( 8 reviews )
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Posted: 07-02-2009
This is currently my favorite lens in my modest collection. Optical quality is very high, even wide open at f/1.8 - super sharp, great contrast, good color redition. It's fast enough to get good shots indoors. At 28mm, it's a perfect normal focal length on DX format DSLRs. Unlike many of the new reasonably priced lenses coming out, it's also compatible with full-frame DSLRs and 35mm film bodies, for which it makes a wonderful medium-wide. It even has an aperture ring to boot, which means it's compatible with old MF bodies (a big plus for me - planning on getting an FM3A soon.) I can't comment on the edge sharpness for full frame because I haven't used it with one of those bodies. On my D90, however, it ROCKS. It costs a fraction of what the now-discontinued Nikkor 28mm f/1.4 goes for used, and it can focus EXTREMELY close - just a few inches away - it's not a 1:1 macro but it's pretty great for a normal walk around lens. I can't stay away from flowers and plants with this lens. Absolutely gorgeous. On the downside, the autofocus is just a little slow (it's not AF-S, after all) and the manual focus ring feels just a little pebbley, if you know what I mean. But these are minor inconveniences that I find completely worth dealing with for the results it generates. And at this price, it's a steal. Grab them up while you can!
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( 0 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: 06-11-2009
I bought this lens a week ago for about 190 less than the Canon version, and was initially disappointed. low aperture at wide angle has a very narrow depth of field, and often the pics would come out blurry or soft, but that's not the issue with the lens. I then compared this lens with Canon 50mm 1.4 that i owned, and at 1.8, both lenses showed nearly identical image quality in low-light, in aperture priority mode. but then i set my canon 40D to P mode and then started shooting outside in broad daylight, and the image quality is very comparable to canon 50mm. i think the most importance thing to know is that you have to think about your technique when using this lens. when you shoot at wide angle at 1.8, the focus on the subject can be very very narrow. since u have a much bigger background, it's very easy for the lens to mix up the focus and blur out your subject unintentionally. say, if u take a pic indoor of a room at 1.8, most of stuff in the door will be out of focus....you'll have to up the aperture, and use flash to make everything in focus- in a way, it kind of defeat the purpose of 1.8 aperture, so don't buy this for low-light scenic photography. u be much better off by using the kit lens on a tripod. so your out of focus landscape shot would be a result of user error, not the lens. pros: sharpness (very sharp, comparable to canon prime lens), sturdy, MACROS (it's amazing the kind of macros pics you can produce- too bad canon 28mm 1.8, 50mm 1.4, and 85mm 1.8 prime lenses DO NOT have macros capability), low-light shooting (portrait, stationary things, and very small things- not suitable for landscape unless you up the F-stop) cons: bigger than canon prime lenses (except L primes). I definitely recommend this as an ideal lens for close to 50mm point of view on a cropped sensor camera such as 40D, xti, and xsi
