Canon lens instant savings
Perhaps in response to consumer complaints about the handling of rebates (and perhaps not), Canon is offering instant savings on lenses. I ordered a Canon 70-200 f/4L IS @AMAZONL IS from amazon.com, and the rebate was applied right at checkout—no hassle filling out a rebate coupon, responding to a bogus postcard claiming I didn’t send in the receipt, etc.
See my Lens Reference, which will be steadily updated/improved. Below are my brief thoughts on the lenses which have “instant savings”. Please help support this site, by clicking on a link to buy one at amazon.com, at no cost to yourself (and no rebate hassle!).
Lens | Comments |
---|---|
Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS @AMAZON | Big and heavy, performs especially well at the long end (200mm). Wide open, performance is excellent, but by f/5.6 (on full-frame), imaging quality becomes hard to criticize. |
EF 70-200 f/4L IS @AMAZON | Mine is on order. Much nicer handling than the f/2.8 model (more compact, lighter weight), making it a far better choice for any kind of walk-around shooting, backpacking, hiking, etc. The difference is much more than one might expect (I’ve handled both). |
EF 70-300mm /f4.5-5.6L DO IS @AMAZON | I shot this lens briefly, but on full frame (Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II), I was not impressed at the edges and corners. On a camera with less than a full-frame sensor (like the Digital Rebel or Canon 1D Mark II/III), this might make a fine lens. |
EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS @AMAZON | Can be quite a good performer optically, but it’s a fairly large and awkward lens. I really dislike its push/pull zoom design. Still, image quality can be very high over most of the frame, even more than that of the prime lens 400mm f/4.6L (see Feb 11 blog entry). |
EF 24-70mm f/2.8L @AMAZON | An outstanding mid-range zoom. Mine offers biting sharpness even wide open. |
EF 17-40mm f/4L @AMAZON | I tried this lens along with a 16-35mm f/2.8L. At a stop slower, many people like it for its smaller size and weight. I’m not a big fan of it, since the loss of a whole stop is a problem for wide-angle interior shooting. Image quality of the 16-35 f/2.8L is slightly better and slightly worse, depending on the focal length. |
EF 28mm f/1.8 @AMAZON | I’m considering whether to try this lens. It is a nice focal length, and far more compact than the 24-70 f/2.8L zoom, while offer 4/3 stop more “speed”. A friend whose judgment I trust claims that copies manufactured more recently are optically excellent. |
EF 50mm f/1.4 @AMAZON | I’ve owned two copies of this lens, and it has many fine qualities, but disappoints side open. My cheap plastic $76 EF 50mm f/1.8 II @AMAZON is just as good optically, at 1/4 the price. |
EF 85mm f/1.2L II @AMAZON | A must-have lens for the full-frame shooter who does any portrait work. Extremely sharp, with lovely background rendering, it’s optical quality matches anything from Leica or Zeiss. |
EF 400mm f/5.6L @AMAZON | Disappointing, at least on the EOS 5D. See Feb 11 blog entry. |
EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro @AMAZON | While it has an unbelievably good MTF chart, I’ve tried two samples of this lens on the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, and both were disappointing at anything approaching infinity. Perhaps the lens really is optimized for close-up work only. |