Best Fast Prime Lens for Disney dark rides

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cpcw06

New Member
Original Poster
Hey all! New poster here. I am looking to see what people think is a good fast prime lens for Disney dark rides. I have a Canon t4i... crop sensor, so please don't say 50 f/whatever, that is way too zoomed in. I've been looking at tons of videos on youtube and am not really getting anywhere! Of note, I am also wanting to use this as a walk around lens to take photos of my new child. Currently I am thinking of:

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC HSM - I've seen issues reported with the auto focus and chromatic aberration
Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM
Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM - Way at the very top top of my budget and reported auto focus issues

Are there any others I should look at? Which should I go for? Thanks for any help!
 
KeithVH

KeithVH

Well-Known Member
This is a really tough question on APS-C. What is more important to you - field of view or aperture? With a crop, you are stuck with tradeoffs. Personally, if this is ALL about dark ride perspective, then you need to go wide. Think HM moreso than Pirates. From a Doombuggy, you are CLOSE to most everything. No substitute for FoV at that point. Once you go wide, you never go back<G>.

I'm not sure about the T4, but I would think you can compensate for light loss with an ISO bump. Not sure how high you can go, but since none of these have IS, you'll need to do some testing how high you can go. I would even think you could up a stop from 1.4 and possibly still get acceptable results in most cases. Unless you are moving from getting the shot to creating "art". It might not hurt to look at one of the very wide 2.8's. Go with someone like B&H (who are VERY good about returns/exchanges) to test other possibilities.

All that being said, I would assume you're not just buying this just for dark rides. Shooting in a dark ride is going to happen how often for you? Shooting everything else is going to happen how often? Yes, pay some attention to your requirements but don't let it be the single driver; pay more attention to how you're going to live with this purchase in the long run.
 
wdwmagic

wdwmagic

Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
cpcw06 said:
Hey all! New poster here. I am looking to see what people think is a good fast prime lens for Disney dark rides. I have a Canon t4i... crop sensor, so please don't say 50 f/whatever, that is way too zoomed in. I've been looking at tons of videos on youtube and am not really getting anywhere! Of note, I am also wanting to use this as a walk around lens to take photos of my new child. Currently I am thinking of:

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC HSM - I've seen issues reported with the auto focus and chromatic aberration
Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM
Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM - Way at the very top top of my budget and reported auto focus issues

Are there any others I should look at? Which should I go for? Thanks for any help!
Click to expand...
Welcome to WDWMAGIC!

What is your current lens lineup?
 
C

cpcw06

New Member
Original Poster
KeithVH - I have been thinking a bit more about every day use and practicality. Shooting pictures on a dark ride will only be around once a year, so something suitable for more situations would be more practical. The idea of a fast lens even for general indoor use is still very attractive to me as the fastest I have currently is f/2.8. I am starting to look at the offerings meant more as a kit lens replacement/upgrade... like the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8.

wdwmagic - I currently have the kit 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II, 55-250mm f/4.5-6 IS II, 100mm f/2.8 USM macro, and the 40mm f/2.8 pancake (which I currently use as my walkaround lens).
 
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Clamman73

Clamman73

Well-Known Member
cpcw06 said:
Hey all! New poster here. I am looking to see what people think is a good fast prime lens for Disney dark rides. I have a Canon t4i... crop sensor, so please don't say 50 f/whatever, that is way too zoomed in. I've been looking at tons of videos on youtube and am not really getting anywhere! Of note, I am also wanting to use this as a walk around lens to take photos of my new child. Currently I am thinking of:

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC HSM - I've seen issues reported with the auto focus and chromatic aberration
Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM
Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM - Way at the very top top of my budget and reported auto focus issues

Are there any others I should look at? Which should I go for? Thanks for any help!
Click to expand...
This person likes the 50 on a similar camera.
http://distographers.com/the-nifty-fifty-or-fantastic-plastic-lens-for-dark-ride-shooting/
 
sporadic

sporadic

Well-Known Member
I used the EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 on my XSi and 7D for a number of years as my walk around lens. Little heavy, but that's the price pay for fast zooms. Great lens, but sounds like you may be wanting a faster prime? I'd grab the Sigma 30/1.4 from a reputable source with a good return policy and put it through its paces. It's the lens I was going to buy before I decided to switch systems. I had the EF 50/1.4 and agree that it's too tight on a crop (for my tastes). I do however use a 35/1.4 on my Fuji X-T1 and really like that focal length on a crop. It was my walk around lens on our last trip and used for dark rides, stage shots, character shots, kid shots, pretty much everything. Here are some shots with it:


DSCF2109 by smerrick, on Flickr


DSCF2396 by smerrick, on Flickr

DSCF2214 by smerrick, on Flickr


DSCF2291 by smerrick, on Flickr

Love the DOF as well with shooting the kids close up.


DSCF2374 by smerrick, on Flickr

Makeup time by smerrick, on Flickr
 
KeithVH

KeithVH

Well-Known Member
If money wasn't an issue (how many of us can really say that?), I would buy the Canon 17-40 f4 IS (don't I wish). It does have an "L" glass price though. But the IS is good for 2 stops easy. So would be best of both worlds. Anything else will be compromise.
 
C

cpcw06

New Member
Original Poster
Nice photos Sporadic! I've been looking at that Sigma 30/1.4, but I'm just worried about the focus issues other Sigmas are reported to have and I've also see that the 30mm has a bit of an issue with chromatic aberration (from watching the video review done by Christopher Frost on Youtube). Tonight my daughter had her very first "real" food - pureed carrots! She was so cute, but I was stuck in a corner in our kitchen using my 40mm and only getting her face. Arg! I am not going to miss any more good photos of my daughter again, so I'm probably going to get two lenses in the next few days, one as a walkaround and another as a fast wide prime. My current idea is to get the Canon 27-70mm f/4L IS USM as a walkaround. Not completely sure on the fast wide prime. Thoughts? KeithVH - what do you think of the Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM? I didn't think the 17-40 had IS.
 
wdwmagic

wdwmagic

Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
cpcw06 said:
My current idea is to get the Canon 27-70mm f/4L IS USM as a walkaround.
Click to expand...
The 24-70 isn't very good on a crop, not wide enough on the wide end. The 17-55 2.8 is much better on a crop in my opinion, and is faster at 2.8.
 
wdwmagic

wdwmagic

Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
KeithVH said:
If money wasn't an issue (how many of us can really say that?), I would buy the Canon 17-40 f4 IS (don't I wish). It does have an "L" glass price though. But the IS is good for 2 stops easy. So would be best of both worlds. Anything else will be compromise.
Click to expand...
The IS can definitely make up a couple of stops for stationary objects, but no help when anything is moving. If shooting kids, everything is in motion LOL.
 
NowInc

NowInc

Well-Known Member
You are going to face another issue, as well. Autofocus on a dark ride isn't something all bodies are good at. You will resort to manual focus more than a few times. and thats where another issue will pop up. The wider your aperture, the more tight your focus point is going to be. The Sigma 18-35 1.8 is great for low light.....except at 1.8 you will have a LOT of things out of focus if you go manual on it..especially if said objects are moving.

When I was on a crop sensor, it was always at MOST ISO 1600, I would use EV-1, and shoot in manual set at around 1/80 (the slowest I could go handheld without blurry shots), aperture wide as I could. This would essentially underexpose by 1 stop, which is very recoverable if you are shooting raw. As far as lenses, it was always a mix, but my 35mm 1.8 always performed well. 50mm is too tight on an crop (as you know), but TOO wide will also be an issue (I know thats odd to some of you coming from me), as ISO noise is far more noticeable if you decide to crop the image to "zoom" in.
 
ArtificialArtist

ArtificialArtist

Well-Known Member
I used a set of different lenses for this video, an older EOS 5D mkII at max ISO on the ride itself (lower ISO in the well lit areas), with the tradeoff of noise, THOUGH, had to focus manually with a 1/1,4f and 1/2,8f respectively. With the 1/1,4f at max ISO and a post production restoration boost, it's near as bright as the eye would see.

So in your case, if you want it as bright as possible, you'll need to go with the 1.4f Sigma. Not sure about the APS-C crop but 30mm is a good middle between wide and closeup on a 35mm sensor.

 
C

cpcw06

New Member
Original Poster
I keep going back and forth on what to do lol! I think I might give up on any fast lens for the now (but I will probably get the 50 1.8 STM just to play around with) and focus on wide angle lenses to talk walkaround pictures of my wife and daughter and the parks.
The EF-S 24 pancake is looking very attractive as is the 16-35 f/4. I've seen a few people recommend the ef-s 15-85 or the 17-55, but I am just having a hard time swallowing the cost of the 15-85 ($800) or 17-55 ($880) vs the 24-70 f/4 ($850) or 16-35 f/4 ($1050). Just something about that red ring that makes me feel it is money well spent.
 
T

thomas998

Well-Known Member
cpcw06 said:
Hey all! New poster here. I am looking to see what people think is a good fast prime lens for Disney dark rides. I have a Canon t4i... crop sensor, so please don't say 50 f/whatever, that is way too zoomed in. I've been looking at tons of videos on youtube and am not really getting anywhere! Of note, I am also wanting to use this as a walk around lens to take photos of my new child. Currently I am thinking of:

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC HSM - I've seen issues reported with the auto focus and chromatic aberration
Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM
Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM - Way at the very top top of my budget and reported auto focus issues

Are there any others I should look at? Which should I go for? Thanks for any help!
Click to expand...

I think you may be looking for too fast of a lens. I went down the path of trying to get the fastest possible lens to capture dark rides, used a 50mm f1.2 on a speedbooster connected to a Sony mirrorless so the effective speed was closer to f0.9... Unfortunately it didn't give me the ultimate dark ride photos because what you are faced with is a very shallow depth of field that makes focusing critical and that isn't something that is easily done on a ride that is moving. Yes I was stuck with manual focus because of my setup but I had tried snapping photos on dark rides before using a autofocus f1.4 and it didn't like trying to focus in the dark and would often hunt way too long before taking the picture... So I think you may be stuck having to manual focus no matter what.

In the end My best photos ended up coming from a 35mm summicron f2.8 on the APC mirrorless, maybe a bit wider would have been better but I was satisfied with most of the FoV I had the dark rides, maybe HM would have been better with an even wider lens but honestly it is very hard to get decent shots in there because you are not only moving but pretty close to things so it magnifies the motion...

So from your list I would go with whichever one is sharpest and not worry so much about speed. I think it is more critical to have a good camera that can shoot higher ISO than a faster lens for dark rides.

The other thing that can really help you is decent post processing software. I use Capture One Pro as in my experience it will allow me to get more out of the raw files than I can with photoshop or lightroom... Also make sure you take the photos in RAW so you can get a bit more out of them, JPGs don't tweak worth a flip when you are trying to boost the exposure.

One last bit of advice is go completely manual on your camera don't let it pick anything or you'll be sorry.... And lastly... ask yourself why you want dark ride photos.... I find myself wondering what the point is since they never contain any members of my family and if I'm being honest I can probably find photos of any part of the dark rides that I want on the internet... So don't become obsessed with dark ride photos, it can turn into a white whale
 

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