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Canon EF 35mm f/2
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Review Date: Oct 14, 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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Sigma 20mm f/1.8 EX DG Aspherical RF
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Review Date: Oct 10, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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sharp images, build quality,
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Cons:
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filter size, colors are slightly off
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Picked up this lense second hand from a photgrapher I know. I wasn't too happy with the reviews I read on Canon's wide non-L primes, so I gave Sigma a shot.
I am pretty pleased with this lense and use it for group portraits and landscapes on my 300D. It's quite sharp @1.8 and sharp @2.8. I think that's not too bad for a wide lense (actually, Canon's 20 mm only starts @2.8). Build quality is fine, as to be expected on a Sigma EX. Some people complain about the AF/MF-switch. I can imagine why, but I got used to it within a week and it never bothered me since.
The close focus distance allows for fun perspective distortion pics.
As I like to shoot landscapes with a polarizing filter, I was not too pleased with the 82 mm filter size, and like most Sigma lenses, it gives a slightly yellowish result. Nothing that can't be fixed in postprocessing though.
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