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Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
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Review Date: Sep 23, 2006
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Very sharp, not expensive, fast focusing
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Cons:
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Hood mount
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I bought this lens following FM recommendation and I love it. It is very sharp with nice colors and fast focusing. Excellent for children. Cheap for what you get and compare to some recent Canon lenses
I do not like its hood. I do not understand why Canon could not apply hood mount of 50/1.4 for 85/1.8.
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Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM
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Review Date: Sep 23, 2006
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Sharp, nice colors, IS, good value, clever hood, 1.5m focusing
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Cons:
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Needs step down with 1.4x, no weather sealing
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I have the lens for almost a year and only recently learned how great it is. It is very sharp and makes WOW pictures. IS handy, clever, convenient hood design. Excellent for garden party portraits.
I would like this lens to be weather sealed, but otherwise you get plenty of lens for the money.
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Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
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Review Date: Jun 19, 2006
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $350.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Sharp, fast and affordable, nice hood
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Cons:
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AF could be faster
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I have bought this lens for 1D2 and I am very happy with it. It is not very sharp below f2, but it is acceptable especialy when you are close to your subject. It is extremally sharp form 2.8 upwards.
f1.4 is very fast, there is big differance compare to 85/1.8 or 50/1.8.
It is a cheap way to buy into f1.4.
After some negative comments I have read I am positively surprised with this lens. It is worth upgrading from 50/1.8 if you are able to appreciate the speed.
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Tokina AT-X 280 AF PRO 28-80mm f/2.8
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Review Date: May 16, 2006
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Recommend? no |
Price paid: $450.00
| Rating: 6
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Pros:
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feels and looks quality, nice hood, color ok, clever MF/AF switch
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Cons:
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optics and sharpness below 5.6, heavy and large
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I really wanted to like this lens hating pricing of canon 24-70.
I liked its looks and feel a lot. Much better then nice tokina 12-24/4.
I have done some quick testing which confirmed that it is somewhat soft at 2.8, but reasonably good at 5.6.
Still I was not satisfied with my photos. I finally done some more extensive testing and find out that my lens backfocuses. What was more it was very soft from 50 to 80, much softer then 28-50, backfocus could not be blamed here.
My conclusions are:
-it is not exactly cheap, tamron 28-75/2.8 is here and takes cheaper filters (67 instead of 77), it is also widely believed to be opticaly superior
- it is nothing close optically to canon 24-70, canon is very clever design (hood / zoom), has weather sealing, focuses faster
I finally sold it and never looked back. Sorry but I cannot recomend it.
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Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
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Review Date: Feb 19, 2005
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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sharpness, weight, value for money
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Cons:
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build quality, AF
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A must have
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Tokina AT-X 287 AF PRO SV 28-70mm f/2.8
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Review Date: Feb 19, 2005
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Recommend? no |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 5
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Pros:
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Looks robust,
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Cons:
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picture quality at 2.8 to 4.5
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I have to confess I intended to buy 28-70 ATX PRO II but got confuss by Tokina peculiar branding. I teste it against Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 II and found it unacceptable below 4.5. At 5.6 sharpness was on par at the center of the picuter, but still visibly disappointing at the edges. What is more color reproduction was quite different i.e. I needed different white balance setting for tokina and Canon 10d automatic white balance produced dissapointing colors.
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