting. With a weight of 0.94 pounds, it's more lightweight than the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8, which facilitates carrying in a camera bag or backpack when traveling.
It comes equipped with a ring-type ultrasonic motor which helps it achieve a quiet and fast autofocus performance. Additionally, a full-time manual override over this autofocus enables you to manually fine-tune your focus to precision.
The manual focus can also be used in videography as it is noise-free. Although the bokeh quality produced by the eight-blades aperture diaphragm is lower quality than that of the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8, it still promotes an impressive out-of-focus quality.
The lens's front doesn't rotate when you are focusing, allowing you to use graduated and polarized filter types.
The Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 spans a versatile and popular focal length range making it suitable for shooting in a wide array of shooting situations. As a member of the L-series zoom, which ranges from portrait-length to wide-angle, it's one of the workhorses of lenses.
The bright aperture of f/2.8 allows it to shoot high-quality images even in poor lighting, as well as have a better application of the depth of field.
It comes with an advanced optical design that consists of two UD elements and one Super UD element, which work together to minimize the chromatic aberrations and color fringing, enhancing the production of clear and sharp images.
It further improves the image sharpness by employing three aspherical elements in its optical design, which helps get rid of the spherical distortions and aberrations. All of these elements are then coated with a Super Spectra coating to ensure there are minimal surface reflections, ghosting, and flare.
The Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 helps to improve the image contrast and enhance the neutral color fidelity. Unlike the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8, the physical design is weather-resistant, thanks to the fluorine coating applied.
It ensures the lens is protected from weather elements, making it ideal for use in harsh environmental conditions such as deserts. It features a ring-type ultrasonic motor which helps it achieve a fast and silent autofocus performance, making the focus experience effortless.
However, the 1.77 pounds of weight may exhaust you if shooting for a prolonged period, unlike the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4. The use of a zoom lock lever allows you to secure the zoom position, which enhances the compact form factor when you are not using the lens.
The Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 comes optimized for close-up capturing, making it a great lens when it comes to macro
Typically, it comes with a minimum focus distance of only one inch and a life-size magnification of 1:1, making it suitable for mid-length subjects and portraiture.
The optical construction consists of one low dispersion element, which helps to eliminate the chromatic aberrations and color fringing, significantly improving the image quality.
Thanks to the Super Spectra coating on these elements, there is minimal ghosting and flare even when capturing in backlit conditions.
Unlike the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8, it uses a three-group floating elements internal focusing design to facilitate consistent image over the entire focusing range.
Also, the incorporation of an ultrasonic motor ensures the autofocus is fast and silent, making it ideal for shooting fast-moving subjects such as a rolling pin.
To make the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 convenient for use with camera-shy subjects, it comes with a full-time manual focus override which gives you explicit manual control over the focus.
Although the 1.38 pounds of weight might exhaust you if you are shooting for an extended time, it's still not heavy like the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6.
The use of a focus limiter switch allows you to constrain the focusing into two distinct ranges, one for faster focusing and the other from one inch and 1.6 inches to infinity. This focus limiter ensures minimal autofocus hunting, making it ideal for capturing action.
As a member of the L-series Canon lens, the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 is truly versatile with a flexible telephoto focal lengths range.
Apart from the medium telephoto to portrait-length perspectives, it comes with a bright wide aperture of f/2.8, making it suitable for shooting in a wide range of lighting conditions. This constant aperture ensures consistent image quality and sharpness over the zoom range.
Also, unlike the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4, it enhances the application of the shallow depth of field and selective focus techniques,
The sophisticated optical construction further improves this versatility with the incorporation of four low dispersion elements. They help to get rid of the color fringing and optical distortions for improved image clarity and sharpness over the zoom range.
The elements come with a Super Spectra coating which helps to eliminate the ghosting and flare for high image contrast and neutral color fidelity. It also comes with the ring-type ultrasonic motor, which helps realize a fast and accurate autofocus performance, making it ideal for shooting fast-moving subjects.
On top of this motor, it allows a full-time manual override, which allows you to fine-tune your focus manually when necessary. It comes with a removable tripod collar which ensures stable attachment of the lens on a monopod or tripod, facilitating its use with tripods.
With a focus limiter button, you can constrain the autofocus to 4.9 inches to infinity or 9.8 inches to infinity, significantly reducing the chances of autofocus hunting.
However, it weighs 3.18 pounds, making it the second heaviest on my list, which may hurt your wrists if you use it for an extended period.
The Canon EF 85mm f/1.4 is distinguished by its fast aperture and image stabilization capabilities, making it suitable for portraiture applications.
As a member of the Canon L-series, it features a sophisticated optical layout that consists of a glass-molded aspherical element which is geared towards reducing the aspherical distortions and aberrations for improved image clarity and sharpness.
Like the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6, the individual elements come with an Air Sphere coating for reducing the surface reflections, ghosting, and flare, significantly improving the color fidelity and image contrast even when shooting in backlit and strong lighting circumstances.
Canon EF 85mm f/1.4 uses a four-stop image stabilization functionality to eliminate the camera shake effect that is common when shooting without a tripod. This makes it ideal for shooting real estate property photos in tight corners where you can't use a tripod.
Also, the fast aperture of f/1.4 makes it ideal for shooting interior photos without a flash, even when there is low ambient light. Like the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6, it features a ring-type ultrasonic motor which helps it achieve fast and accurate autofocus.
The full-time manual focus override allows you to have precise control over the focusing performance, making it ideal for focusing on subjects that require precision, such as small needles.
The physical construction is weather-resistant, making it ideal for use in challenging situations such as dusty circumstances. It comes with a nine-blade aperture diaphragm which enables it to produce an impressive bokeh.
Although it's lighter than the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8, the 2.09 pounds weight is still not suitable for extended shooting without a tripod.
As a wide-angle L-series lens, the Canon EF 35mm f/1.4 is characterized by an advanced and unique optical composition, making it ideal for shooting in a wide range of shooting circumstances.
Unlike the other lens on my list, it employs the Blue Spectrum Refractive Optics that is specifically designed for combating the color fringing and chromatic and spherical aberrations. These optics virtually eliminates all the optical distortions that are common in wide-angle lenses, significantly improving the image clarity and sharpness.
The Canon EF 35mm f/1.4 further suppresses the distortions by employing two aspherical elements and one low dispersion element in its optical construction. This significantly improves the resolution and sharpness.
The optical elements come with a Subwavelength Coating that helps to minimize the surface reflections and ghosting, further enhancing the color fidelity and the overall image contrast even when working in situations with bright lighting.
The employing of the ring-type ultrasonic motor ensures the autofocusing experience is quiet and fast, making it ideal for shooting fast-moving subjects. In case you want to fine-tune your focus, it features a responsive full-time manual override for better focusing control.
Like the Canon EF 85mm f/1.4, the f/1.4 fast aperture works exceptionally well in poor lighting, making it a great option for shooting in tight places with poor ambient light. The nine-blade aperture diaphragm facilitates the production of an appealing bokeh quality.
The exposed optical elements feature a fluorine coating which helps resist fingerprints and smudges, making it easier to clean. Also, the weather-resistant physical design makes it ideal for use in moist conditions such as snow. However, the lack of image stabilization is one of its biggest downsides.
The Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 pairs a sophisticated optical construction with a versatile wide-angle range, making it ideal for landscape and real estate
The incorporation of three aspherical and one UD element in its optical construction helps to minimize both the spherical and chromatic distortions. This in turn increases the image quality and sharpness.
Like the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8, it employs Super Spectra coating on these elements, which helps eliminate the surface reflections, ghosting, and flare for improved color fidelity and accuracy. It also comes with the ring-type ultrasonic motor, which helps deliver a fast and silent autofocus functionality.
The internal focus design employed in this lens ensures the overall length of the lens doesn't change during focusing, which makes it ideal for shooting camera-shy subjects such as insects.
On top of it, to ensure you don't frighten the camera-sensitive subjects, it comes with a full-time manual override, which allows you to focus on your subject noise-free. The physical construction is weather-sealed, making it appropriate for use in difficult environments and bad weather conditions.
However, the bokeh quality it produces with the seven-blades aperture diaphragm is lower than that of the Canon EF 35mm f/1.4. Also, this aperture is not suitable for low-light shooting or the application of the shallow depth of field. However, it works exceptionally well when shooting with a camera flash.
Although it's heavier than the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8, the 1.1 pounds weight is still lightweight enough for an extended handheld shooting time without the wrists hurting.
The Canon 5D is one of the advanced full-frame cameras that can allow you to take bright images in poor lighting. However, the performance of this camera can be significantly lower if you pair it with the wrong lens.
The following features help you know the things to look for when choosing a lens to pair with your Canon 5D. In addition, the following table breaks down the most crucial features to consider.
| Lenses | Diaphragm Blades | Minimum Focus Distance (Inches) | Weight (Pounds) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 | 8 | 33.46 | 0.94 |
| Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 | 9 | 14.96 | 1.77 |
| Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 | 8 | 11.8 | 1.38 |
| Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 | 8 | 17.72 | 0.64 |
| Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 | 8 | 45.2 | 3.18 |
| Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 | 9 | 30.28 | 3.46 |
| Canon EF 85mm f/1.4 | 9 | 33.5 | 2.09 |
| Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 | 9 | 11.02 | 1.74 |
| Canon EF 35mm f/1.4 | 9 | 11.81 | 1.68 |
| Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 | 7 | 11.02 | 1.1 |
Lenses come in different build qualities and specifications, such as focal length. Since the focal length is the distance from the center of the lens to the camera sensor, it affects the overall length of the barrel.
That means a lens with a large maximum focal length, such as the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6, has the largest and heaviest lens barrel. Usually, this heavyweight can be an advantage if using a tripod, as it can stabilize the setup even if the weather is windy.
However, if you are one of the photographers that love the flexibility of walking around shooting handheld, consider getting a compact and lightweight lens such as the Canon 50mm f/1.4. A lightweight lens minimizes the chances of muscle fatigue and accidental falls.
Generally, Canon 5D lenses come in two versions: prime lenses and zoom lenses. Prime lenses have a fixed focal length, and you can't vary the angle of view. That means you will need to manually move closer to the subject if you want to fill the frame with the main subject.
On the other hand, a zoom lens such as the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 comes with a variable focal length that you can adjust to change the angle of view. This allows you to enjoy the flexibility of capturing different angles of view while standing in the same spot.
Although lenses might have variable focal lengths, it doesn't mean they are equal in the zoom range. Generally, the optical zoom in lenses is all about moving the optical elements inside the lens barrel. The more adjustable the elements are, the more the zoom range.
For instance, in the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8, you can adjust the focal length by around 19mm. On the other hand, in the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6, you can adjust the focal length by around 300mm.
As you can tell, 300mm is a bigger range and more zoom capability compared to the 19mm of the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8. You should, however, note that the perspectives the lens can capture depend on the minimum and maximum focal length.
If you are taking real estate exterior photos, the unexpected can happen, and your camera gear is exposed to moisture. Generally, the Canon 5D is weather resistant and can withstand high humidity. However, the lens will be damaged if it can't withstand high humidity.
The best way to exploit the full capability of your Canon 5D camera is to equip it with a weather-resistant lens such as the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8. You should, however, note that a weather-resistant design doesn't mean the gear is waterproof.
In most cases, weather-resistant design or weather sealing means the gear can withstand moisture or drizzles to a certain degree. As a result, you should avoid submerging your Canon 5D or the lens in water or exposing them to rain.
The aperture is the opening that you can narrow or open wider to control the amount of light reaching the camera sensor. In most lenses, you can narrow the aperture to smaller values. However, there is a limitation to how wide you can open it.
When checking the lens aperture, it is, therefore, advisable to check the maximum wide values rather than the narrowest. Since this is a physical opening for allowing light to enter, it directly affects the brightness of the resulting photos.
If you're taking photos in poorly-lit interiors, consider going for a lens with a wide maximum aperture, such as the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4. This allows you to capture bright photos without necessarily cranking up the camera ISO.
As a real estate photographer, you might face the challenge of taking interior photos in cramped rooms or need to capture the entire property in a single exterior photo. Usually, the ability of the lens to capture at such smaller subject distances or broad photos depends on how short the focal length is.
A lens with a short focal length, such as the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8, provides a wide angle of view that allows you to take photos at smaller subject distances. You should, however, keep in mind that wide-angle lenses result in distortions that can make the angles of the property look curved.
The bokeh effect is a stylish technique common in full-frame cameras that helps in blurring the background of your photos, producing an appealing and professional looking out of focus area. For you to achieve the bokeh effect, you need to have a fast lens such as the Canon EF 16-35mm that comes with an f/2.8 fast aperture.
Focal distance is the lens's angular field of view in a given sensor size. On the other hand, the focal length is the distance between the camera sensor and the point of convergence. The focal length and the focal distance are directly proportional in a way that when one is short, the other is also short.
The diameter of the lens directly affects the resolution of the image and indirectly affects the image noise and the freezing motion features in the camera settings. A good quality lens makes the resolution diffraction to be inversely proportional to the diameter in a way that when the diameter doubles, the resolution also doubles.
Due to the many options of Canon 5D lenses in the market, it might be challenging to identify one that will capture clear and high-quality interior photos. However, although the right one will depend on the subject and the lighting conditions, any of the above options won't disappoint.
