chops
21st of December 2004 (Tue), 17:11
Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with this lens?
We've had this lens sitting around for quite a while. I'm guessing it's from 1996 from the date on the sticker. Apparently when this lens was current, we were selling it for $1165. Back then, it was kind of rare to see an ultra wide angle lens, and when you did, it had to be sharp from edge to edge, since 35mm film was the only way to go, hence the super heavy and rugged build of this thing.
Anyway, I dug this thing out today and strapped it onto my 10D. I have to say, this is one heck of a nice, sharp lens!!! I can tell already that it blows the Canon 17-40 L right out of the water by a long shot. It focuses kind of slow, and noisy, but when it locks onto something, it is razor sharp from one edge to the other!! It's a rather fast lens too with a maximum F-stop of 2.7 @ 20mm and 3.5 @ 40mm, which is better than the 17-40 L. It's just a bit shy of being as wide as the Canon, but it's close enough for my needs. :D
Here's a few shots I took with it today. The first two images are resized full frame shots. The last two images are 100% full crops.
NOTE: These images are straight out of the camera, with no post processing done at all, and shot in JPG.
1) ISO:100, 20mm, F/5.6, Shutter 1/400 sec, Full Frame Resized
http://chops.tzo.com/t1.jpg
2) ISO:100, 20mm, F/2.7, Shutter 1/320 sec, Full Frame Resized
http://chops.tzo.com/t2.jpg
3) ISO:200, 20mm, F/2.7, Shutter 1/60 sec, 100% Full Crop
http://chops.tzo.com/t3.jpg
4) ISO:100, 20mm, F/3.5, Shutter 1/30 sec, 100% Full Crop
http://chops.tzo.com/t4.jpg
We've had this lens sitting around for quite a while. I'm guessing it's from 1996 from the date on the sticker. Apparently when this lens was current, we were selling it for $1165. Back then, it was kind of rare to see an ultra wide angle lens, and when you did, it had to be sharp from edge to edge, since 35mm film was the only way to go, hence the super heavy and rugged build of this thing.
Anyway, I dug this thing out today and strapped it onto my 10D. I have to say, this is one heck of a nice, sharp lens!!! I can tell already that it blows the Canon 17-40 L right out of the water by a long shot. It focuses kind of slow, and noisy, but when it locks onto something, it is razor sharp from one edge to the other!! It's a rather fast lens too with a maximum F-stop of 2.7 @ 20mm and 3.5 @ 40mm, which is better than the 17-40 L. It's just a bit shy of being as wide as the Canon, but it's close enough for my needs. :D
Here's a few shots I took with it today. The first two images are resized full frame shots. The last two images are 100% full crops.
NOTE: These images are straight out of the camera, with no post processing done at all, and shot in JPG.
1) ISO:100, 20mm, F/5.6, Shutter 1/400 sec, Full Frame Resized
http://chops.tzo.com/t1.jpg
2) ISO:100, 20mm, F/2.7, Shutter 1/320 sec, Full Frame Resized
http://chops.tzo.com/t2.jpg
3) ISO:200, 20mm, F/2.7, Shutter 1/60 sec, 100% Full Crop
http://chops.tzo.com/t3.jpg
4) ISO:100, 20mm, F/3.5, Shutter 1/30 sec, 100% Full Crop
http://chops.tzo.com/t4.jpg