The Photocrati Blog

Canon 50mm f/1.2 USM L EF Review Round-Up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below.

Get information and user reviews for this lens at Amazon: Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

Photo Zone:

The Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 USM L is a specialty lens for those requiring the maximum in depth-of-field capabilities. At large apertures the lens produces the beautiful, buttery bokeh which can be expected from such a lens. Technically the resolution results are very good to excellent but not really superior to its cheaper cousin – the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM. The center performance is generally stellar but the borders can ´t quite follow although they remain easily in very good territory beyond f/1.2. The vignetting is quite high at maximum aperture and CAs are unusually pronounced for a fix-focal. The build quality of the lens is exceptional and the AF speed is very fast for such a lens. READ FULL REVIEW

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Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM EF-S Review Round-Up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below.

Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens for Canon DSLR Cameras

Photo Zone:

The Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 USM IS is not a perfect lens but it lives quite well up to the very high expectations of the user base. The resolution figures are among the very best seen so far for an APS-C standard zoom lens. The center resolution is nothing short of outstanding and the even borders can keep a very good to even excellent quality level. The distortion characteristic is quite typical for a zoom lens in this range (pronounced barrel distortions @ 17mm, moderate pincushion distortions @ 55mm) whereas CAs are unusually moderate. Unfortunately vignetting is a weak spot of the lens peaking around 1EV at f/2.8 throughout the range. It’s not a show stopper but a little annoying nonetheless. The build quality of the lens is pretty good but in relation to the price tag of the lens Canon should have used a little less plastic – finally even the much cheaper EF 70-200mm f/4 USM L features a magnesium-alloy shell. Probably a marketing decision to keep professionals away from APS-C DSLRs. All-in-all the EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 USM IS is clearly a level up from the other Canon standard zooms – a highly desirable lens though the pricing may rise a few question marks. READ FULL REVIEW

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Nikon 14mm f/2.8 D ED AF Review Round-Up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below. Get information and user reviews for this lens at Amazon: NIKON 14MM f/2.8D ED AF Ultra Wide Angle Nikkor Lens

Pop Photo

The 14mm f/2.8D AF Nikkor is Nikon’s widest rectilinear lens that covers the 35mm format, giving a whopping 114- degree angle of view. With its equally impressive f/2.8 aperture, it provides a bright viewing image along with available-light shooting ability. In addition, performance is also unsurpassed, but all this comes at a princely price. Offering state of the art performance, Nikon’s remarkable 14mm f/2.8 is a great tool for pros and other advanced Nikon shooters needing the ultimate in angular coverage and speed without distortion. They had better have deep pockets. READ FULL REVIEW

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Canon 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye EF Review Round-Up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below.

Photo Zone:

Fisheye lenses are a matter of taste and the type of distortions limits its scope to special effects. Other than that the Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye is a very decent performer with high resolution figures and good construction quality (apart from the cap design). However, there ´re some question marks whether the APS-C format doesn ´t destroy most of the fisheye effect. On a 1.3x and full frame DSLR the lens will make more sense in this respect. READ FULL REVIEW

Get information and user reviews for this lens at Amazon: Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

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Canon 100mm f/2.8 USM macro EF Review Round-Up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below.

Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Photo Zone:

The old EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens had a superb reputation but Canon managed to keep up the performance of the USM successor despite of the introduction of a true IF design allowing to keep a constant lens length throughout the focus range. Mechanically this is a drastic improvement due to the absence of any moving outer parts that could suck in dust or wear out more easily. On top of that the USM implementation in this lens is excellent – compared to conventional macro lenses in this range it is a speed daemon here and a near silent one. Optically the lens resides on a very high level with little to nothing to be desired. HIGHLY recommended! READ FULL REVIEW

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Nikon 50mm f/1.4 D AF Review Round-Up

Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

Photo Zone

Similar to its cousin (AF 50mm f/1.8 D) the Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.4 D is a very good performer. At f/1.4 the contrast is a little on the low side and the borders may be a little soft but from f/2.8 & up the performance is really superb. Distortions are detectable in the lab but not really significant enough to be relevant in the real life. CAs are very low and vignetting is a non-issue except at f/1.4 (on APS-C DSLRs). The build quality of the lens is very decent and the AF performance leaves nothing to be desired. READ FULL REVIEW

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Canon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM DO IS EF Review Round-Up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below.

Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM Lens for Canon EOS Cameras

Photo Zone:

In principal the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM DO IS is a very interesting lens … in principal. From a performance point of view it delivers all that a consumer has hoped for – high resolution figures in conjunction with low distortions, low vignetting and low chromatic aberrations and all packaged in a quite sturdy, small package with high speed AF. So what is the problem ? Well, it’s the price tag. The optical performance of the new EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 USM IS (non-DO) is simply about as good. Mechanically it isn’t quite in the same league as the DO lens but … hey – it comes at a 50% lower price tag! If we throw in the added values plus a little coolness factor the DO lens may be worth a 200-250 EUR/$ premium over the conventional lens but at 1100 EUR/US$ it is simply way over-priced (also true for the EF 400mm f/4 USM DO IS). So unless Canon reduces the price to something more in line with the (in-house) competition there’re some question marks whether the lens is really worth the extra financial sacrifice. READ FULL REVIEW

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Canon 85mm f/1.8 USM EF Review Round-up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below.

Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Photo Zone:

With the exception of purple fringing in harsh contrast situations the lens performed extremely well. If you’re looking for a near-perfect portrait lens – well, stop here – you’ve found it! Naturally the lens has also a life beyond portraits. It’s also nice for compressed landscape shots and all aspects where you need to separate your main subject from the background by using a very large aperture. The silky smooth bokeh (background blur) is a nice extra here. And the good news is: the lens is also very affordable at just 350EUR. READ FULL REVIEW

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Nikon 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED VR AF-SAF-S Micro Review Round-up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below. Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Nikon 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor Lens

Photo Zone

Nikon packed many new features into the Micro-Nikkor AF-S 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED VR. The most obvious one is probably the new IF design so the physical length of the lens remains constant regardless of the focus setting. On top of that Nikon implemented a relatively fast silent-wave AF drive and a VR II (Vibration Reduction) with an efficiency equivalent to 4 f-stops. In terms of sheer performance the AF-S 105mm f/2.8G was able to beat its already very good predecessor by a small margin. The resolution is excellent straight from the max. aperture setting and the peak performance is reached between f/4 and f/5.6. Typical for a macro lens the Nikkor is virtually free of distortions and vignetting is usually nothing to worry about. …The mechanical quality of the lens is very good. The best news is probably that Nikon resisted the temptation to increase the price tag despite all the new features. At around 750-850â‚¬/US$ the lens is still not exactly cheap but definitely worth it. READ FULL REVIEW

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Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS USM EF Review Round-Up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below.

Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

SLR Gear:

Optically, the 300mm Æ’/2.8L IS produces extremely sharp images, almost free from chromatic aberration, distortion and corner shading. This is most evident when used on a sub-frame sensor body and larger apertures over smaller. On a full-frame sensor body, the lens is almost as good, though corner shading is a bit more evident at Æ’/2.8 and sharpness, while very impressive, is never ”tack-sharp” across the frame. It’s been said before in other reviews, but is worth saying again – it doesn’t get much better than this. For the focal length achieved, Canon has really worked wonders with this lens, which offers excellent performance not only optically but with all the options available to really optimize the photographer’s shooting performance. …When you’re looking to drop several thousand dollars on a lens, you want to be sure you’re buying the right one. The most we can offer is if you settle on the 300mm Æ’/2.8L IS, your only regret will be that you didn’t buy it sooner. READ FULL REVIEW

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