built quality is ok.

very soft. my 28-135 cost about the same as this lens! and the 28-135 produces amazing result while 20-35 is really a disappointment. cost

I didn't expect too much from this lens when I first bought it. However I am very diappointed at it. maybe I bought a defective one. no matter what aperture I use the pix are very soft. it might be quite useful for shooting portrait of a person with skin problem, or sunset. I'm gonna try to replace it with different one although the return date has passed..

Similar Products Used:

28-135

Solid Built, Portable and light, Lens matte to prohibit flare. Full time focus and USM motor.

77mm filters (can be expensive), Under certain conditions it is a little soft at 20mm and wide opened.

I bought this lens after reading reviews on this and other sites. I have used it for landscape and architectural photography and it as performed very well. I have noticed a little softness at the edges but that was mostly when the lens was used wide open and only under certain conditions. Overall this lens is a good little purchase and worth it considering the price. Well built, light and portable it's easy to use in any situation.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 16-35mm Canon 28-105mm

Fast focusing; inexpensive (for the type of lens it is); light-weight; durable...good, sturdy build; built-in flare reduction matte; USM lens with simultaneous AF/MF; internal focusing

Little soft around the edges of the image at wider angles; a bit of a pain to use polorizers or other specialty filters

Like the 100mm f/2 USM lens I recently reviewed, this is another big-bang-for-the-buck lens. For the kind of lens you get, it is very reasonably priced. I've had to do some pretty wide-angle shots in tight spaces before, and, before this lens, I had to use either a 16mm lens, or a 28-whatever zoom. The 16mm was often too wide, so I had to move back and forth to get a proper composition, and the 28mm just wasn't quite wide enough. With this lens, I get a nice super-wide angle shot that zooms plenty to allow me to recompose shots as needed without having to move back and forth. On the downside, if you use a UV or skylight filter on it, you're fine, even at wide angles. But do NOT stack a polorizing filter on top of this, or you'll get vignetting even before you reach 20mm, even the wide-angle polorizers that are made much thinner for wide-angle lenses. To use the polorizer, you first need to remove any other filters you may have on it. This can be cumbersome at times, but, really, the only time a polorizer needs to be used is when you're doing landscapes or other forms of still life, in which case you usually have plenty of time to spare, so it's not that critical. And, though the edges of the picture at its widest angle can become blurred, if you're careful, and take your time to compose your shots in such a way that the edge blur won't be a detriment to your image, this, too, will not pose a problem. Again, it's either this, or pay three to four times as much for the higher-grade lenses of this focal length. So, all-in-all, I'd have to say this is a great little lens for the price. Though I'll most likely get the pricier lens eventually, for what I'm doing now, I've had no problems from this lens, considering it's already paid for itself two times over, and it'll continue to do so for some time to come.

Customer Service

Haven't needed it yet

Similar Products Used:

Canon EF 28-90mm USM; Canon EF 16mm USM; Tamron 28-300mm

Sharp, contrasty, well built, nice size

A little pricey, and for the price, should come with the hood.

Very nice lens. Well built, nicely balanced. Flare not too bad for this focal length, and the lens hood does help. Slides look nice and sharp, with very little softness when wide open.

Customer Service

CPS is great!

Similar Products Used:

Tokina 19-35 3.5-4.5

USM => fast focusing Light.

Blur on the sides. 77mm filters ( although I own 77mm filters already ).

Bought this lens after reading great reviews on this site and also on photo.net. After testing 2 rolls of film, and careful examination, I found that this lens $%*@!.I shot most of my shots at f/5.6 to f/8's and at first glance I could see the pictures not being that sharp. Upon further review, I found that the sides of the picture( left and right ) were completely blurred out w/ so little detail left. I doubt it has anything to do w. the developing or my camera body because on the same roll, the pictures which I took using my Tokina was fine. I think it is probably a bad sample and since it is a consumer lens, Canon probably didn't fully test it. Just BEWARE!!

Customer Service

never used

Similar Products Used:

Canon 70-200mm f/4 L Tokina 28-70mm ATX Pro II f/2.8

Like weight. Fast AF (this is Canon). Sharp picture.

No hood come with (another $30.) 77mm filter size ($$).

I use this lens for people''''s group shot at small area. Good performance. Resonable distrotion. Light weight. Right price. Fast USM AF. No darken corner with regular filter(but not for PL filter). If you really need f/2.8 (and with many $), go for 17-35L. If not, go for this lens. You will happy.

Customer Service

Never try.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 22-55mm Tokina 19-35mm

lightness, silent AF, versatility.

risk of vignetting when using filters at large angle.

First thing I noticed was the silent and fast AF of this lens, compared to my other zoomlenses. But the most important thing that makes me font of this lense, is the fact that you can focus on your subject (<20cm) very close. This can give a whole new perspective on things! I thought I wasn''t going to use it often but now I use it almost all the time. I think it is especially suitable for outdoor- and naturephotography, for everyone who likes to capture wide landscapes as well as portrets or even flowers. When you''re really into macro or doing shots at weddings, consider something more in the 28-80 category.

Customer Service

Never used

Similar Products Used:

Sigma 28-70 f3.5-4.5, Sigma 70-210 f4.5-5.6

None

None

I purchased this ultra-wide zoom, expecting to use it for 15% of my photos. It''s still new, but it''s currently on the camera for 85% of the shots! Wild perspectives, cityscapes that lean in as you look up, strong environmental portraits, close ups of a receding piano keyboard, cramped interiors, landscapes with strong foregrounds--if you''ve never worked at 20mm before, the possibilities are endless. In uncontrolled conditions (outdoors), it can be more difficult to get a great shot: everything in a 90 degree field must be right, and everything is in focus. I mostly use it at 20mm, but the zoom improves composition options for people shots and interiors. I''ve had no problem with barrel distortion. Keep the sun off the front element, and flare is not an issue. With just one filter, vignetting has not been a problem. Focusing seems a little slow for a USM lens, but that''s almost irrelevant at this focal length. If you''re used to the feel of Canon lenses, you''ll find this balances very naturally. At first glance, the masked area on the front element looks strange, but makes perfect sense in a lens that gathers light from such as wide angle. The ultra-wide L-lenses would need to be *awefully* good to warrant the extra cost and weight penalty. The extra f-stop would rarely be useful: almost everything''s in focus anyway, and slow shutter speeds are no problem. This lens exceeded my expectations.

Similar Products Used:

Canon 28-135 IS, and numerous other zooms to 35mm.

Well built,ring USM,low price.

just a little soft wide open.

Very good lens for the price.Sharp from about 5.6 and smaller,fast and silent focus.I have never noticed any distotions with this lens but flare is a little bad with the sun in the frame.

Customer Service

never needed

Similar Products Used:

Canon 28-135 IS

Sharp, contrasty but not at wide open. A well built lens in the USM class. Really fast, compared to the other USM lenses. One of my best lens ever used. No noticable distorsion.

vignetting with a polfilter. that is all :)

I bought this lens in the last year. After few months, I found, that this range is great to me, so I sold all of my other lenses. Now I use it every day. Fast, extremly silent, well built, one of the best lens in the USM class. The only sad thing, that my 77mm B+W polfilter brings some vignetting to the corners :( (but only at 20mm!) I think I have to get a wide angle filter for this lens, to use at 20mm. I think it is worth to buy a good wide angle filter (a sky for example) just to protect the front element.

Customer Service

not needed for this lens yet :)

Similar Products Used:

in the EF range: 28-80 USM I, 28-105 USM, 50/1.8, 35-105 USM, Sigma: 70-210/2.8, 28-70/2.8, 400/5.6