What's your best NON L Lens??

For me in zooms, the EFS 17-55 IS closely followed by the 10-22. For primes the 85 1.8 and the 50 1.4.

this is one of those questions where its easier to answer when you don't have a lot of glass. So I have to do it by category.

Fisheye = Peleng 8mm
UWA Zoom = Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
Normal Zoom = EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM
Normal Prime = Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar T 2/58
Macro Prime = EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
Telephoto Zoom = Vivitar Series1 70-210mm f2.8-f4.0 Qdos

1. Canon 85 1.8
2. Tamron 17-55 2.8
all on a 40D or 50D body...

don't have any non L's - and I'm happy to admit it

tkbslc wrote in post #9189578
Tokina 50-135mm f2.8. SHARP with insane build quality. I think I could back over it and it would be OK

I concur with that!
its a mack tack, for sure.

also in there is my 50/1.4

zeiss - better than L.

gonna have to give a shoutout to my favorite lens at the moment... 85mm f/1.8

Hm... I'd say all my primes are L-class:

Samyang 85mm/1.4 (85L you say? ...and how much did you pay for that? Oh, cool. I got the same IQ for a tenth of the*€€€.)

Sigma 50mm/1.4 Need I say more?

Sigma 50mm/2.8 Macro (Okay, this might be pushing it, as this is quite a humble lens even if it sharper than most)

My favorite? The Samylux. Gotta love that smooth helicoid!

EDIT: 50mm Macro is out, 180mm Macro is in. And it's great!

Probably my CZ 28/2.8 but I will tell you, the Tamron 28-75 is better in some ways, sharpness and contrast. Hard to believe but I did a side by side once at 28mm/f8.

Forgot the Sigma 150. Another very good lens, imo.

Carl Zeiss 21mm ZE.... Next is my Sigma 50mm. This lens kicks some serious butt when shooting through glass in a public aquarium...

With regard to image quality: the 100 mm f/2.8 macro. It's incredibly sharp.

Value-for-money: the 50 mm f/1.8.

I also like my 35 mm f/2. It's nice and small and I like this focal length a lot on my 5D.

Last weekend I had my Sigmalux on one body and a 70-200 2.8L IS on the other body. Apart from the obvious difference in focal length, the IQ from both lenses is stunning. After lots of cropping, it's utterly impossible to tell which lens took which shot - sharpness, bokeh, colour, contrast...all gorgeous.

The non L Canon 100mm f2.8 is a great lens. Super sharp with very rich colors and gorgeous brokeh. I guess it would be nice to have the L f2.8 since it has IS, but if you have enough light or are able to keep a steady hand then it will do very well.

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Sigma 50mm 1.4 EX
It's simply epic.
Better than the 50 1.2 L and less than half the price.

Canon EFS 17-55 F2.8 IS Lens