Canon Zooms | Photocrati

Canon 17-40mm f/4L USM EF Review Round-Up

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Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Photo Zone:

The Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 USM L showed a very good to excellent performance in the lab as well as during the field tests. The lens exhibited very little vignetting and excellent resolution figures. On the downsode the level of distortions could haven been a little better at the wide-angle setting. Typical for most wide-angle zooms chromatic aberrations can be visible but the problem remains comparatively low. The quality of the construction is next to perfect. READ FULL REVIEW

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Canon 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM EF Review Round-Up

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Photo Zone:

The Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM proved to be a quite solid performer without any spectacular strengths nor weaknesses except maybe low contrast performance. On APS-C DSLRs it is surely not a first choice due to its focal length range which feels a little odd here. READ FULL REVIEW

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Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L EF USM Review Round-Up

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Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Photo Zone:

Very similar to its IS enabled cousin the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 USM L is an impressive piece of lens with superb build quality combined with an excellent optical performance which is, in fact, slightly better than in the rest of the family and comparable to the best fix-focals in its range. So if you can live without IS (which is, however, darn attractive in its 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS incarnation) there’re still good reasons to go for this superb lens! READ FULL REVIEW

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Canon 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM EF Review Round-Up

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Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM Standard Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Digital Picture:

The Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM Lens is a definite step up in quality from Canon’s econo consumer zooms. The Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM Lens features good build and decent-for-the-price optical quality. The Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM Lens offer 20mm more zoom range on the telephoto end and sacrifices 4mm on the wide end. If this is the price range you are able to buy up to, you will have to decide which of these features (focal length ranges, image quality) is most important to you. The Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM Lens has a very nice focal length range that includes the normal, general purpose zoom range and more. READ FULL REVIEW

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Canon 28-105mm F/4-5.6 AF Review Round-Up

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Pop Photo

An incredibly good buy; optically comparable in test to a $330 (street) 1993 Canon 28-105mm lens, which didn’t focus as close. The plastic lensmount is durable, but just don’t wear gloves when manual focusing! READ FULL REVIEW

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Canon 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM EF-S Review Round-Up

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Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 Image Stabilized USM SLR Lens for EOS Digital SLRs

Photo Zone:

The EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 USM IS is a lens that promises many things. It is certainly a very versatile standard zoom with a long zoom range and an image stabilizer that can save the day in many situations. However, the build quality is somewhat disappointing and optically it is also something of a mixed bag. The lens is very sharp in the image center throughout the range but at the wide-end the extreme corners leave something to be desired. The 17mm setting also suffers from rather extreme distortions and rather hefty vignetting @ f/4. Finally chromatic aberrations aren’t really something to rave about either. So at the end of the day the lens is a tad better than the cheapo EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 but it can’t really compete with the new EF-S 18-55m f/3.5-5.6 IS or the EF 17-40mm f/4 USM L. The key feature of the EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 USM IS remains its versatility. While this may sound a little sceptical I should note that I preferred the lens compared to other higher quality options during testing – it is simply a darn convenient lens and despite the flaws it can produce very decent images as you can see from the samples – at least with a little tool support. READ FULL REVIEW

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Canon 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM EF Review Round-Up

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Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Photo Zone:

Similar to the Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM the EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 proved to be a solid performer without any spectacular strengths nor weaknesses except a positive peak at its 28mm setting. The level of distortions is pretty low for such a lens and vignetting isn’t overly pronounced. Due to the 1.6x cropping factor on APS-C DSLRs the range is quite unexciting here but if you’re looking for a compact short tele-zoom with IS to compliment an ultra-wide zoom … why not? READ FULL REVIEW

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Canon 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM EF Review Round-Up

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Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Canon EF 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM Standard Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

The Digital Picture:

The Canon EF 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM Lens holds a wide focal length range in a compact and inexpensive package. Overall, the Canon EF 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM Lens’ build quality is mediocre. It sports a metal lens mount like the best, but the rest of the lens is just average for a consumer grade lens. For its size, the Canon EF 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM Lens is relatively heavy. It feels short, fat and hefty. It is not a heavy lens, but heavy for its compact size. Overall, the Canon EF 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6 USM Lens optically disappoints. If you can use f/8 for most of your applications and can live with its optical flaws, the 28-200 might make a decent and economical one lens solution for you. Otherwise, I highly recommend looking at one of my other recommended general purpose lenses as better choices for optical quality. READ FULL REVIEW

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Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 USM EF-S Review Round-Up

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Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 USM SLR Lens for EOS Digital SLRs

SLR Gear:

As an entry-level “kit” lens, cost of manufacture was almost certainly a key design parameter for the Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6, but it nonetheless manages to do pretty well optically, particularly when stopped down a little. That said though, performance wide open is indeed a little rough, until you get toward the telephoto end of its range. This is a lens that likes to be stopped down for best performance, the “sweet spot” coming at about f/8 at 18mm, f/8-11 at 27mm, and f/11 from 35-55mm. This lens is better than you’d normally expect for such an inexpensive design, but our lab tests have led us to realize that it’s not quite as good as we’d previously thought: If you use it more toward the tele end of its range, and stop down a little from wide open, it’s impressive indeed. Wide open, and particularly at wide angle though, it didn’t perform as well as we’d have anticipated, based on our prior impressions. All in all, a good “starter” lens, but one that you’ll almost certainly end up replacing after your budget has absorbed the initial shock of buying the camera in the first place. READ FULL REVIEW

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Canon 28-300 f/3.5-5.6 USM L IS EF Review Round-Up

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Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM Lens

Photo Zone:

The Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 USM L IS is an impressive extreme range zoom. The optical quality is on a very high though not exceptional level. The resolution figures are generally very good without any major flaws. Vignetting, CAs and even distortions are very well under control. The build quality is exceptional though some may not like the push-pull zoom design. With a little positive attitude you should be able to get used to it though and the very smooth zoom action helps a lot in the transition phase (from conventional zooms). The 3rd generation IS is a significant and highly welcome addition to the feature list. On the downside the lens is heavy and not exactly small especially when used at 300mm – not exactly a low profile lens. The price lifts it beyond the reach of most amateurs but then this is true for many L grade lenses out there. Unfortunately the lens is no longer a one-size-fits-all solution on APS-C DSLRs but nonetheless it remains an interesting lens for lots of applications. So if you can live with its limitations and the price tag it is surely worth a deeper look! READ FULL REVIEW

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