Travel Lens for Canon 5DMkII

[mjjgm]

Hello --

I'm traveling to Europe for two weeks and looking forward to getting some good shots while there. Thing is, the weight & size of my telephoto lens (Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS USM) is too much for walking 10+ miles a day!!

Does anyone have recommendations on what would compliment the below lenses?

Taking with me for sure:
Canon 17-40mm f/4
Canon 50mm f/1.8 II
(I have a 2x teleconverter if I ended up buying a lens that could work with it, ie prime?)

Ideally, I'd like a lens that can add to my collection and I'd continue to use sometimes even if I have my 70-200mm available. Then again, something like that seems a bit expensive (like the primes listed below) so I've also checked into cheaper zoom lens for travel.

Here's a few I've looked at so far but I'm open to other suggestions:

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM Medium Telephoto (weight 0.93)

Canon EF 135mm f/2.8 with Softfocus Telephoto Lens (weight 0.86 lb)

Tamron Zoom Wide Angle-Telephoto AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF) (weight 1.1 lb)

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM (weight 1.1 lb)

With the above lenses, I have read reviews, but I can't find specifics on print quality comparisons.

If it helps with recommendations, I like to shoot architectural & wildlife photography. I do some portraits but I'd prefer to get into pet portraits. I love to travel and would like to get into stock photography if I ever improve my skills enough for it. I also like macro though I only have extension tubes right now.

I've considered maybe just foregoing buying a specific lens like these and putting the $ towards a macro lens or maybe even a tilt-shift lens. Just not sure I can afford either before going to Europe though a tilt-shift might be a good choice to take with, right? But I'd be lacking a telephoto and I can't say my manual focus is very good and it seems tilt-shifts require that. (It's so hard to see in the small viewfinder!)

[LoveDSLR]

Originally Posted by mjjgm

... but I'm open to other suggestions:

70-200 f/4 L IS-Light and very sharp. I have one to complement my 70-200 f/2.8 L IS.

Originally Posted by mjjgm

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM Medium Telephoto (weight 0.93)

85 f/1.8 is OK but 85 f/1.2 L (not suitable as your travel lens) is better.

Originally Posted by mjjgm

Canon EF 135mm f/2.8 with Softfocus Telephoto Lens (weight 0.86 lb)

Good for portraits.

Originally Posted by mjjgm

Tamron Zoom Wide Angle-Telephoto AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF) (weight 1.1 lb)

Why not? You can consider 24-105 L IS too.

Originally Posted by mjjgm

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM (weight 1.1 lb)

Sold mine after a month.

[SilverBullet07]

I just got back from a three week tour in Europe. I took my Tokina 16-50 f2.8, 50 f1.8, 70-200L f2.8 IS, Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM .

I used my Tokina almost 99% of the time and then throw on my 70-200 lens for some distance castle shots. I would have been fine with just that one lens but I had my Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM for backup.. which I needed on the last few days when my camera came off my black rapid strap and hit the floor braking the three zoom roller cams.

Tokina has good service and within a week had an estimate and is currently being fixed.

Since yours is a full crop...My choice would be EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM. This would have you covered.

[AgBeard]

Save your money - just buy a good comfortable back pack style camera bag & pack the 70-200 you already have

[jdepould]

The last two are definitely non-starters. Putting cheap class in front of a 24MP full-frame sensor is just asking for trouble.

What about the 200/2.8 or 135/2.8 w/o SF?