Overview and Personal Comments

This page reviews the various lenses for the Canon EOS series (EF-mount) that I have used in the past ten or so years. They've been used with an EOS 630, EOS-3, and EOS-10D.

This page starts with a description of the EF Bayonet Mount, then special sections on particular wide, normal, telephoto and then zoom lenses. Finally a short note on filters and shades. You can also use other manufacturer's lenses (Leica, Hasselblad, Contax, etc.) on Canon EOS bodies, see my Lens Adapter page for more information. Using the text or images on this website without permission on an ebay auction or any other site is a violation of federal law.

The lenses covered in this document are all lenses that I have worked with in the past. My current field kit is the three lenses listed under "Professional L zoom lenses" below.

EF Bayonet Mount

A radical departure from the previous breechlock Canon FD mount, the EF bayonet mount was entirely redesigned for the needs of cameras in the 21st century. All focusing and aperture calculations are entirely electronic — there are no mechanical linkages between the camera and lens such as an aperture stop-down or focusing coupler. This has allowed Canon to have a seemless transition to its new Image Stabilization lenses; lenses with auxiliary buttons that control or stop focusing; and digital bodies.

The other goal of the EF mount was to provide a much larger "mouth" for the rear mount than the previous FD mount as well as a very short lens-flange registration distance. This allowed for lenses such as the mammoth EF 50mm f/1.0 L lens as well as lens adapters for most other camera mounts. An electromagnetic diaphragm (EMD) unit controls the aperture, which allows it to be extremely fast as well as tailor made for each lens and aperture. This also allows the Canon EF lenses to be used on their XL-1, XL-2, and XL-H1 professional DV camcorders. Using the text or images on this website without permission on an ebay auction or any other site is a violation of federal law.

* Nikon touts the backwards compatibility of its F lens mount, but this is a bit of a false promise. The oldest F cameras cannot use the newest 'G' lenses that don't have aperture rings. And the newest N-series consumer cameras cannot use the oldest pre-AI lenses without modification. And the newest Nikon Vibration Reducation (VR) lenses only work with the latest AF models. It's a mess, an absolute mess. You need a chart to figure the whole thing.

** Leica does a better job of backwards compatibility. You can use a 1930 screw-mount lens with a 2004 Leica M7 with no compatibility issues. Unfortunately, there isn't forward compatibility, you can't use a 2004 Summicron-M lens with a 1935 Leica III camera, although you can use it with a 1955 Leica M3.

The only problem is that Canon tightly controls the EF mount specifications, especially the electronic signalling. This means that third party lens often have incompatibilities that arise whenever Canon releases a new body. This happened with my partner's Sigma zoom that wouldn't work on my EOS-3 although it worked on the older Rebel series it was purchased for. To Sigma's credit, they "re-chipped" it for free to work on the EOS-3 but apparently you can only re-chip a lens once. So the same re-chipped zoom doesn't work on my 10D. For this reason, I avoid Sigma and Tokina lenses. Tamron lenses don't appear to have this problem.

E-TTL II: In late-2003 Canon announced the release of several cameras with the new E-TTL II flash system. Unlike the previous E-TTL system (which many field photographers curse as unreliable), the E-TTL II system uses distance information from the lens in its calculations. My guess is that Canon finally licensed the use of the distance patent (or it expired). In any case, many of the older EF lenses do not transmit distance info to the camera. Only lenses redesigned in the last 5 or so years have this feature. Without the distance info, the E-TTL II system reverts to pretty much the same as the E-TTL system. If you go to the Canon Lens Work page on their home page, they now mention if the lens is E-TTL II compatible. In addition, the E-TTL II flashes will communicate their color temperature to compatible E-TTL II digital bodies. This helps in auto white balancing flash shots.

EF-S: Canon has released the EOS 20D and Digital Rebel (aka 300D/Kiss Digital and 350D/Kiss Digital XT) with the new EF-S mount. The 20D/300D/350D have smaller mirror boxes and will mount any EF lens but they can also take new EF-S lenses. The EF-S lenses are designed with a shorter "backfocus" (the space between the lens rear nodal point and film plane) and smaller image circle that matches the 1.6x crop factor of the APS-C film sensors on the consumer D-SLRs. The new EF-S lenses promise to be smaller and less expensive. So far, they have proven to have wider coverage (the 10-20mm seems very interesting) but they are just as expensive as their full-coverage brethren. They unfortunately won't fit on regular EF bodies as the rear of the lens will hit the larger mirrors found on traditional bodies.

Prime Lenses

Wide Angle Lenses

Canon does not have a wide selection of wide-angle lenses. My initial wide-angle option was to get a 24mm f/2.8. I debated between the 35mm f/2 and the 24mm f/1.4L. I chose the 24mm f/2.8 because:

• Compared to the 35mm which gives a fairly "standard" or natural wide-angle perspective, the 24mm has a bit of a wider and more unusual perspective. This allows for some more distinctive photos.
• Compared to the 24mm f/1.4L, the f/2.8 is much smaller, lighter, and significantly cheaper (1/5 the price).
• The 24mm f/2.8 has very good performance for its price. It rivals or beats the L zoom lenses with the same coverage.
• On the Canon EOS 10D/Rebel Digital cameras, the 24mm becomes a wide-normal 38mm lens because of the focal length magnification factor.

I contemplated on getting the 35mm f/2 lens as a matched pair, but ended up saving my pennies and bought the 16-35mm f/2.8 L and 28-70mm f/2.8 L lens pair instead (see below). Part of this was because the 35/50/90 Summicrons on my Leica are much superior to the Canon primes, so I've dedicated my M7 to prime use and the EOS-3 to zoom use.

Super-wides: Digital cameras are driving the need for even wider-angle lenses. Canon has the following super-wide primes : the 14mm f/2.8 L rectilinear; 15mm f/2.8 fisheye; and 20mm f/2.8 rectilinear. The 14mm L lens is very expensive. Thus the best option right now is to get the 16-35mm f/2.8 L or 17-40mm f/4 L zoom lenses. If you have a 20D or Digital Rebel, you now have the option of the new 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 or 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS EF-S zooms, which are apparently pretty good because they are designed for the smaller imaging circle. I wish they had wider apertures though, since f/4 isn't adequate for getting good background bokeh and is a liability indoors.

16-35mm f/2.8 L: This is the professional level wide-angle zoom sold by Canon for the EOS/EF system. I bought mine used in near mint condition earlier this year from Map Camera in Japan during one of their promotions. In general, I am extremely happy with it. It is built extremely tough with waterproofing gaskets everywhere. The f/2.8 makes it usable indoors with ambient lighting. 16-35mm is a good range for mid-range digitals (25.6mm - 56mm equivalent).

Digital cameras are pushing current lens technology to its limits. I notice a little bit of color fringing (chromatic aberration) with the 16-35mm f/2.8 in the edges when I'm at the 16mm limit and shooting wide open. Stopped down or zoomed in a bit and it goes away.

Technical Details - Wide Angle Lenses

Standard Lenses

My standard lens on my EOS-3 is the standard, boring 50mm f/1.4. That being said, if you look through compilations of the greatest photos by the best photographers, you'd find most of them are taken with 50mm lenses. And looking at my own best photos, they are all 50mm. To be honest, though, I haven't used this lens much since going digital as it's an 80mm lens equivalent on my 10D.

There are two options in the 50mm EF range, the 50mm f/1.4 and the f/1.8. The f/1.8 has stellar optics and the price is right: $70-100. I decided that I wanted the more solid construction of the f/1.4; the extra 3/4 stop of light; and the full-time manual focusing capability. The $200 difference disappeared with my first 40-pack of Fuji Provia 100F film.

With 7 elements in six symmetrical groups, the 50mm f/1.4 is a Planar (double-gauss) design, the most traditional form of wide-aperture normal lens possible. Performance is stellar at all apertures from wide open down to around f/16 when it becomes diffraction limited.

The 50mm f/1.4 has full-time manual (FTM) focusing. This means that you can touch up the focus manually without having to switch AF off on the lens body. This is the most useful if you have a camera where you can make the * button on the camera-rear side into the auto-focus button. Then you hit the auto-focus button with your right hand thumb, touch up with your left hand, and auto-expose-lock (AEL) using the shutter button. It sounds more complicated than it is. Give it a try.

Unfortunately, the 50mm f/1.4 focusing ring is not well damped. People who are used to manual focusing lenses will be disappointed. Part of this is the use of a micromotor USM instead of the usual ring USM, but part of this is the requirement of auto-focus camera to have the lightest focusing movement possible to save on battery power.

Technical Details - Standard Lenses

Telephoto / Long Focus Lenses

I'm not a big fan of long lenses since most of my work is usually in close quarters. If you want to really get into people's lives, you can't do it at a distance. So I shoot most of the time in the 24mm - 50mm focal length range. I rarely if ever use anything longer than 50mm.

That being said, the 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro is fantastic. It can get to 1.0x (100%) magnification. This means I can take photos of objects in people's homes I find without use of extender rings or diopter close-up lenses.

It also works as a great portrait lens. The bokeh or out of focus highlights are tremendous. Take a look, for example, at the portrait shot of the three Malaysian children on the opening screen of this home page (click on "Photoethnography.com" above). That was taken with the EF100mm f/2.8 USM Macro.

For a very long lens, I also have the Leica Elmarit-R 180mm f/2.8. It's designed for the Leicaflex / R series of cameras but can mount to EOS using an adapter. It's of course manual focus and of course you have to meter open and stop-down manually, but it's not as difficult as it sounds. The quality is of course very good, although not as good as current lenses that have aspherical elements or ultra-low dispersion glass. Nonetheless, it gives a nice classic look to portraits.

Technical Details-Telephoto Lenses

Zoom Lenses

In general, I dislike consumer zoom lenses because of the tradeoff of optical quality and maximum aperture against the price. For example, the 16-35mm f/2.8 L costs about $1600 retail. For the same money, you could get several primes which would all have wider maximum apertures and better optical performance. However, you do need zoom lenses sometimes and so I've knuckled down and bought both professional and consumer zooms in the past. I've been disappointed with the optical performance and build quality of consumer zooms and now only use professional zooms. I've now sold all my consumer zooms and just use the 16-35mm L, 28-70mm L, and 100-300mm L zooms now.   EF 28-135mm f/3.5~5.6 IS: I bought the EF 28-135mm IS USM zoom for my EOS 10D. Because of the focal length multiplier, my current prime lenses were a bit oddly matched for the 10D. The 28-135mm filled some gaps and serves as a good travel lens. The optics, especially when stopped down to f/8 are excellent. I'm concerned, though, about its durability. Many people have had problems with their IS lenses breaking with minor bumps. The weak point appears to be the focus and zoom mechanism. The front part of the lens has an unsettling wobble that appears on all of the ones I've seen. I ended up selling mine because it never got use after I bought the 16-35mm. Canon EOS 10D focal length equivalent: 45mm ~ 216mm.

EF 28-70mm f/2.8 L: I was worried about the ruggedability of my 28-135mm IS USM and wanted something that could take the knocks that I give my cameras when I travel. Although the 28-135 IS gives you two stops of extra handholdability, the IS lens is two stops darker than the L lens. The autofocus motor is very fast and it has full-time-manual focus. I've so far gone on one shoot with it (Tokyo night photography) and have been pleased with the results. More testing needs to be done. Canon EOS 10D focal length equivalent: 45mm ~ 112mm. (This lens has been replaced by the EF24-70mm f/2.8 L lens. This improved model is a bit wider, recomputed performance, and has additional waterproofing gaskets. Canon EOS 10D focal length equivalent: 38mm ~ 112mm).

EF16-35mm f/2.8 L: Rounding out my zoom lens stable is the EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L lens. I hadn't really planned on buying it, but came across one in nearly new condition for less than half retail, so decided to splurge and get it. One of the nice things about the 2001 redesign of this classic lens is that they added full weatherproofing to the 16-35mm while giving it one more millimeter on the wide end. It has a rubber seal on the lens mount for additional waterproofing and the zoom action was designed to not suck in dust through the front. The 16-35mm is apparently much sharper than the older EF17-35mm L f/2.8 and a bit better than the lower-cost EF17-40mm f/4 L lens, which is very popular among the digital crowd. Canon EOS 10D focal length equivalent: 25mm ~ 56mm.

EF 75-300mm IS f/4~5.6: I bought one of these when they first came out but never used it. I was very unhappy with this lens: very poor optical quality at the long end and very dark (f/5.6). As the maximum aperture is so small, the autofocus on your camera ends up hunting a lot and the auto-focus motor is slow. The front of the lens rotates as you focus or zoom, making it difficult to use polarizing filters (which aren't recommended anyway since this lens is so slow). I ended up selling it.

EF 100-300mm f/5.6 L: Although I rarely use super-telephoto zooms in my work, once in a while I have an assignment where I need one. I was disappointed with the optical performance of the 75-300 IS and sold it, but the 100-300 f/5.6 L was available at a very reasonable price. First released in 1987, the EF 100-300 f/5.6 L was reputed to have the excellent optics of its older FD predecessor. My tests show this reputation to be deserved. With expensive synthetic fluorite and ultra-low dispersion (UD) elements, the EF 100-300 f/5.6 L has excellent sharpness, resolution, and color rendition with almost no chromatic aberration that I can see. The photographs of the blimp below (full size and then cropped) show the excellent resolution of the lens. I'm frankly astounded. You can make out details in the blimp's landing gear -- at an equivalent print size of over 13"x19". The only negatives to the 100-300L are the "user handling" and relative darkness of the aperture. The zoom is an old-fashioned push-pull zoom. This means if you hold the camera so the lens points down, it will zoom out. It is also hard to make precise zoom adjustments. This is why most modern pro zooms are now twist-to-zoom. The autofocusing motor is the old-fashioned arc-motor drive rather than the contemporary USM ultrasonic-motor. This means the AF is a bit lethargic and there is no Full Time Manual focusing (FTM). The AF/M switch has three positions: regular AF (Macro-Infitinity); Limited AF (2m-infinity) which speeds up distance focusing; and Manual. The small maximum aperture of f/5.6 isn't great. But it means that this lens is very compact compared to its f/4 or f/2.8 L lens equivalents. With ISO-sensitivity changeable on the fly with Canon EOS digital SLRs and very usable ISO 800/1600 speeds, the small max aperture is less of a liability than it used to be. Canon also released non-L versions of the 100-300 f/5.6 in standard (EF 100-300mm f/5.6 ) and USM versions (EF 100-300 f/5.6 USM). These are not the same lens. The optical designs are different and do not contain the fluorite elements or ultra-low dispersion glass of the EF 100-300mm f/5.6 L lens. Be sure that you get the L version if you want the maximum optical performance. You can recognize the L version by the red ring around the front of the lens. Although the 100-300mm range is very useful in the field, Canon never replaced the discontinued 100-300mm L lens with an equivalent L zoom. You can get the more limited 70-200 f/2.8 or f/4 L zooms or the behemoth 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L zoom, but they never gave us another compact 100-300 L-quality zoom lens. This makes this lens a keeper, in my opinion. For other opinions, see Photozone.de's review of this lens.

Manufacturer

Canon, Inc.

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