What DSLR and good portrait lenses you can suggest for 2.5k USD?

Question

Greetings,

I'm looking for DSLR and good portrait lenses. Budget - 2500$

Options:

1) Nikon D7000 + Nikon 85mm f/1.4D AF
2) Canon 7D + Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM or Canon EF 135mm f/2.0L USM (Not very good for crop but reviews shows that IQ is better than 50mm)

As for Canon 85mm II L, it is a little bit expensive right now.

3) Your suggestions....

I was considering the 1st variant, but I was confused about D7000's sharpness. Or is it better to find used FF: Canon 5D / Nikon D700 ? Any opinions?

UPD

Sorry, I should specify it more clearly, but Shizam has a point. I'm looking for good portrait lenses with not very big budget [2.5k $]. I understand that it would be good to invest at least 1K $ more. But let it consider for the future. So the question may be interpreted as

what you can suggest for such sum of money?

TIA

Answer

Reading your question it looks like you're interested in portrait photography so some general body/lens suggestions for that type of photography would be:

Full frame sensor body (Nikon D700/Canon 5DmkII or the like)

• FF will give a thinner apparent depth of field for a given aperture which is a desirable in many portrait situations
• FF tends to have less pixel density which can give (among other things) smoother tonal transitions

Other things to look for in a body re:portraits :

• Flash sync port for studio strobes
• Live view, helpful for micro-focusing
• HDMI output, great for showing what you're doing live
• Built in flash IR/RF control so you can control off camera flashes wirelessly w/out extra gear

As for lenses 85mm and 135mm are the 'standard' focal lengths for torso and head & shoulders portraits respectively so a 70-200 f2.8 would work too. If you're looking at environmental portraits that include more of the surrounding area consider a 50mm as well, lenses to consider:

• 50mm f1.8 (or f1.4), 85mm f1.8, 135mm f2.0, 70-200 f2.8

Most work will probably be done around f8 but by having a f1.8 or wider lens, when you decide to go down to f2 or f2.8 for thin DoF you'll still be stopped down which will offer increased sharpness.

To speak towards the canon 135mm vs 50mm, the 135mm f2.0 lens is a stunningly sharp/contrastly/colorful lens, we have one floating around the office which I use for employee portraits and its amazing. I use it for landscape too but thats a different story :)

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