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David Baldwin
Offline
Buy and Sell: On
Registered: Jun 28, 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 2554
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Review Date: Jan 11, 2008
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Sharpness, speed, compact size, price.
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Cons:
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Noisy autofocus
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A beautiful little lens, really delivers sharp reliable images on my 40D. For the image quality, speed and compact design this lens is positively inexpensive.
If you are used to USM focussing you will find the 35mm noisy, but the money I thoroughly recommend it. One of my favourite lenses.
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 Jan 11, 2008
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L. G.
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Image Upload: Off
Registered: Mar 30, 2007
Location: Italy
Posts: 1
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Review Date: Nov 12, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Excellent Lens: sharp, light, noisy but accurate AF.
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Cons:
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Maybe the lack of USM, but with USM the price would probably double
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I've bought this lens because I was not satisfied by the 50 1.8.
This one is better in every aspect:
- Much better AF (noisier but much more accurate, even in low light)
- Very sharp even wide open
- Better contruction
- More useful focal on a 1.6 crop camera
On a 400D, this is a near perfect normal lens, very light and compact.
Excellent IQ for a little price.
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Nov 12, 2007
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Peter twohey
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Registered: Aug 21, 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 118
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Review Date: Nov 7, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $220.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Excellent IQ-Fast-Light and cheap.
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Cons:
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None.
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I have this theory that when Canon produce really good lenses for little money people will always find something to complain about.The build quality of this lens is marginally up on the 50mm and down on the 20mm which has USM(and everyone moans about the price of that).Personally I would love it if all lenses were this good and for this sort of money.If I had paid $900 I too might complain about the noisy A/F-actually its not too bad and this lens is seriously cheap.At 35mm its a great field of view even on a crop and the image quality is excellent.Lenses like this are what photography should be all about,unfortunately though we have all been seduced by the convenience of the zoom lens.Well there is nothing wrong with convenience but let us not forget little gems like this lens and its 50mm sibling.Spend a day with this as your walkaround and I guarantee two things.1/You will take less pictures and 2/Your discard rate will be considerably lower-because you will have had to think more about each shot.
This lens is a cracker,everyone should have one.
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Nov 7, 2007
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Doug Weasner
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Registered: Oct 24, 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 221
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Review Date: Oct 24, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $230.00
| Rating: 7
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Pros:
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Plenty of aperture and sharpness for the price. This is also a good lens to develop manual focus skill.
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Cons:
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Loud AF, my XTi doesn't meter correctly with it (at least my copy)
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The quality of this lens is a step above the 50 1.8, with a metal mount, actually usable manual focus, and no halation wide open. With 180 degrees of travel on the focusing ring through the range and a pretty nifty distance scale window, manual focusing is actually usable with this lens. However ...
This lens stays in my bag. My 50 1.4 gets my low light work, and my Tamron 17-50 gets my moderately wide to standard shots. I do get this one out occasionally when I want to experiment with manual focus at large apertures, but it doesn't see any front line work. One of the biggest reasons for this is that this lens defines buzzy AF, completely spoiling its very discrete visual impression. I've never heard anything like it from any lens manufacturer.
Also, (and this may be sample specific or operator error) but this lens seems to meter half to maybe two thirds of a stop to low on my XTi. I could forgive the shortcomings of this lens if it had zoom to make up for it, but I need my prime lenses to just work without having to reconfigure everything. $230 I wish I would have put towards something else.
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Oct 24, 2007
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Mark Lijesen
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Registered: Oct 10, 2007
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 56
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Review Date: Oct 15, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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sharp, fast, price, filter size, low weight
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Cons:
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AF is a bit noisy
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This is my favorite lens. On my 1.6x crop camera, it is close to a normal lens, and I use it as my walk around. The AF is fast and accurate and I don't care too much about it being a little noisy. Adding USM would have made it more expensive, without adding much value imo.
The image quality is superb. Great sharpness @2.0, great contrast and lovely colour. The 52mm filter size allows for cheap filters and the low weight helps in shooting handheld at slower shutter speeds (1/15s no problem for me with this lens).
With respect to price/quality, this lens competes with the 50/1.8 for the number one position. The 35's AF is more accurate, in fact, it never misses. The build quality is also better than that of the 50/1.8. Nevertheless it is still a light-weight lens and easy to carry.
It's sharpness and accurate AF make it a great lens for product photography and full body portraits, though I shoot about anything with it. It has a fairly close focussing distance, which I hardly ever use, but when I do, it produces a very short DOF (@2.0) with creamy bokeh.
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Oct 15, 2007
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Daniel Hwang
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Mar 18, 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 68
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Review Date: Sep 17, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $220.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Reliable & Fast AF
Compact
Love the angle of view on crop body
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Cons:
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Noisy AF but doesn't really bother me at all.
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I bought this after getting burned by 50mm 1.8 II 's unreliable AF. This lens locks on the spot where I focused 99% of the time.
Lens is tack sharp wide open and AF is surprisingly fast considering it doesn't have USM.
And Size..I love it. This is so compact, I usually mount 85mm 1.8 on my camera and carry this lens in my pocket.
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Sep 17, 2007
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gaalpoel
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Aug 25, 2005
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Sep 5, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Light, sharp wide open, affordable
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Cons:
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A joy to use, it's fast, even for a lens without USM. The lens is extremely sharp even wide-open and when stopped down it's a real killer.
This is my walk-around lens from now on, makes an ideal set with the Rebel Xti (400D) and 430EX.
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Sep 5, 2007
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Don Farra
Offline
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Registered: Sep 4, 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Sep 5, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $200.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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good image quality, small and lightweight, draws little attention from subjects and pubic at large
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Cons:
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none
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Images are clean and sharp, focusing is fast and accurate, lens is very lightweight and is used as my normal lens. Great value considering IQ and price.
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Sep 5, 2007
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john Paul
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Jul 22, 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 150
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Review Date: Sep 2, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $220.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Size of lens, size of lens hood, f2.0, accurate focusing, sharp over most of frame on FF.
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Cons:
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No FTM focusing, or USM..
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Best bang for the buck aside from the 50mm f1.8 II..
I use it for event candids with flash, and I get great results all the time. It is pretty sharp wide open in the central portion of the frame, and gets better stopped down.. In the corners it's a tad soft,...but those hardly matter in the shots I take with it.. The lens with it's hood is very compact. The AF is "loud", but not as loud as my former Minolta lenses were.. USM would have been nice, but not needed.. The only feature I do wish it had was FTM focusing, because I often over ride the AF with MF,...and I sometimes forget that I don't have this feature when shooting with this lens... but for the price,...oh well.. I plan to upgrade to the 35 L, but I'll still hang on to this fine little lens.. :-)
JP
JPphotographer.com
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Sep 2, 2007
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ckfchan
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: May 30, 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 4
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Review Date: Aug 16, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $225.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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AMAZING optical quality, sharpness, colors, cheap, f/2.0
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Cons:
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noisy focusing, hunts in low light
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This probably the best optical quality lens that I've every used. The sharpness and color rendition are amazing. There's a complete lack of distortion. Maybe I have an exceptionally great copy, but based on reviews, it seems like a general strength of this lens.
The f/2.0 is great. I use it a lot for walk-around shots at night, at museums (where flash is prohibited), and at weddings. I also use it a lot indoors at get-togethers with friends and family.
I think for a beginner, this should be the first lens that you get. On 1.6x crop cameras, it's more natural than the 50 mm. This lens trains your eyes properly without having to worry about the added complexity of zooming.
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Aug 16, 2007
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igiveup
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Dec 10, 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 30
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Review Date: Jul 1, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Small, light, fast.
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Cons:
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Noisy autofocus. Sometimes hunts for focus in low light.
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It's noisy and the autofocus struggles in low light. Is candlelight asking too much?
But, this lens is on my 20D much more than my 17-40 and 50 as it makes a (relatively) light weight package. My 20D is my P&S (I couldn't cope with the shutter lag of normal P&S cameras) and usually I don't want to lug around a zoom when it's a "just in case" scenario.
Oh yes, and it takes a great picture too..
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Jul 1, 2007
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HairsOnMyChest
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Feb 1, 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 384
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Review Date: Jun 19, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $200.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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sharp and cheap
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Cons:
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wish it was internal focusing
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i have a very sharp copy of this lens and i'm very happy with it. its cheap, its light, its cheap, its light.
the only thing is that the build quality suffers from cheap plastic and the front element extending when it focuses.
i've dropped this lens on soft carpet from about 4 inches and the focusing ring got stuck. i sent it back to canon and it was fixed in no time though.
so i now have a hood on it to protect it and it works just fine. its a great lens for the price
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Jun 19, 2007
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jay tieger
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Oct 10, 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 1665
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Review Date: Jun 8, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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See review
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Cons:
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None for the price.
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* The 56mm coverage is my preferred "normal" lens (similiar to my 58mm on my 35mm film SLR)
* I got the 35/2 to pair up with my 50/1.8MK1 (which also has the mid-barrel focusing ring.)
* Yes, the focusing motor DOES sound like a dot matrix printer, but it does have MF for SILENT focusing, and with it's deep DoF, that is just fine.
* ~ to 56 and 80mm respectively on 35mm form-factor, this combo is the best low light combo for the $$$...
* It completely covers sensors on EVERY EOS made...
* The wide aperture makes for easier VIEWING in low light situations, a revelation to those who've only shot zooms.
* The light weight and small size on an ###X model would make for a great walkaround camera.
* The 52mm filter size makes for a cheap filter.
* The light fall off at wide open aperture will not be a problem when actually using it in low light...in daylight you'll be stopping down so vignetting will not be a problem.
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Jun 8, 2007
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thedutt
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: May 15, 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 1582
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Review Date: May 11, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $200.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Price, Small, Sharp Wide Enough wide open, Decent low light focus. Budget man's low light street lens. MUCH better than 50 1.8 wide open
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Cons:
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Build quality could be better
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IMHO, this is a hidden value in canon fast prime lineup. I have compared this lens against my 50 1.8, with 50 @1.8, 2, 2.8, 4 and it was an eye opener as to how much sharper this lens is than the fifty upto f4. The main reason for either of these lenses for me is low light, and since I got the 35, 50 has seen no action at all.
I had an opportunity to try used 35 1.4L also once, and though that was a fantastic lens, it was soft until f4 as well, and i ended up passing on that used copy. I did not try 35 1.4 & 35 f2 head on so that test is more subjective.
If you like low light work on cropped sensor, get this lens. The build quality would not amaze you, but your low light photos would.
Some night street shots using this lens:-
http://flickr.com/photos/adatta/415226222/in/set-72057594133297618/
http://flickr.com/photos/adatta/415226117/in/set-72057594133297618/
http://flickr.com/photos/adatta/415226336/in/set-72057594133297618/
http://flickr.com/photos/adatta/415226398/in/set-72057594133297618/
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May 11, 2007
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ray_lam5
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Sep 19, 2005
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 71
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Review Date: May 10, 2007
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Recommend? |
Price paid: $180.00
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Pros:
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so so sharp and punchy
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Cons:
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none
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Since posting the review a while back, I have found that this lens provides really amazing performance and images for the money. I will never part with this lens now its so small and sharp. Would rate it a 10 in hindsight..
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May 10, 2007
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Seth Tower
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Oct 9, 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 3751
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Review Date: Mar 24, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Fast. Ridiculously sharp wide open. Very compact. Perfect "normal" lens for a 20D/30D.
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Cons:
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5 blade aperture makes for awful bokeh when stopped down. No full time manual AF.
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I love this lens! Sure it takes a back seat compared to the 35 L, but it's a shocking 1/5 the cost of the L. It's also just plain fun to use. It's small and light and is a perfect "normal" lens for the 30D. Bokeh is pretty bad when stopped down, but keeping it wide open makes creamy out of focus backgrounds. This lens is on my camera 95% of the time. I highly recommend it!
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Mar 24, 2007
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Reviews
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Views
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Date of last review
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130
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341925
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Apr 2, 2013
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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92% of reviewers
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$402.53
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Build Quality Rating
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Price Rating
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Overall Rating
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7.55
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9.10
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8.8
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