Not diggin' the 35L...

Perhaps you spent so much time lusting after the 35 and dreaming about it's greatness that it let you down somewhat, or wasn't all what you expected.
I'd think that FL isn't for everyone, and it depends on what you shoot mostly. You could always sell it here to someone. They rarely pop up on the FS forum, and when they do, they're gone in the hour.

perryge wrote in post #7067057
Ok so I've decided that I'm going to do one of two things:

a) Take the 35L back to the store, play with a 50L, if I like it, I will exchange the lens and pay the difference (though they charge a 15% restocking fee ) or just get a refund. OR
b) Buy a used 50 1.4 tomorrow and keep the 35L. I've found a seller, he's a got a hood, the price is good.

OMG!, dont get hit with a 15% restocking fee.

I'll trade you my 50 f/1.4 + cash on my end!
Its in mint condition with boxes papers styrofoam inserts and whatever came with it (i baby my gear) (no hood though)

Had a B+W filter on it since day one!

perryge, you should try the 35 on a 1.6 crop!!! It's perfect. hahahaahah.

Actually I agree with you, the 35L is a great lens but it focal length doesn't light my fire.
If i run with a 2 lens combo i'd rather my 85L and 16-35IIL, but that's just me.
I can think of several lenses that I'd choose over the 35L, a 24-70 or 16-35...maybe even a 50L too.

perryge wrote in post #7067057
Ok so I've decided that I'm going to do one of two things:

a) Take the 35L back to the store, play with a 50L, if I like it, I will exchange the lens and pay the difference (though they charge a 15% restocking fee ) or just get a refund. OR
b) Buy a used 50 1.4 tomorrow and keep the 35L. I've found a seller, he's a got a hood, the price is good.

Odd.

I'm confused by your statement in (A). You'll get slapped with restocking fee if you return/exchange it for a 50L? But if you went for a straight return, you'll be able to get a full refund? (or does the restocking fee apply both ways?)

Maybe sticking with the 35L is an opportunity to step out of the comfort zone a little bit. Was looking at your urban, etc., Flickr folder and most of the shots seem to be at the 50mm (true) or above although I didn't look at the EXIF and could be wrong. You have some great shots there, of course, but maybe the 35mm could shift your perspective a little bit. For instance, what if you hit the streets looking for shots in which the sides of the frame talk to each other, rather than framing with the subject in the middle? Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand are good at this.

I need to do the opposite as I usually tend to see things with wider framing.

GMCPhotographics wrote in post #7067276
Actually I agree with you, the 35L is a great lens but it focal length doesn't light my fire.
If i run with a 2 lens combo i'd rather my 85L and 16-35IIL, but that's just me.
I can think of several lenses that I'd choose over the 35L, a 24-70 or 16-35...maybe even a 50L too.

i sold the 35L after a week. it didn't do it for me either. it's the same size as the 17-40L and costs twice as much.

on FF i prefer 50mm and i use the canon 50 1.4 by default....but really i walkaround with the 24-70L or 16-35L II.

ed rader

I find it perfect on the 5D for indoor low light shots. I can take a full picture of myself with the camera not far away. And I am 6`4
But that is the only thing I use it for is indoor low light shots mostly for pictures of family during a get together.

Here is an image just with candle light and a lava lamp behind me. No flash or any other light in a dark room.

Kris_2020 wrote in post #7067371
Here is an image just with candle light and a lava lamp behind me. No flash or any other light in a dark room.

I like your lighting in that shot as it gave me a few ideas... Does anyone have experiance using this lens for indoor sports? (I picked up the 135, and am looking to compliment it with somthing wider that can do double duty if need by)

...call me crazy but as you can tell from my sig, I have not been enjoying the 85L (or 70-200 2.8IS for that matter) for my needs

I never did use it for indoor sports but I`m guessing it can`t be bad since many people prefer the 70-200 f2.8 for sports and since this lens is faster it should perform better.

I had the 135L and the 85L as well but they just did not fit my needs. I had a hard time selling both.

Kris_2020 wrote in post #7067356
I find it perfect on the 5D for indoor low light shots. I can take a full picture of myself with the camera not far away. And I am 6`4
But that is the only thing I use it for is indoor low light shots mostly for pictures of family during a get together.

i usually use my low light prime for get togethers too but couldn't justify a $1k lens that i was lukewarm about for the purpose (2-3 times a year). so now i again own the 50 1.4 which is really a pretty good lens on a FF camera if you have a decent copy and like the FL.

also, i've been using flash more too which at least gives me a few days a years to practice using a flashgun, which i sorely need .

ed rader

perryge wrote in post #7066595
I'm finding that I'm not all that fond of the 35L. Don't get me wrong - this lens kicks ass in most respects. IQ is very, very good (not superb, but I'm used to 85L quality), focusing speed is great, bokeh is great...but I'm just not diggin' the focal length. It's too friggin' wide on the 5D, and just kind of weird on the MKIIN.

Am I insane? Within one day of use, the 85L and 400L had me hooked. I've wanted a 35L for ages now, but now that I have it (and it's been almost a week), I just feel kind of awkward every time I pick it up to use it because the focal length feels so funny. I thought it would be perfect, half way between my beloved 50mm and the slightly too wide 28mm, but it's not.

So now I'm considering exchanging it for a 50L (still have the time to do that). Am I utterly insane for wanting that? Should I give the 35L more time? Pick up a 50 1.4? The one thing this lens has done is really remind me of how much I miss having an autofocus 50mm lens.

I want to love this lens, I really do, but I don't know if the focal length is for me, especially at this price - if I'm paying this much for a lens, I want to like it as much as I like my 85 and 400. What's particularly weird is that I had my 17-40 set on 35mm and shot with that for a while to make sure I liked the FL, and I thought I did but now I'm just not feelin' this lens.

I feel exactly the same way about the 35 mm FL. It is neither fish nor meat as they say in Dutch, to me anyway. It is not wide enough to be wideangle, and not long enough to be standard. And on crop it is too long to be standard, and too short to be tele. It might work, just, on APS-H, as a short standard lens (I do like the 40-45 mm FoV equivalent).

I do dig 50 mm, and 24-28 mm, which is why I got both a 24L and a 50L, and which is why I did recommend a 24L to you a few times .

Although some people do not mind a very large gap, like 35 mm to 85 mm, or a factor 2.3, I find that too large. Even 24 mm to 50 mm borders on the large side as a step, if you'd ask me. I do think that (14-)24-50-85(-135) is a very nice, more or less evenly split range, and if they all existed in L, for me 17-28-50-85-135 would even be better .

Kind regards, Wim

perryge wrote in post #7067057
Ok so I've decided that I'm going to do one of two things:

a) Take the 35L back to the store, play with a 50L, if I like it, I will exchange the lens and pay the difference (though they charge a 15% restocking fee ) or just get a refund. OR
b) Buy a used 50 1.4 tomorrow and keep the 35L. I've found a seller, he's a got a hood, the price is good.

a), provided they have a specimen that works well, but do ask them to forego the restocking fee. That's ridiculous if you only want to exchange an item. Just test at F/1.2 and F/2, at about 1 m, and see if there is any noticeable focus shift.

If not, you're going to love this lens.

If there is, you can still go with option b).

BTW, you find the 50L is a big lens? What about the 85L, in that case?

Kind regards, Wim

wimg wrote in post #7067572
a), provided they have a specimen that works well, but do ask them to forego the restocking fee. That's ridiculous if you only want to exchange an item. Just test at F/1.2 and F/2, at about 1 m, and see if there is any noticeable focus shift.

If not, you're going to love this lens.

If there is, you can still go with option b).

BTW, you find the 50L is a big lens? What about the 85L, in that case?

Kind regards, Wim

The focus shift range is more f/2.8-f/4 from my experience. Although I've never found it to be a problem in real-world shooting, if you want to look for it, f/2 is wider than I've ever seen it occur in tests.