| This is one of the most primitive lenses ever made for Canon EOS mount: cheap, plastic,
pretty normal field of view for 1.6x crop (56mm equivalent at full frame) and not much anything else for full frame either.
I have been using 17-40/4L zoom a couple of years as my normal lens for outdoors. By construction quality and
zoom possibilities it massively outperforms my new 35/2. Why on earth I chose to buy
a fixed cheap model inside my zoom range then? The answers are mostly very subjective. But here we go: |
| Many years ago, at film times, I used to shoot slide film with 35mm and 50mm lenses only. I never
felt that I should have zoom, but went happy on shooting. I kind of miss my old approach with
one camera and one simple fixed lens at time. With zoom I have very bad tendency to look composition only by framing
while the depth aspect and perspective are going out of window so to speak. I will not learn to 'think' any particular focal
length but restlessly try to zoom out more or less compromized frames. |
| I have been using a bit 50/2.5 Macro. Many ways EF 35/2
reminds me of 50/2.5: picture quality is ridiculously good for both of them. 50/2.5 supposedly takes a slight edge
on sharpness and contrast but you would be hard pushed to tell the difference in most situations.
35/2 is even lighter (210g) and smaller, autofocus is faster on middle focusing point but buzzing quite a
lot if you choose any other point. |
| One of the best character of 35/2 is the compact size. I can put it into my side pocket while
go out shooting birds with tele, 17-40/4 is much more cumbersome and requires very big pocket at least. On casual shooting
and street photography small size + possibility to use wider apertures are definitely bonuses. If I ever will
be taking two camera bodies on my trips in future, this one would be mounted for the second body more often than not.
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| Field of view at my 30D is a tad longer than normal 50mm on full frame. Many people consider
this focal length range quite demanding for outdoor shooting, isolation of subject is more difficult than with tele
yet you have to struggle to compose a larger view with distinct foreground, middle and background like of what
you can easily do with wide angles. I have taken this as a challenge to develop my eye though :)
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| Nowadays I carry this lens most of time while out, studying composition and shooting even for
very unlikely subjcets. The last picture was taken after I opened my eyes at bed, looked wall and decided to give a
try for a more abstract subject, from there and then ;) Still looking for that better capture, happy shooting!
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