Canon Zoom Lenses

October 2006 Update:
I thought I owed this Lens review an update after shooting with it for almost a couple of years and having the pleasure of shooting with a variety of L Lenses: 70-200L, 16-35L, Fisheye, 50mm and the Kit lens. This is what I've found:

1) Bar none, the best "portrait" lens I own. There's just something about this 85mm focal length + f/1.8 that brings out detail....faces have so much dimension with this lens, they look 3 dimensional. When I want to get shots of my daughter that amaze, I use this lens. When I look at my picture archive on my computer, I can easily spot the ones taken with this 85mm. My friends, some of which who don't know much about photography, pick pictures taken with this lens as their favorites - they ask wow how did you get that picture? I have a few blown up pictures to 16x20 and 11x14 of my daughter for my parents from this lens which are magnificent.

2) I thought that when I bought my 70-200L I would... Read more

The answer is most likely yes; since its price make it the best value for a fast canon prime lens. But before you make the $350 plunge here are few useful things to know about how it can be used. Keep in mind that I use this lens on the Rebel XT (1.6 factor), which means it provides me with an angel of view similar to 135mm on film cameras.

SHARPNESS: Yes that's one feature you can count on when buying this lens. This lens produces very sharp pictures. So much so that it will blow away your 18-55 kit lens (if you have one) and all other zoom lenses. Exception to that are the L-series zooms. The sharpness difference will be obvious even in the smallest of prints (4 by 6). If you can't envision such difference then consider this. Sharpness can be viewed as contrast between the edges of different color objects. Hence, the sharper an image the greater the contrast in the edges between such groups of color. This lens captures the contrast in such setting better than most... Read more

I hang out with friends a lot and up to this point, most of our photos together have been under flash conditions. Mostly because we hang out in the evenings, in someone's home. I bought this for my Rebel XT mainly for the great reviews and the impressive entry price! Although the reviews were already mostly positive, I took some time playing with the lens to get used to its characteristics. Since this forum is replete with technical reviews, I would like to share my impressions instead. I primarily rely on reviews, myself, to help me make purchasing decisions, so here are my thoughts on the EF 85mm f/1.8 USM lens.

PROS:
1)I'm a fan of Steven Soderbergh and love how he made it look like he shot Ocean's Eleven with natural light. I wanted the same effects for my get-together photographs and boy did I get them! I shoot mainly in RAW now and apply the Tungsten filter when I import them into CS2 and they look phenomenal!

2)After correction, skin tones look... Read more