Canon Lens Reviews
Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 10:41 am
Having tried out several Canon prime and zoom lenses over the past 2 years, I thought it might be a good idea to post a brief review of each one for those just getting into doll photography. I shoot with an 1000D Canon Rebel XS which is about as low on the totem pole as one can get, so if you have a full frame cam then these reviews probably won't help much. Think it's safe to say that most non-pros are using crop sensors though.
Canon 18-55 3.5-5.6 IS (image stabilized) zoom lens: Canon's standard "kit" lens which came with my Rebel. Wish I'd bought the body only and skipped this one but I was a total noob at the time of purchase. It's very soft in the center and slooooooow. Good news is that the image stabilizer works well so that one can slow the shutter speed quite a lot. Bad news is that slowing the shutter way down makes this lens even softer. It works pretty well outdoors, but not a good lens for indoor doll photography from my view.
Canon 50mm 1.8: This lens sells for about the same price as a kit lens brand new. Lightning fast and crazy sharp when stopped down a little from 1.8 (even sharper than most Canon L mucho bucks lenses from what I've read). Colors are decent but not spectacular. Auto focus motor works okay but makes annoying bee buzzing sound and the background blur generally sucks. Good lens overall for doll photography....especially face shots of your gal.
Canon 35mm 2.0: Beautiful colors, fast lens, good focal length on a crop sensor. I shot with pretty much nothing but this lens for several months and there were only a few occasions where it was just too tight and I had to use a wider angle zoom. Auto focus is similar to 50mm 1.8 (like a bee hive in your camera gear) and it's very soft at f2 but marginally sharp at 2.8. One can sharpen the image in just about any type of photo editor for a nice result and that's what I did.
Canon 40mm 2.8: This is the lens I would opt for over the kit lens if I were a first time dslr buyer (it costs just a little more). Great colors, wide enough for a variety of doll shots, and fast at f/2.8. A lot of people say this lens is sharp from 2.8 but mine wasn't until stopped down to f4. Still dig this lens anyway and it has a nice auto focus stepping motor that beats the hell out of the AF on the 35 and 50.
Sigma 18-50 2.8-4.5 OS (optical stabilized) zoom lens: Ran across a used copy of this lens on ebay late last year that was dirt cheap so I took a chance hoping to replace the kit lens and get the lowdown on Sig lenses. One can read a lot of very bad shit about Sigma quality control and focus issues on the web, but this one works quite well. It doesn't focus as consistently accurate as Canon lenses, but it's definitely not bad and the motor is really quiet. Images are much sharper than the kit lens in the center but colors are just okay (not Canon great by any stretch).
Sigma 18-50 2.8: Since there were no issues with the low end Sigma zoom, I took another chance and grabbed the higher end 2.8 version for a little more cash on ebay. This one is the shit as far as non-L glass zoom lenses go. Nice colors, contrast and sharp from 2.8 (very sharp by f/4). Auto focus is good and the motor is fairly quiet. Pretty easy to manually focus this puppy too. This lens has since been replaced by a 17-50 optically stabilized version, but one can find good used copies of the 18-50 for about half of what the OS version costs. Big fan of it.
We have the Canon 28mm 1.8 prime on order and I'll look to post a review at some point.
Happy shooting!
Canon 18-55 3.5-5.6 IS (image stabilized) zoom lens: Canon's standard "kit" lens which came with my Rebel. Wish I'd bought the body only and skipped this one but I was a total noob at the time of purchase. It's very soft in the center and slooooooow. Good news is that the image stabilizer works well so that one can slow the shutter speed quite a lot. Bad news is that slowing the shutter way down makes this lens even softer. It works pretty well outdoors, but not a good lens for indoor doll photography from my view.
Canon 50mm 1.8: This lens sells for about the same price as a kit lens brand new. Lightning fast and crazy sharp when stopped down a little from 1.8 (even sharper than most Canon L mucho bucks lenses from what I've read). Colors are decent but not spectacular. Auto focus motor works okay but makes annoying bee buzzing sound and the background blur generally sucks. Good lens overall for doll photography....especially face shots of your gal.
Canon 35mm 2.0: Beautiful colors, fast lens, good focal length on a crop sensor. I shot with pretty much nothing but this lens for several months and there were only a few occasions where it was just too tight and I had to use a wider angle zoom. Auto focus is similar to 50mm 1.8 (like a bee hive in your camera gear) and it's very soft at f2 but marginally sharp at 2.8. One can sharpen the image in just about any type of photo editor for a nice result and that's what I did.
Canon 40mm 2.8: This is the lens I would opt for over the kit lens if I were a first time dslr buyer (it costs just a little more). Great colors, wide enough for a variety of doll shots, and fast at f/2.8. A lot of people say this lens is sharp from 2.8 but mine wasn't until stopped down to f4. Still dig this lens anyway and it has a nice auto focus stepping motor that beats the hell out of the AF on the 35 and 50.
Sigma 18-50 2.8-4.5 OS (optical stabilized) zoom lens: Ran across a used copy of this lens on ebay late last year that was dirt cheap so I took a chance hoping to replace the kit lens and get the lowdown on Sig lenses. One can read a lot of very bad shit about Sigma quality control and focus issues on the web, but this one works quite well. It doesn't focus as consistently accurate as Canon lenses, but it's definitely not bad and the motor is really quiet. Images are much sharper than the kit lens in the center but colors are just okay (not Canon great by any stretch).
Sigma 18-50 2.8: Since there were no issues with the low end Sigma zoom, I took another chance and grabbed the higher end 2.8 version for a little more cash on ebay. This one is the shit as far as non-L glass zoom lenses go. Nice colors, contrast and sharp from 2.8 (very sharp by f/4). Auto focus is good and the motor is fairly quiet. Pretty easy to manually focus this puppy too. This lens has since been replaced by a 17-50 optically stabilized version, but one can find good used copies of the 18-50 for about half of what the OS version costs. Big fan of it.
We have the Canon 28mm 1.8 prime on order and I'll look to post a review at some point.
Happy shooting!
