Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM Reviews

Rating
Reviewed by:

agphotography
( Professional)

Review Date
September 21, 2009

Overall Rating
4 of 5

Value Rating
4 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
1.00 of 5,
1 votes

Review 1 of 10

Price Paid: $350.00 from Online

Summary:

I have discovered a hidden gem in the canon EF lens lineup! The EF 28mm f/1.8 USM lens has never really received exceptional praise or glowing reviews. I honestly don't know why!

On digital SLRs (namely full frame and 1.6x bodies) it's perfect for available light photography.

On the 5DmkII this lens is an excellent street shooter, 28mm is one of the classic focal lengths to use in photojournalism. Plus having f/1.8 for lower light is just wonderful.

On the 40D/50D/etc. this lens becomes a 45mm (effectively) which is a great normal focal length.

Overall, this lens is an exceptional value for anyone, it's inexpensive, sharp, fast. What's not to love?

Strengths:

F/1.8 is a definitely bonus!
Fast AF
Decent build quality
Not too expensive
Works on any EF-Mount camera.

Weaknesses:

Could be a tad bit sharper wide open (fixable in post production however)
Small amounts of CA can be seen at wide apertures (also correctable)
Plastic vs. metal construction (personal preference)

Similar Products Used:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8

Customer Service:

I've dealt with canon service in Irvine and they are always wonderful.

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Rating
Reviewed by:

psyrens
( Intermediate)

Review Date
March 16, 2009

Overall Rating
3 of 5

Value Rating
3 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
4.00 of 5,
1 votes

Review 2 of 10

Price Paid: $416.00 from Amazon

Summary:

Well, I don't want to repeat other review's comment. I just added one thing.
This lens is generally nice, but the big problem is heavy color fringing.
When I take shots in high contrast conditions, it almost always shows red on left and green on right at every aperture.
This is bad because those kind of high contrast situation is very common when shooting landscape. The most common situation is trees with sky in background.
Also, at wide apertures green smears at high contrast edges.
This makes the image looks cheap, especially in print.
Beside that, this is nice lens: fastest 28mm lens on the market, nicely built, fast and reliable AF etc.

Strengths:

fastest 28mm lens on the market, nicely built, fast and reliable AF

Weaknesses:

heavy color fringing at high contrast edges.

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Rating
Reviewed by: Take
(Casual)

Review Date
September 22, 2003

Overall Rating
3 of 5

Value Rating
3 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.92 of 5,
12 votes

Review 3 of 10

Price Paid: $380.00 from Yahoo Auction

Summary:

I like the color of the picture. But resolution is not really high. I found that cheaper SIGMA 28mm F1.8 has notably higher resolution. I used this lense with my EOS D60/10D. Maybe better used with ordinary film-based EOS.

Strengths:

Canon EF lense color character. (SIGMA lenses have "cooler" color. Silent (but not really accurate AF.)

Weaknesses:

Low resolution. Not really accurate AF. May be lense is OK with film camera. But I guess this lense needs re-design in the era of digital SLR.

Similar Products Used:

SIGMA 20mm F1.8 SIGMA 24mm F1.8 SIGMA 28mm F1.8 EF 50mm F1.4 USM EF 100mm Macro USM EF 200mm F2.8L EF 24-85mm F3.5-4.5 USM EF 28-135mm F3.5-5.6 IS USM SIGMA 17-35mm F2.8-4 HSM

Customer Service:

Canon service center in Ginza is OK.

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Rating
Reviewed by: Lthlwpn1979
(Intermediate)

Review Date
July 15, 2003

Overall Rating
5 of 5

Value Rating
4 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.50 of 5,
2 votes

Review 4 of 10

Price Paid: $400.00 from digitalfotoclub

Summary:

For working outdoors, this is a great lens for scenary shots. I have had no problems with abberation, no vignetting with Heliopan slim filters, and no flaring with the proper hood (which is conviently sold sererately). It balances nice on my Rebel and looks nice too. The autofocus USM is quick and fairly accurate unless in deep woods (there's always that 1 twig!). The lense does not extend while focusing which helps prevent dust getting inside. The lense is small, only about 2 inches, so it fits into a vest pocket with plenty of room for film. The body is VERY sturdy and manual focusing is geared well.

Strengths:

Great apperature capabilities Fast USM Very sharp pictures Good balance and look Internal focusing keeps lens small 58mm filters easy to find

Weaknesses:

Canon could be nice and begin to include hoods with their lenses like almost everybody else.

Similar Products Used:

Canon fd 50mm

Customer Service:

not neeeded

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Rating
Reviewed by: M V
(Intermediate)

Review Date
July 17, 2001

Overall Rating
4 of 5

Value Rating
5 of 5

Visitors rate this review
2.17 of 5,
6 votes

Review 5 of 10

Price Paid: $430.00 from B & H

Summary:

I am willing to carry around only two (prime) lenses, a short and a tele. I had a Sigma 24mm f2.8, but found the (perspective) distortion to be objectionable for people shots, and hence was looking for a 28mm. I chose this one because of the strengths listed above. f1.8 is one and a half stops faster faster than f2.8, and it makes a big difference for me when it comes to hand held people shots in low light. I just shot 2 rolls of Kodak Ektachrome 200 slide film with this lens and the results are outstanding. As someone else mentioned above you can save $$$ and duplicate (outdo in fact) the much coveted 28-70 f2.8L by the three primes: 28mm f1.8, 50mm f1.8 and 85mm f1.8.

Strengths:

1. Fast: f1.8
2. Bright view: f1.8
3. Ring USM - fast focusing, quiet, gives you full time manual focusing
3. Good bokeh (background blur)
4. Well built

Weaknesses:

Lens tests show that it is worse than the f2.8 version

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 24mm f2.8

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