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Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
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Review Date: Apr 4, 2006
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $330.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Very good build, extra sharp at f/4, useful f/1.4, compact
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Cons:
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mine was not a good copy, took 7 weeks to fix AF
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I give 9 just because this lens has reputation of "bad copy lens". After long 7 weeks of fixing it's perfect. I used it all the time and my other perfect lens (85mm f/1.8) is not used at all any more, and I'm thinking to sell it. As far as testing, I did normal AF lab testing of shooting lines at 45 degree, and after the fix it's very-very good. I took the only lens to Paris trip and made 600 shots, a lot of street photography and some night photos. I do not have any problems and would recomend this lens to anybody.
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Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
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Review Date: Mar 24, 2006
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $70.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Very good picture quality, very good sharpness, good brokeh, unbeatable value
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Cons:
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Cheap build quality, manual focus ring difficult to use
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I've been using this lens for 6 months. Studio portraiture and street photography. It went thru Canon calibration, and it focuses better now, but results pretty much the same.
I have also 50mm f/1.4 and after some time I start noticing the difference, it's not sharpness, the F is very close to get noticible DOF difference or low light performance... I really see the difference in color representation, saturation and brokeh. f/1.4 has much `comforting` or sometimes warmer colors.... difficult to measure, that's why many people use f/1.8 with great success.
This is the best $70 you can spend on Canon gears.
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Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
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Review Date: Mar 22, 2006
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $330.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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excellent sharpness, very good build quality, very good details, excellent colors, very good brokeh, priced very well
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Cons:
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none
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That's very funny story how I tested this lens... I sold all my zoom lenses, and left with two 50mm (f/1.4 and f/1.8), 85mm (this one) and 35mm was coming soon. So I suspected some issues with AF on both 50mm, I tested it using well known method of shooting lines at 45 degree, and yes - AF was not good. I sent both 50mm to Canon repare center, and actualy still waiting to get them back after 6 weeks.... Anyway, I left with only one lens (85mm) for 6 weeks, and I had to go to Portugal with only one lens... Kinda sad story, to go to Portugal with no wide angle lens  ... I took over 1000 shots - outdoor, flash, studio... and this is absolutely solid rating for this lens, it's very solid 10. Amazing sharpness (out of the box, no needed to send it to Canon to fix anything), amazing colors (simply very very good saturation, very natural), AF is very quick and silent (quicker than 50mm f/1.4 USM), use of MF is very simple and MF-override also useful. I'm very very happy with this lens, don't know what to expect from 85mm f/1.2, I hope to try it some time... The only problem I was facing all the time during this 6 weeks is focal length on crop 1.6 camera makes it 135mm, not very good lens for street and people photography.
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Canon EOS 10D
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Review Date: Mar 20, 2006
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Excellent build quality, very good picture quility, Pro feature set
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Cons:
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I bit more noise compare to 350D starting on ISO200 and up.
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I bought it as a backup (more like second) body to Canon 350D. I use them 50/50. Very happy! Price is unbeatable and 6mpx is still very good resolution. I've printed up to 10x8 and did not notice any problems. Feature wise it's more pro camera than 350D. Build quality is like a tank (again compare to 350D, 1D probably better, but cannot say...). I'm planining to keep it until I will be able to afford FF, like 1Ds. May be for another year or two. I'm not really concerned about resolution, because I use medium format film for critical jobs and scan it (getting up to 125mpx out of it).
Bottom line
* Very fine camera, especialy for the price
* A bit "slower thinker" than 350D/20D
* A bit more noise at higher ISO, but you may like it whis way
* Build quality is exceptional
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Tamron 19-35mm f/3.5-4.5 AF
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Review Date: Jan 30, 2006
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Price, Build Quality, Hood & Pouch
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Cons:
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None for Price
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I am people photographer, and intend to use this lens for street and travel photography (which I do very little). I took about 100 landscape shots, some nigh photography. It is an entry level lens, and you cannot compare it with 17-40 f/4L simple because it's 4-5 times cheaper. But it delivers excellent value for money. It's like Canon 50mm 1.8 does the same (in my opinion with better cost/values ratio). The build quality is very good, much better then 50mm 1.8 -:) And it comes with free hood (and probably pouch, which I did not get it, because bought it used, I got UV filter instead).
The bottom line for this lense.
* Excellent cost/performance ratio
* Good for entry/amateur level photographers
* Good for me, because I use it 20 times a year to take 200-300 shots
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