Canon EF 28mm f/2.8

I purchased a MK I version of this lens, have not seen the MK II but apparently it does not have the metal mount that this one does.

I like the large aperture, which on a crop sensor like my Canon XTi effectively makes it a 45mm. It's great for portraits, for outdoor shots and even for some impromptu macro work. Almost as fun as the 50 1.8 for the money and playing with low apertures and skinny depth of field.

My copy is tack sharp, but hunts a bit during focus and isn't the quietest lens I have. It's all plastic except the mount, but seems solid enough and the optics are very good. In addition, to me what makes it worth the purchase are it's small size and light weight. It's not bad for a walkaround as long as you don't need a wide view.

Sharpness
weight
size
value

Hunts a bit in AF
A bit noisy
plastic and obviously feels less substantial than a heavier metal lens. Decide for yourself what significance these characteristics mean to you.

canon 50mm f1.8

NA

I have a few lenses but i use this one allot for portraits and for the price it's amazing. http://www.contactphotographer.co.uk

Light and extremely portable. It's not an attention seeker.

Focus ring.

50mm f1.8

On my 400d this is like walking around with a 45mm lens on a 35, The noise does
not bother me at all and the results have been better than I hoped for.
It's light ,unobtrusive and I have not used my zoom much since I got the 28.
I'm happy with the whole deal.

17-85 canon usm is

Prior to purchasing this lens I was using the Canon 20mm 2.8 USM and was generally unpleased with the resulys. The lens was very soft wide open and I felt I should have gotten more out of a lens of that price. I wanted to free up some cash to purchase some other equipment so I sold the 20mm and bought the 28mm 2.8 instead. Aside from not being as wide, I think the performance of this lens is just as good, if not better than the 20mm. It can be a little soft wife open, but not too bad. Very sharp when stopped down. The AF is quite noisy, but about the same as a Nikon 50mm 1.8d I use to have. all in all I'm pleased with this lens and It exceeds any zoom of an equivilent price or more. The lens hood is a piece of crap, but serves its purpose. I would definitley reccommend this lens to anyone on a budget. If you're on a budget it would go along nicely with the 50mm 1.8.

Decently fast at 2.8
Sharp
Nice wide angle on 35mm, Nice close to normal prime on a 1.6 crop body.
Built well

Noisy AF
Poor quality lens hood.

Nikon 50mm 1.8D
Canon 20mm 2.8 USM

N/A

I am a great fan of (expensive) PRIME lenses having owned and used them often during the 1980’s when I was mad keen, so in a way this is my first experience of a ‘cheapie’ EF lens.

I began collecting Canon FD and now EF EOS just a few months ago and have recently purchased a lovely (MINT) example of Canon’s old 28 F2.8 lens via E Bay for not much cash. This lens comes from the age when lens design wasn’t too concerned that any new lens had to cover 24 to 300 with 1:1 close up etc etc!

In other words it’s old but solid being designed to do ONE job really well rather than a jack of all trades and master of none.

It’s noisy, but not as bad as most Nikon auto focus lenses, it has no real manual focus ring but does have a DoF scale. It’s light and fairly fast at F2.8 and here’s the good news you can USE it wide open and still gain a decent shot – unlike most zooms which are far too soft. No problems with flare – have the matching Canon hood (which feels far too loose when in place) and the image sharpness and colours and contrast are spot on. Not an L lens but at only 10% of the cost it’s well worth trying……

Don’t be put off because it cheap as chips – get a good one and this cute little lens is a cracker!

Excellent image
Use it wide open and still get a decent shot (unlike most 'super' zooms)
Light
Compact
Cheap!

Not USM
Manual focus ring too small ( common problem on older EF lenses)

Nikon 28 f2.8 Nikkor Ai-s
Nikon 24 f2.8 Nikor Ai-s
Nikon 28 - 200 AF
Nikon 35 f2 Nikkor Ai-s
Canon 28 - 200 (AVOID)
Canon 28 F3.5 ( lovely) FD
Canon 35 f2.8 FD
Tokina 28 - 20 F2.8 ATX Pro
Simga 28 - 135
Etc
Etc

Great buy from E Bay - excellent seller, cheap price..