Canon EF 35mm f/2 Wide Angle Lens for Canon SLR Cameras by Canon
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Digital camera reviews of Canon EF 35mm f/2 Wide Angle Lens for Canon SLR Cameras
Digital camera Review: Not sharp from 2.0 to 3.2 during indoor shots
Summary: 2 Stars
The files generated with this 35 mm lens were not sharp from 2.0 to 3.2 and relied heavily in the back up of flash in order to render a usable file. Cropping made from the full resolution files rendered images with poor contrast requiring of considerable fine tuning in Lightroom.
I would not recommend this lens for professional work.
Digital camera Review: Optically superb
Summary: 5 Stars
Though this lens is an older mecanical design without the ultrasonic motor for virtually instant, silent focus, it more than makes up for any supposed short- comings with superb optical performance. Even wide open, it will perform on par or in many cases out resolve lenses costing considerably more, and all this at a price less than even independantly manufactured lenses that have a more modern, robust construction.
Other factors in its favor are its small size and light weight, both due to the construction materials ( mostly plastic ) and and older focusing motor. Though no where near as well made and glamourous as an 'L' lens, the primary reason to purchase this lens is a need for its angle of view and image resolving power, and here it rates a solid "10", or 5 stars. Little matters more than that.
Digital camera Review: Outstanding performer
Summary: 5 Stars
I seldom post reviews but this lens deserves one so here goes. Over the years I have owned several good Canon lenses, including two L Series; and this lens is best of the lot. Based on my experience with this lens, some of the reviewers who are less than enthusiastic about it must have received a dud because this is a great little lens - as sharp as you could ever want and the colors it produces are vivid in the true meaning of the word. The added bonus from this little charmer is its weight. On my 30D it feels like there is a feather out there in front. If you're looking for a sharp walkaround lens, you could hardly do better at twice the price!Digital camera Review: Sharp Wide Open, Noisy Auto Focus
Summary: 4 Stars
I picked up this little beauty to use as a normal prime on my EOS 40D and as a moderate wide angle on my 5D Mark II. Overall, image quality is fantastic. A lot of people complain about the older style AF system but I didn't find the noise too bad. Yes, you'll hear it but it's not nearly as bad as some reveiws indicate. The only time I really noticed it was when focus went from infinity to the minimum distance or vice versa. Here's a list of my pros and cons:
Pros:
compact and light weight
large aperture and sharp wide open
quick and accurate focus
relatively low cost
Cons:
5 bladed aperature means pentagon shaped highlights in out of focus areas
No USM focus means no full time manual override
Overall, I liked the lens but ended up preferring the EF 28mm f/1.8 USM lens instead because I prefered the full time manual focus and it fit my lens lineup better. If Canon were to update this lens to a USM model it would be a hard to pass up. Even now, though, you get 90% of what the 35mm f/1.4L does at a fraction of the price.
Digital camera Review: Small, sharp lens w/ poor low-light focusing
Summary: 4 Stars
This lens is small and fast, producing crisp, pleasing images at most apertures, but focusing poorly in low-light, and being unusually noisy.
Important to note: on cropped-sensor cameras like the Canon Rebels and 40/D50D (check Wikipedia for "APS-C" and for "Crop Factor" for details), the 1.6x crop-factor means this lens is effectively a 56mm. That amount of telephoto is slight enough to get decent candid photos, but still had me backing away to get a whole person into the shot.
In brighter lighting, this lens focuses quickly (but noisily), but its lack of USM is most apparent when it focus-hunts horribly and slowly in even modestly low-light, attached to my Canon EOS Rebel T1i 15.1 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 3-Inch LCD and EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens.
I have trouble judging exactly where the expected blur of large aperture ends and lens softness start, but images seemed consistent through the whole frame, somewhat soft at the fully open f/2, reasonably crisp by f/2.5. The bokeh is pleasing and consistent.
I found this lens slightly noisier, but not quite as sharp as the cheaper Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens, however its 35mm focal length is much more useful (than 50mm) with a cropped sensor.
The image quality seemed just as sharp as the more expensive Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM Wide Angle Lens for Canon SLR Cameras, producing slightly cooler colors than that lens. The USM motor of that 28mm lens is much quieter and faster than this 35mm.
It may just be this copy, but this lens is the first of 5 I've tried on my T1i that seems to fit "poorly"-- it feels too "tight" and is difficult to turn/lock into place. No other EF or EF-S lenses I've tried have done that, so it seems to be the lens. All product lines have the occasional manufacturing error, though, so I don't dock a star for that (but I do for the focus-hunting).
I really like this lens, it's solid, small, lightweight, and a reasonably effective focal-length. Sadly, I was looking for a large aperture prime to use in clubs/restaurants, which makes the slow focus-hunting in low-light a deal breaker.
For the price, this is a very nice lens. Recommended for daylight/outdoor use.