Prime lenses are often known for their image quality and the EF 100mm f/2 USM is no exception. This was one of my first prime lenses and I was thoroughly impressed with its results. Colors look nice, and subjects are particularly very sharp.

Focal Length

At 100mm this fast telephoto lens is directly in the “portrait range” of focal lengths. It will get you in pretty close to your subject, enabling tight potraits. You can move in close for head & shoulders shots, or put some distance between you and the subject for upper-body portraits.

I also like telephoto lenses for landscape photos. Wide angles are popular in this genre, but telephoto compression can really make a landscape look fantastic. Here’s a sunset over the mountains in upstate New York that I nabbed with the EF 100mm f/2 USM:

Digital Rebel XTi, 100mm f/2 USM @ f/6.3, 1/250, ISO 400

I say “nabbed” because this was not carefully shot with precise settings and a tripod, but rather it was a quick grab from the passenger seat of a car going 65 mph.

Fast f/2 Aperture

This is a fast lens that is capable of a wide f/2 maximum aperture. This makes it great for shooting in low light conditions such as gymnasiums and theaters, or on the street in the evening. The depth of field at f/2 is shallow and will give you a nice blurry background behind the subject. Here is a sample of its background-blurring capabilities:

Canon EOS 5D, EF 100mm f/2 USM @ f/2, 1/80, ISO 1600

Autofocus

The USM in its name stands for Ultrasonic Motor, which is Canon’s high performance AF motor. The EF 100mm f/2 USM focuses fast! You will especially notice the focusing speed if you are stepping up from kit lenses — when you hit the button the 100 f/2 really locks on quick.

The AF on this lens is also quiet. Unlike cheaper lenses such as the 50mm f/1.8 II which lacks USM and has a whine to its AF, the 100mm f/2 makes very little noise while locking onto the subject.

Size

This lens is small and light. It is roughly the size of my hand and does not take up much real estate inside a camera bag. Since it is small in size and dark in color, you probably will not draw much attention shooting with it out in public. It’s always nice to have a telephoto lens that doesn’t scream “photographer here!”

Here is the EF 100mm f/2 mounted on both a small-sized Digital Rebel and a medium-sized EOS 5D:

Conclusion

This was one of my favorite lenses on both my Digital Rebel and 5D for a long time due to its wonderful image quality and the unique point of view you can get working with the 100mm focal length. I eventually upgraded to the 135mm f/2 L, which is a much more expensive, professional lens with more reach and a more rugged build quality. The two are very similar — if you have had your eye on the 135mm but have a hard time justifying the price, the EF 100mm f/2 USM is a very good alternative. The EF 100mm f/2 USM is much cheaper than the 135L, but still has pleasing image quality, sharpness and fast autofocus.

Where to get it

• Canon EF 100mm f/2 USM at B&H
• Canon EF 100mm f/2 USM at Adorama
• Canon EF 100mm f/2 USM at Amazon.com

Making purchases through these links helps support this site.

Photo credit: Nikon

Here’s the rundown on this new glass:

Nano Crystal Coat

I have heard many Nikon shooters rave about how the ED coating does a great job of reducing ghosting and flare.

VR

Vibration Reduction helps stabilize the lens, reducing blur from hand shake (but not from moving subjects).

f/4

A constant minimum aperture of f/4 throughout the zoom range. It can also be closed down to f/32.

Focusing

Auto-focuses as close as 2m, manually focuses as close as 1.95m.

Head to Nikon’s page for this lens if you’re interested in the nitty gritty such as MTF charts and construction diagrams.

If you have not used one of these lenses before, it’s pretty big. With the hood and all, probably as long as your arm. A friend of mine owned one for a while, and he had a specific backpack just for this lens.

Differences from the original model

This is an update to the original 200-400mm lens. They’ve added the Nano Crystal Coating and improved the VR from a 3 stop advantage to now 4 stops. An AF/M mode has also been added and is intended to prevent the photographer from accidentally switching from AF to manual focus mode.

This is an FX lens.

Availability

The AF-S 200-400mm f/4 ED VR II is available for pre-order on Amazon for a cool $6,999 USD. It is not appearing in B&H’s catalog yet, but I will update this page when it does. Release is scheduled for late May.

Image Quality & Performance

The EF 50mm f/1.8 II gets very good image quality, and when you take its price into account — $99 — it has astounding image quality for the price. One of the first things many people notice about this lens is its sharpness. Its results at f/1.8 are decent in terms of sharpness, but that’s often magnified by the selective focus. Shooting at an f/1.8 aperture creates blurred out-of-focus backgrounds which can make the subject really pop out of the photo. This is often a very impressive result for photographers who have never used a lens such as this.

Canon Digital Rebel XTi, 50mm f/1.8 II @ f/1.8, ISO 100, 1/500

The quality of the blur in out-of-focus areas is not great. The shapes and highlights can often appear to be harsh. This is a side effect of the lens’ internal construction, and you won’t see improvement until you spend more money on expensive lenses.

The focusing capabilities of the 50mm f/1.8 II in extremely dim environments is not good. This lens does not have USM, which is short for Ultrasonic Motor, Canon’s high performance auto focus system. It does auto focus, but tends to hunt around and have trouble finding your subject in low light. Switching to manual focusing helps, but the focusing ring is very small and EOS digital cameras make it difficult to accurately see focus at wide apertures through the viewfinder without a special focusing screen which is sold separately.

One slick way to deal with a lens that has trouble focusing in low light is to use a shoe-mount external flash. These flashes will shine an auto-focus assist light on your subject that the lens will pick up on and lock focus.

Large f/1.8 maximum aperture

The large f/1.8 maximum aperture means that you can make the opening through which light passes onto the camera sensor very large. One effect is the selective focus and background blur mentioned in the previous section. Another advantage of a large maximum aperture is that it opens the door to low light shooting.

Canon Digital Rebel XTi, 50mm f/1.8 II @ f/1.8, ISO 1600, 1/40

The photo you see above was shot in a dark backyard at 9:30 PM with trees overhead and a single, dim light over the back door.

Having a lens with a large opening for light to enter means that more light gets to your camera sensor at once. Shooting “wide open” at f/1.8 lets you take advantage of faster shutter speeds in low light environments, which helps prevent blur from both shaking hands and moving subjects. Say hello to sharper, less blurry photos indoors, in gyms, bars, clubs, restaurants, theaters and such.

50mm Focal Length

Traditionally this is a “normal” lens which means that its field of view resembles what humans are accustomed to seeing with the naked eye. This is still true on a “full frame” digital camera such as the EOS 5D and 1Ds series. On a “cropped” camera, one with an APS-C sensor such as the Digital Rebel series, 30D/40D/50D and 7D the field of view changes to being slightly telephoto. On these cameras, the EF 50mm f/1.8 II will bring you a little closer to your subject. Indoors, you may sometimes end up with your back to the wall, and will sometimes struggle to fit more than one or two people in the frame. Head-and-shoulders portraits of single subjects are easier to get.

This is a prime lens. It does not zoom. If you want to get closer to or further from your subject, it is incumbent upon you to physically move yourself and the camera. I do not view this as a con, as I prefer prime lenses for a great deal of situations. They tend to be smaller, lighter, and capable of larger max apertures than zoom lenses. And in the case of lenses such as this, prime lenses can have great image quality at a lower price.

Build Quality

The EF 50mm f/1.8 II is built cheap. Then again, it is cheap. Everything except the glass, even the lens mount, is made from plastic. It is very easy to break; if I’m remembering my track record correctly, I’ve personally busted two of these.

This photo shows my first 50mm f/1.8 with a broken lens mount. I dropped it on a tile hotel room floor in the Caribbean and the lens mount cracked and separated from the barrel. I put it on the camera to take test shots without thinking, and it got stuck. I ended up forcefully snapping the lens off the camera, and was lucky enough to have my camera survive. I seem to have a talent for breaking camera lenses whilst abroad.

Aside from ruggedness, the 50mm f/1.8 has a very small manual focus ring that is difficult to use. Also, there is no window for distance markings.

Conclusion

The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II the best bang for the buck you’ll find in Canon’s lens lineup. Its costs a fraction of what other lenses go for, gets good image quality (excellent for the price), enables blurry out-of-focus backgrounds and opens the door to low light photography.

On the down side, its construction is very poor. If you want this lens to last, you need to take very good care of it. Autofocusing suffers in low light, and the background blur at wide apertures is not always pleasing.

The 50mm f/1.8 II is a gateway lens — great for photographers who are looking to venture beyond their kit lens and experiment with new gear. It will introduce you to the concept of a special purpose lens designed to excel in very specific situations. Best of all, this experimentation does not cost much.

When considering that camera lenses sell for hundreds and even thousands of dollars, many people conclude that the 50mm f/1.8 II is a “no brainer” purchase. In terms of dollar-for-dollar image quality, this lens is hard to beat. And for some, that value makes the cons of this lens easier to overlook.

Where to buy it

• Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II at B&H
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II at Adorama
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II at Amazon.com

Making purchases through these links helps support this site.

Focal Length Range

The EF 24-105 f/4L is a general purpose zoom lens. Its range of focal lengths is very useful, going from wide angle at 24mm to telephoto at 105mm. You can shoot sweeping landscapes with the short end, then zoom in close for portraits, detail shots and the like.

Canon Digital Rebel XTi, 24-105 f/4L IS USM @ 24mm, f/5, ISO 400, 1/20

Photographers whose cameras have APS-C sensors will not see a wide field of view on the 24mm end of this lens due to their cameras’ crop factor. This includes the Digital Rebel series, prosumer series (30D/40D/50D etc…), and the 7D. If you have one of these cameras and are looking for a wide angle field of view, you’ll need to look at lenses around 20mm or less.

Aside from its effects on the wide angle field of view, a crop factor will give you a lot more reach on the 105mm telephoto end of this lens which most people usually appreciate.

A DSLR with a crop factor has a sensor smaller than traditional 35mm film. This has the effect of “cropping out” a smaller area of the scene, hence the name. Crop factors don’t change focal length or make this any less of a lens, but they do change your field of view and so you should be aware of their effects.

Wide Angle Distortion

The 24-105 suffers from very noticeable distortion at wide angles. Lines will curve and bulge out — depending on your position and angle on the subject, the effects range from very slight to pronounced.

Canon EOS 5D, 24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 24mm, f/8, ISO 800, 1/5

Notice how the columns of the building bulge out like a barrel. This effect is sometimes apparent at the short end of this lens and disappears as you zoom in.

Image Stabilization

The Image Stabilization of the EF 24-105 f/4L IS USM is extremely useful. The IS enables 3 extra stops before you see blur from hand movement. I’ve made extensive use of this feature in dark environments and can attest to its effectiveness.

Canon EOS 5D, 24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 24mm, f/4.5, ISO 1600, 1/6

Take a look at the details in this image. The lines on the barrel and in the writing are all sharp, and yet this photo was shot hand-held at 1/6 sec. Besides hand-holding at slower shutter speeds, IS is also the gateway to more depth of field in dark situations, and using lower ISO ratings to improve image quality and reduce noise.

Keep in mind that although IS reduces blur resulting from hand movement, it cannot reduce motion blur. In order to freeze moving subjects you must use a fast shutter speed.

Constant f/4 Max Aperture

The EF 24-105 f/4L IS USM features a constant maximum aperture of f/4. This is a welcome advantage over kit lenses and consumer zooms which usually have a variable maximum aperture in the f/3.5-5.6 range.

What?

In a kit lens, the maximum diameter of the opening through which light passes shrinks as you zoom in. This affects your exposure — you need a slower shutter speed or higher ISO in order to get a telephoto shot than you do when shooting the same subject zoomed out to a wide angle.

I cannot stand having to re-think my exposure settings as I change focal lengths, and so lenses like the 24-105 with a constant maximum aperture are a welcome upgrade. The 24-105 can shoot at f/4 at 24mm, and it still shoots at f/4 when zoomed in to 105mm. A kit lens might have f/3.5, or even f/2.8 at the short end, but will likely go to f/4.5 or 5.6 when zoomed in.

Background Blur

An f/4 lens usually isn’t associated with diffuse, out-of-focus backgrounds (“bokeh”), however the telephoto capabilities of this lens make subject isolation a little more possible. Get close to your subject, zoom in to 105mm, shoot wide open at f/4, put some distance between the subject and the background and you’ll get some nicely blurred out-of-focus backgrounds.

Image Quality

The EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM has very good image quality. It is respectably sharp starting at f/4, gets nice colors and contrast. Its wide angle distortion can be frustrating, but is also fixable if you’re willing to spend a few seconds doing perspective correction in Photoshop.

Build Quality

Like other L lenses, the 24-105 is built tough. The lens is weather sealed (requires a filter on the front element to complete sealing) and the barrel is rugged. How rugged? I dropped my 24-105 from chest height onto asphalt while in Europe. It hit the ground, took a bounce and rolled to my feat. After making sure the mount was not damaged I took it back to the hotel, put it on my camera, did a few test shots and discovered the IS, auto focusing and other features were still in perfect working order. I continued using the lens throughout the remainder of the trip. The only evidence of the incident are a few nicks on the barrel. I’d call that impressive.

Please do not try this at home.

Conclusion

The 24-105 is an extremely versatile zoom lens. The image stabilization makes low light photography much more accessible to photographers without top-of-the-line cameras, and the focal length range leaves you ready for almost any situation. This is an excellent travel lens — I’ve gone on many trips with the 24-105 as my only gear.

I cannot end this review without mentioning the Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L. If you spend any amount of time on photography social networking sites and message boards, you know that the two of these are compared constantly. Many Canon photographers looking to upgrade their kit lens and move into “L territory” often consider these two similar lenses. The 24-70 lacks IS and does not zoom as far as the 24-105, but it does have a larger maximum aperture of f/2.8.

Both the 24-70 and 24-105 are excellent lenses, and your decision between the two depends entirely upon your shooting style. Photographers looking for an all-around solution, a lens to put on the camera and leave there, would probably prefer the 24-105. On the other hand, prime lens shooters may prefer the optical quality of the 24-70.

I own both of these lenses. The 24-105 got constant use for a number of years, but I’ve recently switched to the 24-70 because I feel its image quality is closer to my prime lenses, which are what I prefer the most. In my opinion the 24-70 gets better color and contrast than the 24-105. The 24-70’s f/2.8 also makes it more possible to capture moving subjects, which suits a photojournalistic style.

With all that said, the 24-105mm f/4L IS is one of the most versatile professional quality lenses you can get from Canon, and if I had to choose just one piece of equipment to travel with, it would be the 24-105.

Where to to Buy the EF 24-105 f/4L IS

• Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM at B&H
• Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM at Adorama
• Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM at Amazon.com

Making purchases through these links helps support this site.

On February 9^th Nikon announced a new lens aimed at their entry-level customers: the AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G. This is prime glass boasting a wide f/1.8 maximum aperture, small size & light weight and an attractive price tag.

Nikon’s new 35mm f/1.8 is an introductory fixed focal length lens aimed at owners of Nikon’s entry-level cameras (the D40, D60 & D90) who are looking to experiment with this sort of equipment. Its wide f/1.8 maximum aperture enables low light shooting without a flash and allows for a shallow depth of field to isolate subjects and produce soft out-of-focus backgrounds. Plus the lens’ small size and weight makes it very portable.

Nikon’s release of the 35mm f/1.8 DX is a throwback to the SLR film days in that its field of view on a cropped DX sensor is approximately equivalent to the “normal” 50mm lenses that are prevalent among 35mm and full frame shooters. A 50mm f/1.8 lens is available from Nikon, but its field of view becomes slightly telephoto with the DX format of these entry-level DSLR cameras ands its auto focus system is not compatible with every Nikon DSLR. You can read more about why Nikon thinks their entry level customers want a normal prime and why “DX is not dead” in “35mm F1.8 for DX? What is Nikon up to?” by Digital Photography Review (link via Benjamin Golub on FriendFeed).

Last but not least is the 35mm f/1.8 DX’s price tag — an attractive $260. Good glass gets very expensive very quickly, which has had the side effect of creating a large market for cheap fast primes like the “nifty fifty” 50mm f/1.8 lenses (which run under $100.00). By engineering the 35mm f/1.8 as an accessible consumer-grade lens instead of professional glass, Nikon should be able to capitalize on two photographic effects that a great many SLR shooters fall in love with at first sight: ambient light shots and shallow depth of field.