Category: Lens reviews

Why I Chose The Canon 24-105 mm IS USM L Lens

Posted on by Ryan

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Upon reading the title some of you might be confused and say “What?! An L lens is a Pauper’s Lens?” Calm down, calm down. Put down the torches and pitch forks and let me explain.

Seriously the Canon 24-105mm IS USM L Lens is by no means a pauper’s lens. In fact this is a very pricey lens in its category. But it does not mean a pauper like me can’t save up and get this lens for the proper reasons. Spending a fortune on this lens actually will save me few thousand bucks in the long run and save me the hassle of selling a camera lens I no longer can use. So, why did I choose to have this? It’s because I can use it now with my current DSLR and would still be able to use it when I go full frame in the distant future.

I needed an all around lens I can use with my current DSLR body which is the 550D. A lot of my friends were suggesting the 17-55 f2.8 or the new 15-85mm. I know these 2 are great lenses. I have tried out these two lenses and they were fantastic for the crop framed DSLR’s. Others suggested the 18-135mm and the 18-200mm lens (which were no better than my kitlens). But the thing is I won’t be able to use them when I upgrade to a full frame. So, i will have to sell them, haggle with the price, etc etc and then add some more money and get a full frame compatible lens. And that is a big hassle.

With my current DSLR body the 24-105 is a great walk around lens. Not to mention it is a very sharp lens, built like a tank, weather sealed, full time manual focus. creamy bokeh, smooth zoom and focus rings,and an f4 all through out. It is my go to lens for out of the country travels and road trips and portraiture. And during times when I want to bring only one lens this is the lens I choose to bring. Well it is not that I have much to brag in my lens arsenal but the thing is I still use my 18-55 kit lens for landscape and big group photography and my 55-250 zoom for portraiture and Zoo photography.

I chose to drop my fortune on this lens because it fits exactly the description of the lens that I need. A walk around lens that I can use now with my 550D and can still use in the near future with a full frame body. And most of all it is an L lens. Cheers!

black camera lens

The Nifty Fifty Canon 50mm 1.8 Lens Review

Posted on by Ryan

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Being a teacher does not really rake in a lot of dough. And if you are a Photography enthusiast at the same time it would be a bit of a drag gathering all the goodies of photography.  Well, it is not really that bad I should say. Even for a family man like me.

For someone like me who is always on a tight budget(LOL), I make it a point to find something that is rather good but still within my budget. Search and research is the key.

For this review I will be talking about  the Canon’s nifty fifty. The good ole 50mm f1.8 Mk ii.

But let it be known… This review is not a professional review. This is a users review.

This lens has received a lot of very good feed backs from users.(My self included) It is quite popular in the country where I come from and very popular here in the country where I am living at present.

Let us start talking about why it is sought by many beginners and budget photographers like me. First, the price. At 3000 Thb (94 USD) this lens was really intriguing. This was the first lens I bought to boost my photography arsenal. But of course before I threw in the dough, I dug out all of the reviews of this lens in the internet. Scouring you-tube and blog sites with tags of this lens. Almost all of them had the same thing to say… “GET THIS LENS!” Second, at f1.8 this lens is really enticing. An f1.8 means a lot of light can pass through the lens and into the sensor and that is a good thing for low light photography, for blurring out back grounds, portraits, even for video this lens is awesome. And the last but not the least… it is a prime lens… no zooms.. a fixed focal length lens and this means it should be a sharp lens… and it is indeed a  very sharp lens! Well nothing comparable to an L lens but it is indeed plenty sharp.

Now nothing is ever perfect. A lot of people would be asking… “If this is such a good lens then why is it so cheap!?”

That would start me off talking about its down sides. This lens being a very cheap lens manifests its cheapness in its physical build. The first time I held it.. it felt like a toy. I had doubts when I went down to the camera store to buy it. But being in a very tight budget I had no choice. I badly needed a prime lens for portraiture at that time . The plastics it is made out of is really cheap looking. It jiggles about when you give it a shake. LOL!  The focus ring rotates when focusing. Not to mention it is quite.. I mean really loud. You would be able to hear it when focusing. Another complaint of pro-photographers is that it gives a pentagon-ish to oval-ish shape bokeh. Unlike the L-lenses. The bokeh it produces is round-ish.

images (1) images

To some photographers these downsides are deal-breakers. To some, a challenge. For me, these downsides are ignorable.(Is that even a word?) I have used this lens for a very long time. I have enjoyed the results it gives. And for me Photography is all about enjoyment.IMG_3958 aaabbbccc-2-Edit-1

If you want the best value for your money this is the lens for you.

P.S If you have the money to burn get the Canon 50mm 1.2 L lens. If you are planning of turning pro but don’t want to burn that much cash, get the Canon 50mm 1.4 USM lens. Cheers!

If I had missed out something, or  made a mistake about something please feel free to leave a comment down below!

 

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The Cheap Canon 55-250mm IS Zoom Lens Review

Posted on by Ryan

After such a long time i finally got the time to sit down and write about another under rated Canon lens. This lens can also be considered a kit lens since there are certain packages where they include this together with the Canon 18-55mm IS and the camera body.

So… this is my take on the Canon 55-250mm IS zoom lens.

First up let me just emphasize that this lens is definitely for beginners and… photographers who are in a very… and i mean very tight budget!

I have been using this lens for over 2 years now for 2 reasons. One, i haven’t gotten the money to upgrade (LOL!) and Two,  it is a very good lens that going”third-party” is not worth it and the only upgrade i have in mind would be a Canon L lens. There are a lot of third party lenses that could have replaced this lens in my line up but the question is… “What for?” This lens delivers the goods! That is what is important. For the span of over two years that it’s been with me i believe this has been used more than any of my other lenses. The focal range is pretty much perfect for me. At 55 mm it’s quite wide enough for a small group shot and at 250 mm the reach is decent enough to get a distant shot or a tight shot with a decent blurry background.

Taken at 250mm.
Blurring the background at 250mm

This is still my walk around lens in “street events” even though I already have a Canon 24-105mm f4 IS USM L walk-around-lens that i bought early last year. During street events there are so many interesting things that can happen and having a semi wide to a very long reach is an advantage. And at close range blurring the background becomes an easy option as well. Some would ask… “Why didn’t you get the Canon 18-200mm IS lens then?” Well I have to be honest, this lens was just a measly 8,900 Thb when I bought it. (It’s even cheaper now) The 18-200mm on the other hand was over 20,000 Thb. So during that time i had no choice. But luckily, a blessing in disguise, this lens turned out to have better IQ than that of the much more expensive lens. (I have tried the 18-200 as well and will do a review of it also soon.)

Did I mention that this lens has IS? The Image Stabilization on this lens works. Having a long focal range, this lens is good to have an IS. The longer sibling of this lens, the Canon 70-300mm USM non IS is a bit more expensive than this one (12,000Thb) and i have tried it myself…but without the IS  it did not give me the confidence shooting it. Another sibling would be the Canon 70-300mm IS USM but is waaaay too expensive at 18,000 Thb. I was thinking, “if i’m gonna spend that kind of money i’ll just have to save a bit more for a 70-200 L USM lens  f4 which costs 22,00 Thb.

I know… I know.. you have the image quality in mind now. When I said it delivers the goods I really meant it delivers the goods. This lens is sharp! At 55mm f3.5 this lens delivers a sharp image and will get sharper at f8. It holds the colors nicely in place so don’t worry about color fringing. At 250mm at f5.6 it’s still  fairly sharp and gets even better at f8. It has very minimal barrel distortion or pincushion.  Now I will not go into technical details since I am no expert and I do not have the proper scientific way of projecting those claims here. But all these that I have mentioned are the things that I have experienced personally.

So now you might be asking “If this lens is that good then why is it that it gets shunned by a lot of photographers?” Well that question brings me on the this len’s negative side. Of Course this lens being a very cheap lens will have some manifestations of its cheapness. Let us start with its build quality. 1. Plastic mount:  The barrel itself is also made of plastic which may turn off a lot of photographers.  2. No weather sealing.

Other reasons why many photographers don’t like this lens is….. 3. its rotating barrel tip, quite annoying if you like filters,  4.focusing is not fully manual so you would have to turn off the AF when you want to manually focus. 5. There is no distance scale window. 6.Focusing is slow especially at 200mm up. 7.The tiny motor is fairly quiet err.. noisy.. 8. The IQ though sharp it has this shade of darkness to it but nothing that lightroom or photoshop could not fix…  9.The bokeh it produces is oval-ish in shape. Unlike the L lenses that produces rounded bokeh. 10. Can only be mounted on crop frame sensor Canon DSLRs. 11.No free lens hood when bought. ^_^

Notice the Oval-ish bokeh at the back ground

These are all the down sides of this lens i know. I have managed to gather all these negative comments of this lens from different  reviews I found on you tube or some blogs by photographers who “HAVE NOT USED THIS LENS IN THE REAL WORLD!!!!”

Once again i will be restating what i said earlier. This lens is for beginners. A first zoom lens so to speak. So let us try to take on the downsides they said that “really matters” one by one.

1. Cheap build quality. True… because this is a very cheap lens. But, trust me… this lens is tough enough to survive me for more than 2 years. The rubber grips on the focus and zoom rings did not even warp or deform despite the use and abuse. And i have not had any mechanical problems with it ever since I bought it. (but i never dropped it though ^_^)

2. Rotating barrel tip. I have never used an ND filter or any kinds of filter on my zoom lens so it was not really a bother. For beginners i do believe that you would be more focused on framing and having fun with the background blurring or what not rather than pissing yourself with the rotating barrel tip.

3. No full manual focus ring, no distance window scale: Once again… as beginners it is most comfortable to use auto focusing. Speaking for myself  i seldom used manual focusing. So i leave it on AF and i am very happy about it. ^_^.. And i never have ever needed a distance window scale.

4. The plastic mount: This lens is so light that putting a metal mount on it would be like using nails instead of pins for your Justin Bieber poster. ^_^

5. For some photographers size matters so they get turned off when they realize how small and light this lens is. LOL! Meh… I don’t need to confirm my manhood by the size of my lens! Do you?

one last thing… I read one review by this blogger who said that… “It’s a shame that this lens can only be mounted on a crop frame Canon DSLR. that is indeed true because this is a very good lens….. but, if you can afford a full frame DSLR… you can afford to buy a much better lens. ^_^

That’s about it.

I hope this review helps.

Leave your comments and your own opinion about this lens. If i may have made an error in this review kindly point it out and i will work on it ASAP! Cheers!

Ryan D. Photography ^_^

The Most Under Rated Canon Lens: Canon 18-55mm IS Kit Lens

Posted on by Ms. Elle

The Canon 18-55mm IS kit lens is perhaps the most under rated lens in the canon line up. You would hear a lot of newbies ranting about how bad this lens is… why they have not gotten the optional 18-135 mm lens etc etc… with out even giving this lens a proper and or a fair use. Most of the common complaints would be the lack of focus ring, poor build quality and last would be the rotating barrel tip. Other subjective complaints would be… it’s size… just because it’s small most newbies think it is uncool or unmanly.(yep even in photography some people think size matters LOL!) And they would often shy away from other photographers with bigger lenses. Others would think; because this lens is cheap it equates to poor image quality. I have used this lens for a year and i would say i have given it a fair share of use and learned photography using it. Experience wise this lens has given me good quality pictures. It is fairly sharp though with a slight distortion at its widest focal length(but it’s not something a PS can’t correct). While it may not have a stellar performance as an L lens (Luxury Lens) would but i would say that it does give an excellent photo for its price.

The Canon 18-55mm IS kit lens produces better IQ than the favored Canon 18-135mm and the  Canon 18-200mm IS. This lens also does not fall that far behind in terms of IQ from the more expensive Canon 17-85mm IS USM and the new Canon 15-85mm IS USM Canon lenses.

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The three most common problems raised by most people/critique (who most probably have not used this lens) is not actually a big problem in actual practice.

1. The absence of the focus ring may sound atrocious when read in a review or when mentioned in video reviews. But,  it is not really a big problem in actual practice. A lens hood can be used as an alternate focus ring. But the thing is, as a beginner my personal experience was that I used AF(auto Focus) all the time.

2. The poor build quality they have been complaining about is actually unfair to say to this lens. It is fairly made out of nice plastics that is even textured to mimic the alloy body of some premium lenses. OK,  I know that will not equate to a good build quality but comparing it to other third party lens in its price range this lens is better built.  The absence of a metal mount, well, the lens is so light that having a metal mount would be an over-kill.

3. The rotating barrel tip has always been a major issue with photographers. Yes this is true if you are already into filters and what not. But, for the beginners, in actual practice, very few go into filters right away. Most beginners would be so preoccupied with rule of thirds and framing and just taking pictures of whatever they see around them thus making this claim null and void.

I highly recommend the 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 kit lens most especially to beginners who just got their first DSLR and to hobbyists who are on a tight budget. For beginners this is the best lens there is… it is light and has image stabilization. The reach may not be long but there is a complimenting lens.. the 55-250mm IS telephoto lens which is also an excellent lens for its price. But that would be another review.

Hope this review helps newbies like me out there confusing themselves with what lens to buy to immediately replace their kit lens with.. I suggest you try this lens out first, make the most out of it, learn from it.

Pros:

Image Stabilization

Light weight

Very Cheap

IQ is better than most 3rd party lens in its price range

IQ is better than the more sought and more expensive Canon 18-135mm IS and the 18-200mm IS walk around lenses.

IQ does not fall that far behind from other more expensive Canon lens in its category (eg. 17-85mm IS USM and the 15-85mm IS USM).

Cons:

No focus ring

Poor build quality

Rotating barrel tip

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