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Canon 350D + Various Lenses Test Samples

EF 50mm F1.8
I bought this lens for my 350D! In case you have missed it,  my initial hands on report for 350D is here. This lens gives dramatic ‘bokeh’ when wide open! I find that at F1.8 images are very soft probably due to the shallow DOF. It is very sharp starting from F4! Not a great lens for landscape but great for portrait! Samples below were mostly taken in Richmond and in London today (25th March 2005). The sky was cloudy but Sun shine at times. All images below were batch resized, sharpened, brightness and contrast slightly using IView (Sharpen=50, Brightness= 20, Contrast=30). Due to limited bandwidth, I only post resized and compressed images but please email me if you need originals. Newer samples can bee seen here.

Canon EF-S 10-22mm USM
This lens is very tempting with its ultrawide 10mm (16mm on 350D!!). It is almost the same size as the 17-85mm. Both have USM and focus very silently and fast. It can focus surprisingly close too! Unfortunately I couldn’t get a landscape sample as I have not owned one yet! The samples below were limited to the shop (Ask, Tottenham Court Road, London). Because it was quite dim in the shop, all samples below were taken at ISO1600.

Sigma 15mm F2.8 Fisheye
I went to try out this lens for curiosity. The fisheye effect wasn’t as dramatic as I have envisaged. Anyway images seemed sharp to my eyes. I still prefer rectilinear wide angle lenses such as the 10-22mm!

Canon EF-S 17-85mm USM IS
I have been very tempted to buy this lens for my 350D but it seems over priced and I worry that it is not enough reach at 85mm in the long run. My priority is to minimise lens changing especially while travelling. Ideally I could just bring one lens with me. I am not sure if this lens fit this criteria. It certainly feels very well built, silent focus and very fast too! There has been mix feelings regarding this lens over the internet forums and reviews. My conclusion is that because it is expensive, it is either that you feel worth it or not.. UPDATE: I bought this lens today (26th March 2005)!! Samples below have been post processed with crop, curves and unsharp mask. So far I think it is a good lens, AF is very fast, accurate and silent as expected.  Newer samples can bee seen here.

Tamron 18-200mm
What a range! Great for a ‘one lens system’ for travelling light! It is hard to judge the image quality from the samples I have taken within the shop. Focus seems silent and fast but can hunt at telephoto end probably due to low light. All images below were taken at ISO1600 due to the lack of light in the shop.

Canon EF 70-300mm IS DO
I have been lusting for this lens for a long time, way before I bought the 350D! It is expensive! The IS works really well at 300mm. However, the image quality at the long end seems to be quite soft to my eyes. With such expensive lens and moderate image quality as many have experienced not just me, you are essentially paying for its size (small) and IS but not its images. That said, it is better to have an image than no image at all if shooting at 300mm means to leave behind your camera because of size and weight while traveling. On the 350D, it feels just right due to its compactness although it is a bit head heavy.