- What's going on guys?
My name is Chris Hau, and I've had a camera in my hands
since I was about eight years old.
And I've been shooting professionally
for the last seven to eight years.
So I've used a wide range of different camera brands,
different camera bodies, and camera lenses.
And today, I'm gonna be talking about my kit
and the different recommendations that I have
in terms of lenses that you'll actually use
and the ones maybe you should consider just renting.
So, let's jump into today's video.
Whoo!
(lively music)
So, I own about five lenses.
That's a lot of lenses to own, and that bag,
that bag on my back when I'm carrying all of them
gets really heavy.
So, eventually I went from carrying all those lenses
and then my back was like (makes cracking sound)
and I was like, "Oh,
I gotta stop carrying as many lenses right now."
So, I started taking lenses that I don't use that often out.
And those lenses are the following.
Let's talk about my least used lens,
and that is the 12-24mm F/4 lens.
Now when I first bought this lens I thought, "Yes!
12mm! This is so wide!"
I had a helicopter flight going up that was like:
"Impulse buy! Let's buy a 12mm, it's gonna look so dope!"
And I've actually only ever used the lens,
(clears throat)
I'm sad to say, I literally spent two thousand dollars
on a lens I've used twice.
Now, both of those shoots that I've used it on
were commercial shoots, so the lens has paid for itself.
But, looking back, I really wish that I had rented the lens.
I don't bring it with me that often.
I can't put lens filters in front of it because
it's such a wide piece of glass,
you can't even put, like ND stops or polarizers on it.
So, again, it's heavy to put in the bag,
I can't put filters on the front of it.
So because of those reasons,
I don't really bring that lens around that often.
Now let's talk about the next lens that I use
maybe about four to eight percent of the time,
and I use it on a few commercial shoots.
And that is the 90mm F/2.8 Macro lens.
Now, yes, macro lenses I think a lot of people should have
a macro lens or at least a macro feature in their lens kit.
But again, I don't use this lens that often.
Yes, it looks really cool, but in terms of practicality,
in terms of how I use it in my lifestyle,
which is vlogging and commercial shoots,
I really don't use it that often.
So, in terms of lenses I should continue
to either borrow or rent, that would be the 90mm Macro lens.
Now we're gonna talk about a lens
that people obviously love seeing, love having,
when clients see it, they're like, "Oh, this guys is
professional. This guy is legit."
And that's the 70 to 200mm lens.
Now, I'm kind of on the fence about this lens.
This lens I don't really use that often,
and mainly because it's so heavy,
I don't like carrying it around,
and I'm often climbing up mountains or traveling.
And this weighs my bag down,
and flights on all these different airlines are like,
"Your bag's too heavy.
That'll be more expensive to bring your bag."
It's a great lens to have in your kit
in terms of being a professional,
but in terms of one that you'll probably use,
I would maybe save your money
for the next lenses I'm about to talk about.
So let's talk about a lens
that I'm currently using right now
and that is the 16 to 35mm F/2.8 lens.
I love this lens.
I use the 60mm a lot for my Instagram grid.
I like to shoot a lot of landscapes,
so having a nice wide lens is great,
and in terms of vlogging, I use this lens all the time.
I'm using it right now, and it's great
'cause you go from 16mm to (rolls tongue)
I don't know why I made that sound (rolls tongue)
to 35mm which is awesome,
so you can get a bit more compression.
It's great for portraits.
So you can use this for both landscapes and portrait lenses,
or if you wanna do that Casey Neistat dramatic punch-in-shot
so that's also great for this lens too.
And you still got that milky background.
So, I really love this lens, I would highly recommend it.
I actually use it a ton,
so this was a great investment for my kit.
Now, let's talk about my most used lens
out of my entire kit, the one
that I think is the best investment, the one
that I would highly recommend in terms of the focal range,
and if you wanna start getting
into a more professional category.
And that is the 24 to 70mm F/2.8 lens.
This thing is great because at 24 mm,
you have a great landscape lens, it goes nice and wide.
If you bring it to 35mm, you're getting into that like
portrait range, or, you know, wider landscape range.
You go to 50mm f/2.8,
you're staring to get some great bokeh into your background,
that soft, expensive-looking kind of background.
And then you go to 70, you have a great telephoto lens,
which is awesome.
So in terms of most versatile lens,
that's the 24 to 70 f/2.8 lens.
This is the best bang for my buck I've ever had.
I used it on my Ronin, I used it for photography,
I use it for portraits, I use it pretty much
for any type of genre of photography.
So, that's why I love this all-purpose lens.
Obviously, this, is an expensive lens,
and it doesn't have to just be the Sony brand.
If you guys want, you can use a Canon brand,
you guys can use a Nikon brand,
you can use whatever brand is associated
to your current camera body.
So, I like the 24 to 70 or 24 to 105 focal range.
I always like when the f-stop's lower
because you get a more milky background, softer background.
So you're falling in that 2.8 to f/4 range.
If you can't afford it, would recommend the f/2.8 range.
I love this lens.
Now, let's say you're starting your photography career,
and you can only afford one camera body and one camera lens,
the focal range that I would recommend
is somewhere in the 24 to 105 range,
something that has a zoom feature where you can go from wide
to get a wide shot, to more telephoto shots.
So, that's great if you wanna explore any genre
of photography whether it be wedding, commercial, portrait,
you can kinda capture all types
of different photography styles.
Now, real quick I wanna talk about the lenses
that I wish I owned right now,
and that's usually the prime lenses.
That would be an 85mm f/1.4 lens,
whether it's Canon or Sony, they're all amazing.
That means you get a really milky background,
that really smooth looking background.
I miss that, having a really sharp lens,
that's when you get into a prime focal range,
where there's no zooming, where you don't have 24 to 105
or 24 to 70, you just have a 24mm or you just have an 85mm.
So, I miss having one of those, so I would love,
I would absolutely love to have a prime lens again,
whether it's an 85mm f/1.4 lens
or a 50mm f/1.2 or 1.4 lens.
I miss having a prime lens, I would love to get one again.
So let's say you wanna start taking your photography
to the next level, you wanna become an absolute professional
someone who is very versatile that can go and shoot any type
of event, or setting or any commercial project.
Here are the three lenses that I would recommend
if you wanna bust into that professional category,
or start thinking about lenses down the line.
The first lens that I would recommend
in your professional kit would be the 16 to 35mm f/2.8 lens,
the one lens that we're using right now.
This lens is great for those super wides down to a tight,
so you can use it for landscapes,
you can use it for wides at events,
and you can start using it for portraits if you go to 35mm,
and if you're into vlogging, it's a great vlogging lens.
The next lens that I would recommend is my favorite lens
out of my entire kit, the next most versatile lens,
which is the 24 to 70 f/2.8 lens, whatever brand it is.
Highly, highly recommend this as your middle lens.
And the final lens that I would recommend
is the 70 to 200 f/2.8 lens.
This is a great telephoto lens.
You get some great compression.
You can shoot from a distance.
Let's say somebody's having a conversation,
you wanna get some really great candids,
this is great to get further back
so you're not so close to them
and distract them from having a real genuine moment.
So, this is a great lens to have.
Those are the lenses that you'll actually see
in most professional kits.
Those are the lenses that I use pretty much all the time,
they're great for any style of photography.
So I would highly recommend, and don't forget:
it doesn't always have to be the f/2.8 version.
You can look at the f/4 version,
or you can even look at the kit versions
of those focal ranges.
That way you can cover your range
from 16mm all the way to 200mm,
and they're all that constant f-stop of 2.8.
So you have that great milky background
that always looks super high-quality and professional,
where clients can justify it and be like,
"Oh, I understand why I hired this person."
Now, ultimately remember we just talked a lot about gear.
You guys don't need this gear to become a professional.
There's different aspects of being a professional
that you can consider, whether it's post-production,
whether it's pre-production, whether it's telling a story
with your photos, whether it's building your business
so that you can start selling your photos.
I know tons of people who own basic camera kits,
that only own one lens, and go out there and kill it,
and make thousands of dollars as a photographer,
just because they understand how to use their current setup.
Remember, this is one of my favorite quotes,
"The tools do not build the chair."
So if you're out there thinking
that the gear is the next investment that you need,
it's probably the wrong answer.
The reason why people buy gear, is that they get the results
that they want more consistently,
and it speeds up the process.
So, it's all about efficiency
as a professional photographer.
You wanna speed up your process,
become more accurate, but don't forget it.
It took me about six to eight years to get all this gear,
to be able to finally afford it,
but I always worked my way up,
I owned one lens, then I bought maybe a second lens,
did a bunch of research on it.
Eventually just kept building my kits.
Remember: it's not always about gear.
So, go out there, go to the fundamentals of photography,
which is having fun with photography.
Go out there, shoot some photos
that you absolutely love and adore.
And eventually, you can start building your kit,
and have some fun with some gear.
So on that note, if you guys liked this video,
please press 'like', it actually makes a difference.
Subscribe, would love for you to join along,
and we're gonna catch you guys in the next video.
Peace out everybody and thank you so much for watching.
Whoo!
(soothing jazz music)