Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM Wide Angle Lens for Canon SLR Cameras
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM Wide Angle Lens for Canon SLR Cameras
Customer Review: Compact, solid build, fast/quiet focus, but sensitive to shake, expensive
Summary: 5 Stars
Solid and compact, this lens focuses briskly, taking crisp photos, but is on the expensive side, sensitive to camera shake, and has an odd effective-focal-length.
The USM AF is quiet and fast, and has no trouble finding focus even in very low-light, attached to my Canon Rebel T1i.
However, in the same low-light (eg nightlife) situations, shooting at Av f/1.8 - f/2.5 (ISO1600), I experienced notable blur in my results. The lens is more sensitive to shake than I expected; that might just be my grip, but during low-light shooting, it begged for IS. Images are a a little soft at f/1.8, sharpening up by f/2.8, but reasonable throughout the range.
Important to note: on cropped-sensor cameras like most Canons (check Wikipedia for "APS-C" and "Crop Factor" for details), the body's 1.6x crop-factor means this lens is effectively a 45mm. Which I find to be an odd focal length. I have to back up several feet behind where I'd stand with my compact point&shoot to get the typical "small group" people shot, but a close-up or typical face+shoulders portrait requires substantial cropping.
This seems like the right focal-length for outdoor shooting, kids+pets, and general snapshots. The short length and broad aperture make this a convenient walk-around lens, although the limited wide-angle was sometimes frustrating.
The lens is solid and heavy, feels very well-constructed, with "big" glass.
I found the colors slightly cooler and images softer than the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens. Compared to that much cheaper lens, the EF28mm feels much better made, is much quieter, slightly faster focusing, and has a more usable focal length on APS-C cameras.
I found the quality and colors nearly identical to the Canon EF 35mm f/2 Wide Angle Lens for Canon SLR Cameras. Compared to that cheaper lens, the EF28 feels better made, is much quieter, much faster focusing (especially in low-light), and is slightly more useful than the EF 35mm's effective APS-C length of 56mm.
Recommended for multi-purpose use, but outdoor-only photographers may do better with the cheaper Canon EF 35mm f/2 Wide Angle Lens for Canon SLR Cameras which is much noisier and focus-hunts horribly in low-light, but takes comparable photos for being notably cheaper/smaller.
Customer Review: Love it or hate it, but there's no middle ground
Summary: 5 Stars
The EF 28mm f/1.8 USM is an odd animal, with users either loving or hating its optical characteristics. Physically, there's nothing to complain about. The lens is solidly constructed, the focusing travel is contained within the barrel, it uses the USM system with full-time manual focus, and the filter ring is the popular 58mm style. All of these features nicely differentiate it from the EF 28mm f/2.8, which is comparatively compromised in all of these areas (but is probably a better value for the money, oddly).
The first sign of trouble may be the integrated rectangular shield inside the front element assembly. While this probably helps reduce flaring and artifacts, neither of its close relatives -- the EF 28mm f/2.8 or the EF 20mm f/2.8 USM -- require such a feature. Disagreeable vignetting can occur, even on a crop body and with moderately bright indoor light, when stopped open. Light bloom is also excessive when wide open, and some users have reported chromatic aberration, although I haven't personally seen it. Conversely, performance is excellent in very low light and outdoor night shots with long exposure times.
I consider this essential glass for flashless photography under low-light conditions, particularly indoors in close quarters, as the wide angle and wide aperture will effectively gather all of the light and people in a room. Combined with a high ISO setting in the 800+ range, sharp images can be taken at reasonably quick shutter speeds, then subjected to noise cleanup during post-processing. However I don't use the lens as much outdoors during daytime, or indoors in brightly-lit areas. The EF 20mm f/2.8 USM handles these situations far better and is a good complement for the EF 28mm f/1.8 USM.
Summarily, the main issues with this lens is price. For about $375, everyone should get one. But for the $450+ range where this lens usually sells, it is overpriced relative to what it offers. Hopefully Canon will develop a Mark II version of this lens that improves on the optical characteristics while retaining the physical features and build quality.
Customer Review: A very useful lens on an APS-C body
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this lens recently for use on my 7D. My purposes were indoor youth basketball and indoor candids - i.e. fairly close range, low-light situations.
I also had the Canon 50mm f/1.4 and the 100mm f2.0, but I found that the 50mm was too long in certain situations, and the 100mm was really for a different purpose altogether. This lens formed the endpoint of a useful progression of fast primes: 100mm/50mm/28mm, to cover me in pretty much any low-light situation.
I had read some of the reviews here and on other sites about this lens' shortcomings, particularly with respect to CA. I have to say, however, that in my use of the lens, on my camera, these shortcomings have not been an issue. This lens has proved very useful in getting some great images in youth basketball. These are not big-league events, so I can position myself directly under the basket, and get compelling images of layups, rebounds, etc. The 50mm was simply too long to do this well, and the foreshortening provided by the focal length adds to the impact of the shot.
The lens is sharp, but having said that, sharpness of the type measured in ISO 12233 charts is not relevent to me. Even at the 1/200 to 1/400 shutter speeds I am able to get using this lens, my subjects move a few millimeters, and this is enough to prevent the images from being truly sharp. Speed is the primary element I need to create sharp images, and this lens is faster anything I can put on the camera in its focal length range for less than $1500. It also autofocuses very well.
The lens also excels at indoor candids. It seems to have just the right focal length for this use, and I have been very happy with these images also.
I think anyone purchasing the lens for uses similar to mine will be quite pleased with its performance, as I have been. The only downside for me was cost...I wouldn't have liked it any less had it cost maybe $300 instead of $500. Canon makes a $100 f1.8 50mm, why not a less expenive 28-or-so-mm also?
Customer Review: great all-purpose lens for APS-C
Summary: 5 Stars
For APS-C digitals cameras with a 1.6 crop factor, this becomes equivalent to 44mm with a 35mm film camera. I bought this lens a general purpose prime lens for APS-C with roughly the same angle as 50mm for the 35mm film camera (Canon does not have a 30mm, only Sigma's 30mm f/1.4 is the closest). I have used this prime lens on my Digital Rebel and 30D for a few hundred shots so far, and I am very pleased with the sharpness of the photos, as well as the speed. I think it is softer at f/1.8, which happens in most cases of any lens, and rather like to used a little to f/2.2 - 2.8. With such low apertures the area of focus is very shallow, thus I appreciate the great autofocus from the USM, which works flawness with the combination of a Canon digital SLR and a Canon lens. Also there are 10 glass elements, producing a nic bokeh, minimum distance of 25cm for focusing, so it is well-built lens. It is about 10 oz, not as light as the f/2.8 version, but it is much stronger in low-light situations, and when used at f/2.8, the f/2.8 version shold be much sharper.
It is not an L lens (these are so expensive, and also heavy), but is exceptionally good in the non-L lens category, especially for the APS-C camera's. For full size APS sensors, the 50mm f/1.4 would be the choice, but if you use the 50mm in APS-C systems, the crop factor makes this a medium telephoto 80mm equivalent lens, not good for general purpose shooting.
It is realively higher in price to the f/2.8 version. The reasons I chose this f/1.8 version was because of the following:
1. low-light shooting in the f/1.8-2.5 range
2. USM for fast, quiet, and accurate autofocus, espcially helpful targets are moving
3. Nice soft bokeh per Canon (I like it so far).
4. Can use as wide-lens in full-size APS sensors the future if digital SLRs would gradually shift in that direction.
It depends on the type of situations you plan to shoot photos, but I think if you need such features, this lens is very much worth the price.
Customer Review: My new favorite lens.
Summary: 5 Stars
I just got this lens used from a marketplace seller. The first several test-shots were breathtaking. My seller included the lens hood. The lens hood even installs backwards for easy storage.
Yes, it has a very narrow depth of field at f/1.8. But that's the idea sometimes. Backgrounds are totally obfuscated one foot past the focus point. It gets deeper and sharper the more you stop it down.
If you've been looking for an EF AF lens that will shoot in awful, low-light conditions, this is a great one. Neither my EFS18-55 nor my EF35-80 can come anywhere near the low-light performance! I'm using a Digital Rebel/300D, and I was able to manually focus perfectly in very dim light. The USM AF works great, but you have to choose your focus point very carefully at f/1.8.
I'm a fisheye-guy, so the pictures are a little un-artistic for my "Artwork" but for portraits, landscapes, architecture, even drunken snapshots (I'm assuming) it's tack-sharp every time! If you hate the curved lines from shperical wide-angles, this lens will tickle you pink!!
I'm going to take some pictures at night, I'm hoping for cloud definition in near-total darkness. I will post them with the other customer images. (Even if they're bad, I want to test the LIMITS of this very fast/bright lens!)
Find a good used one if you can, but it would have been worth an extra $100 if a used one wasn't available.
Every time I buy a more expensive Canon lens, I wonder if I'm finally going to get something that's not quite worth the high price; but it hasn't happened yet!!
My next purchase will be:Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens My wife will kill me when she sees that pricetag!
Stay Tuned!