Originally posted by Rondec Each person breaks the equation down a little differently. Using a 70-200 for weddings is fine. People expect a professional photographer to have big gear and that's not a problem. Having an extra stop to open up in low light situations is very handy to have. Most wedding photographers I know primarily use zooms and only use primes for the formal photographs. Having the flexibility is pretty important.
Regardless, they are both nice lenses and Canon has a lot more lenses in its line up and sells more lenses than Pentax. I just think price is a big factor in why people buy the f4 version of this lens. Certainly it isn't the only factor, but if both were priced the same, a lot of folks would buy the f2.8 version even though it's bigger.
It depends... The 70-200mm f4 lens it's the only zoom lens in my backpack. I'm not into weddings, but I do a few corporate events from time to time and I use prime lenses indoor (a 24mm lens, a 35mm and a 135mm lens) and the 70-200mm f4 for outdoor shots. I've initially rented for a week a 70-200mm f2.8 and I returned after day 2. I liked the flexibility, but:
- I hated the weight; shooting with a 70-200mm f2.8 for one and a half hours at a corporate event was a pain. My arms didn't appreciate the weight at all.
- I hated the size
- I hated the fact that that people stoped acting natural when they saw a big lens pointed at them, even if they knew I was there to take photographs. So, I removed the flash from my camera, I replaced the 70-200mm lens with a 135mm and was a lot better
If my interests will change and I will be covering weddings (althrough I doubt it)
, a 24-70mm lens would probably be the main lens and a prime lens like 100mm f2 or 135mm f2 would be my choice as a tele lens. But again, the workflow is different from person to person. 70-200mm f2.8 it's a popular lens and I understand why (it's very good optically, it offers flexibility and it's very well build). But it's sooo incorfortable to use it for more than half an hour and for me it's a lens that it will be in backpack in the near future only if I will be covering sports events.
I don't know if a 70-200mm f4 lens it's important right now for Pentax users. I think some new fast primes (like 14mm, 20mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm) are a lot more important than the 70-200mm f4.