Buy Canon lenses. The best you can afford. If you cannot afford get a credit card to buy them, buy used, or assist lots of photographers and save up. That way you learn the craft and get experience, while shooting with their lenses and learning what you like.

The problem is, you are wanting to capture someone’s once in a lifetime event. You owe it to them to give them the best quality possible. That comes with good glass that allows you to be creative. Every time I get a new lens I wonder how I ever lived without it.

As I mention, the 24-105 is a great all around lens. It’s about $900. The 24-70 lens when it comes out will probably be sensational as well. Pair that with at least one versatile fast prime lens and I think you are in business. There are also places like http://www.borrowlenses.com that allow you to rent for a pretty reasonable price so you can see which ones you like.

Lenses hold value so don’t feel so bad about biting the bullet and laying down some cash for them. No one lens is good enough to shoot a wedding. You need variety and speed to shoot in dark locations. The t2i is not a bad camera but the high ISO’s so suffer from grain that the 5D Mark II can handle. So in short, you do need a fast prime and a mid range zoom and at least then you will have more ability to shoot like a pro. In the meantime though, shoot as much as possible, assist, and if you can, buy the best stuff if you expect for people to pay you to be a wedding photographer.

I am just starting out with wedding photography and since I am a novice with the intention of being pro one day, I purchased a canon T2i and got that with a tamron AF 18-270mm F/3.5 -6.3. My camera cost me $800 and the lense was $600.

However, after reading some reviews about my particular tamron lens I am not sure if I made the right choice. Ideally I would have liked to have purchased a 5D but for right now I want to stick with a $1900 budget for the camera and lens. My other option was to go for the canon 7d with the 18-135 lens kit that it comes with.

So I guess my question for you is:
Considering that my budget for now is not more than $1900 for camera and lens combined, would you recommend that I buy the canon 7d with the stock 18-135 lens kit (whih costs $1900) or buy the canon T2i ($800 body only) and invest the rest of the $1100 in a nice lens for the T2i?

If you suggest the 7D, would the 18-135 lens be a decent enough for wedding photography?

If you suggest the T2i which is $800, leaving a balance of $1100 to spend on lenses , which lenses within that budget would be the most essential and of the most use for the purpose of wedding photograohy? Do they have to be canon lenses or are there some after market lenses that do the job quite as well as the canon lenses?

If you only had a option of take only 2 lense with you for a wedding which 2 lense whould you take, with a 5D MKII,
and with what extra accessories?

Thank you
Aiden