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peterstrong
Offline
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Registered: Dec 21, 2016
Location: United States
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Dec 21, 2016
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Size, price, performance
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Cons:
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I was quite happy with this lens overall. It's small, light and serves as a decent wide angle on a full frame (works as a good general lens on a crop body). I carried this around on my 5D almost exclusively for about six months, never really had anything negative to say about it. It doesn't give the same strong colors that an L lens does, but it's also $200 instead of $1200, and you can boost your images in PP anyway.
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 Dec 21, 2016
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Gunzorro
Offline
Buy and Sell: On
Registered: Aug 27, 2010
Location: United States
Posts: 14587
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Review Date: Sep 26, 2012
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $150.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Compact and lightweight with very good IQ. A terrific bargain as a used lens.
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Cons:
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Older EF lens design going back to late 80s, but reliable.
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Ha-ha! I bought Michelle's (mco_970, see below) lens, which she bought from another FM'er.  I also bought it as a whim, while buying her EF 35/2 -- this price was too good to pass buy, so got them both as a package deal.
Everything she says is true.
It's a very handy lens with pleasing IQ -- no one will complain about the images. Very compact and light weight. Should make a nice companion to the new 40mm f/2.8 STM pancake lens for hiking or walking around with a belt lens pouch.
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Sep 26, 2012
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Nozzleforward
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Jun 15, 2011
Location: United States
Posts: 906
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Review Date: Jun 22, 2012
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $175.00
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Small, light, focuses pretty well, easy to carry around.
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Cons:
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Noisy (not a USM lens), feels cheap (it's not an L lens, so by comparison it is cheap).
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I was quite happy with this lens overall. It's small, light and serves as a decent wide angle on a full frame (works as a good general lens on a crop body). I carried this around on my 5D almost exclusively for about six months, never really had anything negative to say about it. It doesn't give the same strong colors that an L lens does, but it's also $200 instead of $1200, and you can boost your images in PP anyway.
The build quality is ok, it has a metal lens mount, which is nice and solid.
Overall, I was very happy with this lens and would suggest it for someone looking for an inexpensive walk around wide angle.
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Jun 22, 2012
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mco_970
Offline
Buy and Sell: On
Registered: Apr 3, 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 5551
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Review Date: Nov 8, 2011
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Price, size, sharpness
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Cons:
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build quality (you get what you pay for)
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I bought this lens on a whim for a project and it has been a pleasant suprise. Works well as an ~35mm EFL on APS-H and an ~45mm EFL on APS-C. It's a handy focal length to have available. My copy of the lens is nice and sharp on all 3 of my camera bodies.
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Nov 8, 2011
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dhphoto
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Feb 15, 2003
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 13811
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Review Date: Apr 22, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Size, price, performance
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Cons:
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Build, no full time focusing
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Very underrated lens.
Nothing spectacular, just a good all-rounder for a very cheap price.
A very handy length on crop cameras.
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Apr 22, 2010
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vince
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Mar 18, 2002
Location: China
Posts: 306
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Review Date: Sep 28, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $220.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Small, light, compact, large aperture.
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Cons:
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Focusing not as fast as ring USM lenses, a little noisy due to the AFD motor but this is nothing great, and certainly no deal-breaker.
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I replaced my 17-85 IS zoom with the 28/2.8 and 50/1.8. The difference between the image quality of the 17-85 and the 28 is night and day. For a long time I thought my canon 300D really didn't like wide lenses, as my 17-85 is unable to produce decent sharpness from 17 through 35mm at any aperture.
I own and use a 60mm macro, a 70-200/4L and a 200/2.8L so I quite know what I'm looking for in a sharp lens. When I used the 28/2.8 for a test shoot at the park, I was stunned by the results. I really don't know why, but the 17-85 often underexposes and almost always produces grainy noisy images, though I always shoot raw and process via Capture One Pro. The 28/2.8 images are as tack sharp as any other high end prime out there, and even at f/2.8 the color, contrast and sharpness is superb.
I am planning to go to the river, tie a boat anchor to my 17-85 and drown the stupid thing to put humankind out of its misery.
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Sep 28, 2009
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Coltrane
Online
Buy and Sell: On
Registered: Dec 2, 2008
Location: N/A
Posts: 1545
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Review Date: Sep 15, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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very sharp center wide open, light, small, great price
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Cons:
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corners lack some sharpness
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Great little lens. They can be had very cheap used. Love this lens with a circular polarizer. Makes an oustanding walk around lens. Very few lenses are perfectly sharp wide open. This is one of them. I'm speaking of center sharpness, as the corners lack a bit. Oddly enough, this lens has decent bokeh as well when used wide open. For the price I paid, I'm VERY satisfied.
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Sep 15, 2009
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tonyat
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Jun 23, 2008
Location: N/A
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Sep 5, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $220.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Affordable price. f2.8. Sharper than a consumer zoom.
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Cons:
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Not ring usm.
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Yes, it makes a little noise when focusing. Yes, the corners are not as sharp as the center wide open.
But is is sharper wide open than my two zooms that encompass 28 mm and neither zoom can reach f2.8. I can get better shots indoors and some shots I just couldn't before. Ring USM would be nice, but Canon wouldn't sell it at that price if it did.
If you have the budget, by all means get the L primes. For those like me who don't, this one fills in nicely. My rating takes cost into consideration.
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Sep 5, 2009
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MarnixB
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Aug 16, 2009
Location: N/A
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Aug 16, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Weight, quality of picture, ease of use
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Cons:
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None
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After reading all the reviews on the web, I initially bought a Sigma 30mm f1.4 EX. The Sigma had all the autofocus problems described and more. In short: Ken Rockwell is right in his review. The Canon is the superior choice by far. Very handy in use, and beautiful pictures. Simply a great lens.
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Aug 16, 2009
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Offline
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Review Date: Mar 13, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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light, sharp, contrasty and cheap secondhand. great from 2.8, sharp3.5-16. great lens for the money
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Cons:
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no lens hood
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was sceptical looking at the reviews for this lens, one came up at silly money at a local shop. took along the 1dsmk2 a few frames later walked from the shop with lens attactched.
this has been a real little gem, mostly landscape work stopped down f11-16 most useable even for big prints. very little CA or other probs, so probably got me a good copy.
dont knock it untill you tried one for the price.
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Mar 13, 2009
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lisaamanda
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Nov 5, 2008
Location: Singapore
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Nov 6, 2008
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Cons:
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none -- i love it.
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i love this lens. its been on my 450d since i got it about a month back and i use it as my standard lens for daily use... images are sharp! but if you want a good and highly affordable portrait lens i would still use the 50mm 1.8 II. have had amazing results with that
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Nov 6, 2008
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Fulcrum
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: May 23, 2008
Location: Finland
Posts: 3
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Review Date: Jul 29, 2008
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Cheap, f/2.8, very sharp, good contrast, good colour, awesome image quality
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Cons:
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Unbelievably Noisy AF, only f/2.8, not too wide on a 1.6x crop body
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I bought my copy on eBay for 160 euros, which is a bit too much considering the fact that the focus ring on my copy is broken.
So itīs AF only for me. In good light this is not a problem, but in low light the autofocus hunts. So a manual focus would be handy.
But otherwise, this lens is excellent bang for the money, beaten only by the 50mm/f1.8 II in terms of price/quality.
Highly recommended as a crop body normal lens.
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Jul 29, 2008
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ExarKun
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Mar 19, 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Mar 19, 2008
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Recommend? |
Price paid: $150.00
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Pros:
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Very sharp across the frame. Normal lens for APS-C. Lightweight & cheap.
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Cons:
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f/2.8 instead of f/1.8. No FTM
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With a 50.7 degree AOV on a EOS 400D DSLR, this is a normal lens. The lens dates back to the original EF lineup from 1987 and shares features with lenses from that era as an arc-form drive focus motor and a thin focus ring. While the build quality is not stellar, it is good enough that it won't be a worry for normal users. As far as the image quality of the lens goes, it is excellent for the price and weight, especially on APS-C (eg. 400D) sensors where the borders of the image plane are unused. Users that complain about soft borders between f/2.8 and f/5.6 seem to mostly be 135-format users. The lens is contrasty and resists veiling pretty well. What makes this lens especially attractive is the low price. At $159.95 (at Adorama or B&H) there is no reason to avoid this lens unless one already has the EF 28mm f/1.8 USM (which is comprable in sharpness across the f-stop range). This also brings up the main drawback of this lens - it opens to a maximum of f/2.8. This is not a huge drawback since it is better than what most zooms can do anyway. On my 400D, setting the ISO to 800 lets me shoot with this lens in poor light and still end up with useable exposures. There is no FTM on this lens, but really these two drawbacks are knitpicking. This is a fine lens.
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Mar 19, 2008
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ExarKun
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Mar 19, 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Mar 19, 2008
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Very sharp and contrasty. Normal lens for APS-C EOS DSLRs. Lightweight and compact. Cheap.
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Cons:
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f/2.8 instead of f/1.8. No FTM.
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With a 50.7 degree AOV on a EOS 400D DSLR, this is a normal lens. The lens dates back to the original EF lineup from 1987 and shares features with lenses from that era as an arc-form drive focus motor and a thin focus ring. While the build quality is not stellar, it is good enough that it won't be a worry for normal users. As far as the image quality of the lens goes, it is excellent for the price and weight, especially on APS-C (eg. 400D) sensors where the borders of the image plane are unused. Users that complain about soft borders between f/2.8 and f/5.6 seem to mostly be 135-format users. The lens is contrasty and resists veiling pretty well. What makes this lens especially attractive is the low price. At $159.95 (at Adorama or B&H) there is no reason to avoid this lens unless one already has the EF 28mm f/1.8 USM (which is comprable in sharpness across the f-stop range). This also brings up the main drawback of this lens - it opens to a maximum of f/2.8. This is not a huge drawback since it is better than what most zooms can do anyway. On my 400D, setting the ISO to 800 lets me shoot with this lens in poor light and still end up with useable exposures. There is no FTM on this lens, but really these two drawbacks are knitpicking. This is a fine lens.
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Mar 19, 2008
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Xiao Z. Jia
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Jun 18, 2007
Location: Canada
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Jul 11, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Light, relatively fast, focus consistently, very very sharp for its price (if you bought it that is, mine was a loan for a trip)
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Cons:
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Construction feels a bit flimsy (a trade off with the weight and price), as for other stuff like not fast enough or non-USM, thats not what this lens claims to be so no complaint.
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Well, I had the... well I won't say pleasure (I mean it's great, but more in a cost/benefit kind of way instead pure quality), "experience" of using this lens on a month long trip to California and China. This lens, working from its specification sheet limitations, does a great job of capture images that is quite sharp, consistent and with good colors. Bokeh is so-so, its not ugly at all but don't expect miracle from a 2.8 non-L.
Despite its initial impression of being flimsy (which it is, compare to something like an L), this one can take the regular beating of the road and shine through, as well as taking great, sharp photos without weighing you down.
IMHO, the weight and size is a definite plus compare to the L primes such as the 24/1.4 or the 35/1.4 (those bricks takes the "walk-around" out of "walk-around lens", sure some people claims they're willing to put up with it, but that doesn't take away the fact that it's still a pain), the only limiting factor is it being 2.8. But if that's enough for most of your shooting needs then this is definitely a GREAT value.
However I personally got a super sharp kit lens 18-55mm 3.5~5.6 (quite a surprise to discover that AFTER I learnt how to properly use my camera), so 2.8 wasn't that much of an improvement for me. In the future I might try the 28mm 1.8 USM due to the bigger leap in light absorption.
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Jul 11, 2007
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cilo
Offline
Image Upload: Off
Registered: Apr 2, 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 52
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Review Date: Apr 3, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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inexpensive, compact, fast AF
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Cons:
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focusing sound very noisy, not sharp at wide open
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Used it since my film camera days, then for 10D and 1DmkII. Although not on par with 50mm f1.4 and 85mm f1.8, it has good color and contrast, and pretty sharp when I step down a little. It also focuses pretty fast.
I found that using this lens, 85mm f1.8 and 10d are a great high quality compact system.
The only complain I have is that its focusing sound is very noisy, which is not good for wedding photography...
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Apr 3, 2007
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Reviews
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Views
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Date of last review
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45
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196467
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Dec 21, 2016
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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82% of reviewers
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$158.04
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Build Quality Rating
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Price Rating
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Overall Rating
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7.21
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8.45
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8.0
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