canon 28mm f2.8 or f1.8 for childbirth photograpy

hi,

i and my friend need your advises...

my close friend use sigma 24-70 f2.8 with canon 50D. he takes childbirths photos. but there aren't have enought light in the hospital. Normaly he use approximately 30mm, f2.8-4, 1/80 and iso 800-1600. He unpleased quality of photos. and he want change equipment but he can't buy new camera like 5d mk2 these days. and then he think start to use prime lens...

and he asked to me whice prime lens is correct this situation. we think that canon 28mm f2.8 or 1.8 lenses will be good. we looked some reviews and their qualities very good and similar canon 50mm f1.8. but i haven't been used that lenses before. you know that reviews are very good and usefull for select lens. but reviews preparing in special conditions.

we want to learn your ideas and advises...

thanks,

Hakan,

Hi Hakan,

A Canon 28mm lens at F2.8 isn't going to produce results that are any different to a 24-70mm lens @ F2.8.

A 28mm F2.8 lens is probably a bit on the wide side if he doesn't want to intrude in the proceedings, and I'd be worried about insufficient depth of field at F1.8.

If it were me, I'd probably use something like an EF24-105 IS @ F4 and set the camera to ISO 3200. At these settings a flash wouldn't be very obtrusive, but I'm guessing that it probably still wouldn't be allowed.

What is the basic problem with the images he is already getting?

If you want a 28mm for something I would go for the ef 24mm f2.8, because it is much higher quality, but the ef 50mm f1.8 is the way to go for portraiture, very soft at the edges wide open and not good bokeh but non of that really matters much because it is pin sharp in the middle, where most portraits end up.

the problem is have a lot of noise and softness. when he is cleaning noise, you know that coming more softness too.

i want to some sample file from him. tomorrow i'll send them.

ps. flash not allowed

thanks,

Hi Haken,

He shouldn't be getting a lot of noise if the shots are exposed correctly and not excessively cropped. A lot of people worry about the noise they see when zoomed in to 100%, but in a real-world print or other display of the whole image the noise isn't big enough to show a lot, and really shouldn't be a big issue.

Looking forward to seeing the "problem" images.

Hi Colin,

i haven't sent pic yet. But i can say that he generaly crops photos.

Hakan,