EOS lenses - personal comments by Olle Bjernulf
Updated Feb 23 2000
All EF lenses have flare problem if the sun is *in* the picture. Maybe it's the coating. Pentax SMC and Zeiss T* seem to be better. I do not like the manual focusing "feeling" of the EF lenses. The 'L' lenses are better but not as good as old manual focus lenses. The low-cost zooms and 50/1.8 II are terrible. The good ring-USM lenses are acceptable but get stiff in cold weather.
My current EOS lenses:
- Sigma 28/1.8 Apsh. II - very low distortion!
- Canon EF 50/1.4 USM - excellent. A bit soft wide open. Much better at F2.0 - as good as EF 28-105 @ F4.0. Excellent from F4. Bad vignetting at F1.4, much better at F2.0 and excellent from F4. AF OK but not as good as EF 85/1.8 USM.
- Sigma EX 105/2.8 macro - excellent even wide open. Significantly better than EF 28-105 and EF 100-300. Noisy and slow AF. Best manual focusing of all tested AF lenses! Very rugged mechanical construction.
- Sigma 300/4 APO macro - very good at all apertures. Good manual focusing. Very rugged mechanical construction.
- Tamron 2x - good with Sigma 300/4
- Canon EF 28-105/3.5-4.5 USM - perfect traveller's lens. Useful wide open and really good at F8. Corners a bit soft.
- Canon EF 35-80/4-5.6 III - light and good stopped down.
- Canon EF 100-300/4.5-5.6 USM - very fast AF, good at 100-200 but a bit soft at 300.
My earlier lenses:
- Canon EF 24/2.8 - very good but not better than EF 20-35 USM stopped down.
- Canon EF 28/2.8 - very good, low distortion.
- Canon EF 35/2.0 - fast AF, not so good wide open, very good stopped down.
- Canon EF 50/1.8 II - plastic feeling but light and very good stopped down, significant vignetting wide open.
- Canon EF 85/1.8 USM - very fast AF, very good wide open, excellent stopped down.
- Canon EF 100/2 USM - very fast AF, OK at f/2, excellent stopped down.
- Canon EF 200/2.8 L USM - excellent but I wanted a 300mm.
- Canon EF 20-35/3.5-4.5 USM - very good stopped down. I compared it with EF 24/2.8 and found them to be equal at F8. Too high distortion!
- Canon EF 28-70/3.5-4.5 II - very good but not better than my EF 28-105.
- Canon EF 28-80/3.5-5.6 USM III - not so good wide open. Very soft at 80.
- Canon EF 80-200/4.5-5.6 USM - OK, but I don't need it.
- Canon EF 75-300/4.5-5.6 - not so good.
- Sigma 90/2.8 macro - noisy and slow AF, very good at all apertures. Not perfect at 1:2 magnification though.
- Canon EF 135/2.8 Soft - OK wide open, very good at f/8, Soft mode nice.
- Tokina AF AT-X 400/5.6 - noisy and slow AF, good stopped down a bit.
- Sigma 1.4x - OK with Sigma 300/4, not good with Tokina 400/5.6
Comments on other tested EF lenses:
EF 35-105/3.5-4.5 - terrible distortion!
EF 85/1.2L - very slow AF compared to EF 85/1.8.
EF 80-200/2.8L - Very good, good manual focusing.
Manual focus used with adapters:
Tamron SP 17/3.5 - useful but often flare problems.
Pentax SMC-M 28/2.8 - better multicoating than Canon.
Tamron SP 180/2.5 LD-IF - very good even wide open.
Tamron SP 500/8 - perfect lens for flying birds.
All Tamron lenses a bit warm (yellow) compared to Canon.
since Feb 20 1998
