i'm looking for a good under $400 lens that can shoot in low light. i found couple of them with apertures 1.8-1.2. they are all fixed length. i need to shoot moving dancing objects in dim light. these lenses dont go with IS but they do go with USM. can i use them? is it better to get wide angle lens with good aperture ?
USM is what Canon calls their super-fast auto-focusing lenses.
Low light auto-focus is difficult for any lens, but the faster the better. Most cameras have a auto-focus assist light that comes on to help the camera focus under low light conditions.
That's correct, you will most likely find only fixed focal length lenses with a max aperture of 1.2-1.8 for less than $1k. USM simply means that the autofocusing motor uses Canon's technology for silent, quick focusing. You are stuck with finding a lens based image stabilizer with the Canon line.
But note this:
If you are shooting moving objects in dim light, you don't need to worry about image stabilization anywhere near as much as capturing the image at 1/60 second or faster unless you want blurred hands or blurred feet or a blurred body.
Most importantly shoot practice shots before the performance, You migt find out that you will have to accept grainy ISO 1600 shots if you want any chance of freezing a moving object in dim light.
Even basketball players in a well lit gym are hard to capture without blur. A dimly lit stage will almost always show blur unless you have a very fast lens with a high ISO.
USM is the type of motor used to drive the autofocus mechanism of the lens. Specifically, it stands for Ultra-Sonic Motor in Canon lingo. There are two types...micro motors and ring-type. Ring-type motors are faster, quieter and allow fulltime manual focusing which means you can grab the focusing ring and manually focus without first disengaging the clutch/drive mechanism by switching the lens to manual focus mode. Ring-type USM is usually seen only in Canon's most expensive lenses. All L-series autofocus lenses for example, have ring-type USM motors. However, some "cheaper" lenses like the EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM or EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM also offer both IS and ring-type USM autofocus with fulltime manual focus. Unfortunately, these lenses are a little slow for your purposes.
Since you are shooting in low-light, a prime (fixed focal length) with a maximum aperture of f/1.2 to f/1.8 will probably work quite well but, the focal length (mm) depends on how close you can get to your subject and how much of the background you want to capture. It might also help if we knew what camera you were using because crop factor might also be a consideration. Specifically, Digital Rebels, 50Ds and 7Ds all have a sensor crop factor of 1.6 or 1.6 times the focal length of the lens to figure out the 35mm equivalent focal length. If you are shooting a 35mm or full-frame Digital SLR, none of this matters.
Since you are looking for a fast prime, the lack of IS is not a concern because you should be able to shoot fast enough shutter speeds that it won't matter. Also, any f/1.2 lens is going to cost a lot more than $400. Also, Canon only offers two such lenses, a 50mm prime andd 85mm prime. Canon's EF 50mm f/1.2 USM is usually priced around $1,550 while the 85mm is typically priced just under $2,000. More realistic choices might be any one of the following:
EF 50mm f/1.8 (feels like a toy, not USM but, it only costs $100, it's great for low-light is very sharp)
EF 50mm f/1.4 USM (this is not a ring-type USM lens but it is still fast, quiet and great for low-light)
EF 85mm f/1.8 USM (same as above regarding 50mm f/1.4)
EF 28mm f/1.8 USM (sam as above, fast and wide unless used on a Rebel, XXD, or 7D type DSLR in which case, it acts like a 50mm on a full-frame camera)
In order of appearance on this list above, the lenses range in price from $100 to $480 at B&H Photo of New York. ([URL Truncated]
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