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Buying a new Canon 70-200mm f2.8 or f4.0 lens VS upgrading to the Canon EOS R, R5, R6?
In landscape photography, choosing the right gear is super important! I decided to buy the Canon 70-200mm f/4.0 MK II instead of upgrading all my equipment to the EOS R system (R, R5 or R6). I give, in this video, my first impressions of this new Canon 70-200mm f/4.0 MK II. Purchasing a new camera body is always more fun because of all the new features but investing in lenses is always a better choice that will directly impact your photography. Now the question is: will I purchase the f/2.8 or f/4.0 version? Little hint: with all the money I saved, I was able to buy the Canon 16-35 f/2.8 MK II!!
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[Music] in this video let's talk about what gear you should be getting to get better pictures and video and i just got this box from canon can anybody guess what's in it [Music] let's talk is my new series about photography and filmmaking tips and in this first episode i want to talk about why i decided to buy this lens instead of buying the camera body that everybody is talking about the usr we found the money you save i was also able to buy something else so stick till the end to know what it is let's build the intro let's start by talking about camera gear because this is actually something very important to consider whenever you're gonna buy a new piece of gear for your photography or your filmmaking so i started with the canon t2i which was a great budget option at the time to get good photos but also great video quality which wasn't always the case uh in the time when i bought this one it came with this lens the 18 to 55 which is a great lens but it wasn't very versatile so i bought this lens which is the 18 to 200 millimeter about one year after getting my camera and this is one of my favorite lens and one of my best buys and all the time i did photographing this allowed me to get the wider shots at 18 millimeters but i could also zoom in and get these really detailed shots at 200 millimeters so i'm going to show a few pictures i took with this lens but i also shot a lot of videos with this camera over the years about eight years after using this camera i realized i was it was time to change my camera because there were two big flaws with this one the first one was that they didn't have autofocus and video mode and i was starting to make more and more short films so this was something really important for me uh when filming the short films and also it wasn't very good in low light performances and i started taking more star photography shots so this was the second problem i wanted to solve this is when i started looking into the canon 6d mark ii the camera i'm using right now to film this video and this camera has a full frame sensor so it's great to taking star photography shots it also has a really good autofigure system with the dual pixel from canon i was so excited when i got this new camera but i quickly realized that my aps-c sized lens wouldn't work with a full-frame sensor which was a big bummer i knew i wanted to buy the 7200 lens and the 16 to 35 lens but i didn't have the money to buy both of these lens because they're quite expensive so i decided to go with the 24 to 105 lens because it had a good focal range and also very good picture quality for the price of this lens so [Music] in the last months i decided it was time to upgrade my lenses because i was planning to go on a trip in italy and i wanted to have a bigger focal range so i wanted to be able to go over 105 millimeters and this is where i wanted to buy a 7200 millimeter lens and i was thinking of buying the f 2.8 version because everybody has this lens and everybody says it's a great lens so if everybody says it's great lens it's a great lens for me too right with all the rumors about the new canon cameras that are coming out this year i decided to read a little bit more about the eos r and realize there are quite a few things that could be good for me like the lighter weight which would mean less weight on my back when i'm walking around but also better video features like the c-log capabilities and also the built-in 4k and everybody online seems to say it's a great camera a camera you should be buying right now so i started thinking should i just buy a whole new system with a new body and new lenses instead of investing in lenses for dslrs that might not even be here in a few years now let's go check to see if my cinnamon rolls are ready and make some coffee i will tell you when i come back why i decided to go with this lens in the end [Music] [Music] when i was having all this question is the moment where i found this lens and it's the 72-200 f4 version from canon and it has all the advantage of the f 2.8 version without the weight it's half the weight of the f 2.8 version which is great for my back it's also pretty recent it came out not even two years ago so it's a very recent lens with the latest technology inside of it let's go see what i had to say when i test it out for the first time during spring break standing underneath the lights [Music] look into each other's eyes tired snowflakes are coming down collapse into water when they hit the ground i hear the sound of empty streets yesterday has gone asleep for the last week i've been testing the 7200 lens from canon and i really liked it the first thing is that it's a light lens so it saves weight in my backpack and that saves my back in the end the second thing is that the pictures are really sharp and that's great because you're getting great result out of it and i don't really miss the f 2.8 aperture because i never really shoot at f 2.8 outside anyways i usually shoot around f8 to f11 and the f4 was more than enough when i wanted to go with a lower aperture one thing i forgot to mention is how good a stabilization is in this lens it's simply insane and i don't even know how to achieve this level of stabilization in this lens it's also important to come back to the point that you probably don't need f 2.8 in most cases when you're taking landscape photos it's actually more important to have a lens that slide because you're probably going to be carrying it around with you and you want something that's not going to break your back it's also not very useful to have f 2.8 because most of the time you're going to want the whole landscape to be sharp and to achieve that you're going to have a higher aperture like something like f9 to f11 and that means that you're never going to be using the f 2.8 from the lens during the middle of the day but probably only at night but it's pretty rare to take landscape photos with such a lens at night all of this reminded me one thing and it's that it's always more important to invest in lenses because they're really going to help you get better pictures having a sharper lens is going to give you sharper pictures that are going to look more professional and also having a better range so longer range is going to allow you to take more subjects getting the newest body is always cool because it's packed of new features but it's not necessarily the thing that's going to help you the most in achieving better photos or better videos there's also one big advantage with the 6d mark ii and that's the battery life this is very important when i'm taking star trails especially when i'm in the middle of the winter where i can leave the camera outside for two three hours or even longer and it's just gonna take pictures by itself if i don't have good battery life it's probably gonna die after an hour or two but with great battery life of the 6d mark ii i can leave it going for hours and hours even if it's minus 20 degrees outside i haven't talked about prices up to now but it was a huge factor in deciding which lens i would be buying if i bought the new aosr with a lens or two it would have cost me anything between four thousand to seven thousand dollars canadian which is a lot of money the 72-200 lens f 2.8 the third generation is about 2 500 right now and if you buy the older version it's about 2 000 online which is still pretty expensive i got this lens for just over a thousand dollars which is really cheap compared to the other options and with all the money i'm saving i actually have enough money to buy the other lens i really wanted which is the 16-45 for that one i decided to buy it on ebay for two reasons one it's cheaper because it's an older version that's still really great it's the second generation but it's still a great lens but also to help and save the planet because i don't really need to buy the newest version i hope this video made you realize just like i was reminded that you should be buying a camera body just because everybody online talks about it also if you don't have the budget to buy a camera on your lens just practice with whatever you have so if you have a smartphone just use that if you want to upgrade to a cheaper dslr you could buy the canon t8i which has really good photo capabilities and also 4k video and that's just crazy how much the technology advanced in the last years i'm not sponsored by canon so everything i said up to now is just my pure opinion but i just really like their products and that's why i talk about them in these videos i'm not saying you shouldn't be buying canon's mirrorless cameras they're actually really good but i'm just saying that if you already have a good camera you probably don't need to upgrade right now i'm gonna make the switch whenever i decide that i really need 4k videos and i have the full workflow that's working for it and that means i'm probably need to upgrade my computer first if you found this video helpful please leave a like below to let me know that you liked it and also subscribe to the channel to get more content like this bye bye and see you in the next one [Music] you
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What is this video about?
When I found out about all the excitement around the new Canon EOS R cameras, I had to stop and ask myself: should I upgrade my entire system, or should I invest in better lenses for my current 6D Mark II?
I landed on the Canon 70-200mm f/4.0 Mark II, and I want to share why. First, the practical stuff: it's half the weight of the f/2.8 version, which matters when you're walking around with a camera all day. It's also recent—less than two years old—with solid modern glass inside. And honestly, for landscape photography, I don't really need f/2.8. I shoot most of my landscapes at f/8 to f/11, where aperture width doesn't matter much. The f/4.0 is more than enough on the rare occasions I want a shallower depth of field.
The sharpness is excellent, and the stabilization in this lens is genuinely impressive. These two things matter far more to the final image than whatever new camera body you're using. A sharper lens gives you sharper photos that look more professional. A longer focal range lets you frame shots you couldn't before. A new camera body, while exciting and packed with features, doesn't directly translate to better photos the way a better lens does.
Then there's the money angle. A new EOS R system would run me somewhere between $4,000 and $7,000 CAD. The 70-200mm f/2.8 goes for around $2,500 new, or about $2,000 used. I got the f/4.0 for just over $1,000—and with those savings, I also picked up the Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 Mark II on eBay. That second purchase matters because it rounds out my focal range without requiring me to rethink my entire workflow.
Here's what I want to emphasize: don't upgrade your camera body just because everyone online is talking about it. If you already have something that works—if your autofocus is decent, your sensor has enough dynamic range for what you shoot, and your battery lasts through your sessions—then new lenses will serve you better. Your camera doesn't need to be the latest model to take great photos. What you need is glass that's sharp, a focal range that suits your work, and the skills to use it well.