Customer Reviews

Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM Wide Angle Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have this lens for very long time, and it is still one of the most frequently used L Prime for my assignment.
Indeed, this lens has been very popular among commercial photographer who are doing full body portrait, in the particular market, this lens is often considered as premier portrait lens.

I will not go into the wisdom of using 35mm as a portrait lens since it is really up to the judgment of individual photographer.

In general, there are two type of people using this lens for professional purpose.

Former is people who are shooting architecture/landscape and latter is people shooting portrait.

While I do not use this lens much for commercial landscape photography purpose, I used this lens a lot for commercial portrait purpose.

For the particular type of model...very often female model, I often do the model interview with this lens alone to determine how well this model will work with my project.


This lens works really well with particular type of model. And since I worked with Far East market frequently on commercial/magazine assignment, this type of lens work out very well and indeed became workhorse of my production.
You have to be mindful, 35mm focal length is bit tricky to do portrait. So, you have to be careful with type of model you are using.


It is also very useful for low available light situation, so I see some wedding photographer used them.
Some of events photographer also love to use this for similar reason, and it seemed to work well with capturing child etc.

However, I only see limited satisfied amateur user of this lens... while I am teaching photography lesson.

It is may be because it makes very little economic sense for amateur user who are shooting landscape or family portrait.
This 35mm lens focal length are well covered by many reputable L zoom lens including 16-35, 17-40, 24-105, 24-70 and other. All of them are excellent L lens, and will do wonder for the most of landscape or portrait project. Zoom lens actually makes better economic argument in many occasion.

As far as difference from L zoom lens concern, you won't notice much until you started to enlarge to considerable size.

To be honest, not all of my 35mm focal length shoot on commercial assignment used this prime lens either... and that is even for the people who shoot staged subject in studio. So, you can guess how often prime lens is used for journalistic type of photography.

So, be sure you need this particular lens or you will be disappointed.

Faster Aperture alone normally won't justify this lens.

But if you know you need this lens, and your assignment or project demand this lens. Why wait.

You really have to look at its performance when it is stop down to f2.8~f4 where many of money shot using this lens are created.
For people who are not sure about taking plunge to the L prime lens, I strongly suggest to rent this lens for a week or more, so you will be sure you needed this lens for your particular style.


Major Advantage are:

1. F1.4 Aperture really help for low available light portrait situation, and ideal for indoor use.
2. Very nice portrait lens for particular type of production.
3. Work wonderfully on both full size sensor camera as well as 1.6x body.
4. Build quality is excellent
5. Very sharp, sharp enough to convince you that your L lens prime is worth the price. Very useful for spread or any other large assignment.


Major Disadvantage are:

1.Cost as much as L zoom lens that does not sit well for many people.
2.Prime lens is inherently limited as a workaround lens, so I wold go for L zoom lens if I have to choose lens on the travel.
3.35mm is not going to work well with particular type of people as head portrait lens, so if you are going to buy your first L prime lens for portrait purpose, it is might be safer to buy 50/f1.2 or 85/f1.2

I am going start by saying that I rate this lens as five stars _except_ for vignetting on full frame digital sensors at wide open apertures. I use this lens as my standard lens on a 5d. I find this angle of view to be perfect for general all around photography where I will "step in" to the subject to get the shot. This lens requires more interaction with the subject, but I think it results in more dynamic pictures. This lens is razor sharp, visibly sharper than my mainstay 24-70 f2.8 L zoom. On the 5d, I can shoot at f1.4 ISO 400 indoors without a flash which is pretty cool.

Now the downside. All wide angles at wide open aperture have light falloff and even this lens demonstrates this tendency. You may not even notice this on many shots, but under some conditions it is very obvious and this condition is more noticeable on digital than film. You can fix this using the distortion filter in PhotoshopCS. If you shoot at f4 or better, the light falloff is not noticeable even under the worse of conditions. The falloff is not visible when you use this lens on an APS digital sensor like the 20d where it has a "normal" angle of view.

It is as expensive as a 24-70L, and costs 4 times more than a 35/2. It is fixed length and "only" 2 stops faster. It is not noticably sharper at f4 and higher.

But I find I fall in love with it. I used a 85/1.8 and 135/2L for portrait. I also have a 24-70L, 50/1.8II and a 18-55 kit lens. But I found that I need a wide and FAST lens to shoot my kid/baby. I prefer to shoot with natural indoor light. I read reviews and browsed pictures and decided that 35/1.4L is the one I need. Based on reviews and my experience with 50/1.8II, 35/2 is NOT usable untill you stop it to f4. That is too slow.

I made the right decision. At f/1.4 it is soft, but at f2.0, picture is pretty sharp. And most importantly, it maintains very good and natural color saturation which you won't get from Photoshop, as well good contrast ratio. It is not very shart at f2.0, but color and contrast make pictures beautiful. Set ISO200 and 1/40th shutter speed, I can shoot without flash at f2.0. Wider angle also means you can shoot in about 4~5 feet away so you can have eye contact with your kids or babies. You won't worry they are not looking at you/lens. This is priceless to me.

Originally I thought this would be a indoor lens as I have a 24-70L. But now I also find it is a very good outdoor portrait/landscape lens. It captures very good details and color for shadow area and takes very nice portrait pictures even with back light. After a trip with this lens, I decide to use 24-70L for indoor studio light shoot only (with flexible zoom/frame).

It is not a great anti-flare performer, but still better than most other lenses. Bokeh is very good with no sign of distraction at all. It may not be as beautiful as a 135/2L but much better than I expected.

It is expensive, but it is a prime L. I cannot say it worth more than a grand, but if you need a fast lens, with good color and saturation at wide open, wide angle and still with beautiful bokeh. It is the one for you. It also provides good shadow details with no sign of wash out. No need to say DOV control. If you have the money, I highly recommend this lens.

Body used: Canon Rebel.
Lenses used: 18-55mm, 24-70L, 50/1.8II, 85/1.8, 135/2L.

Cons:
Expensive. Cost as much as a 16-35L, a 24-70L or a 70-200/2.8L.
Back focus for 0.5 inch at f/1.4 with Rebel/300D boday but I can live with it.
Anti-flare is not the best.

Pros:
FAST with very usable f2.
Very shallow DOV.
Very beautiful bokeh.
Very good color saturation and good contrast even at wide open.
Good shadow detail with good color/contrast (good for back light).
Beautiful L color.
Fast focus speed as expected from a L lens with Ring USM.
L build quality.

I have been switching between a Canon 17-40 f/4 and a 50 f/1.4 for the everyday lens on my EOS 40D and I couldn't seem to find the sweet spot. The 50mm which is an effective 80mm on this body is always too limiting in interior situations such as birthday parties or small groups where its narrow field of view forces me to back away or take tighter crops than I would like. The 17-40 f/4 isn't fast enough for low light.
After procrastinating over the price of the 35mm f/1.4L for some time, I finally took the leap. I am not disappointed - I now have a real standard lens and a fast one at that. It has a pleasant heft and is built with solid materials and a quality finish. It seems to focus much faster than the 50 f/1.4 and early test results are fantastic. It produces lovely warm colors, the bokeh is very pleasing and images have excellent sharpness. I have had the 35mm f/2 and that lens just is not in the same league though it is a good value choice. If you can afford this lens (even at the cost of dumping some of your others) and want a standard focal length on a non-full frame body, I strongly recommend it.

The 35mm f/1.4L lens has slight back focus at the beginning so I sent it to Canon Factory Service for focus calibration. After that, the lens is just perfect! Sharpness, saturation, contrast are brilliant and in line with other Canon L-class prime lens. Even at f/1.4, image quality is far better than the 16-35mm at f/2.8. At f/2.8, image quality is way better than the 16-35mm at f/2.8. This lens is thus one of the legendary lens from Canon, besides the 85mm f/1.2L and 135mm f/2L. Even though I alredy have the 16-35mm f/2.8L, I'm very happy to purchase the 35mm f/1.4L.

Highly recommended lens, espcially for 1.6X crop body (such as 20D, 30D, 350D, 400D).

:)

Some of you may know about the 35mm Leica lens that was dubbed the "Bokeh King" for the wonderfully pleasant quality of bokeh that it created. This lens very much reminds me of it. Achieving bokeh is done with many lenses. Achieving that special "wow" bokeh is only achieved with an elite few. I believe this lens is a member of that elite few. It is professional looking and artistic looking at once. Easily controllable; automatically just the right amount and character in every shot. Just purely brilliant bokeh. I also own the 135mm f/2L which also receives high praise for its bokeh but in my opinion it is not as good as this lens. More bokeh doesn't necessarily mean best bokeh. It is the quality of the bokeh. This lens truly possesses that special quality. Alright, enough about the bokeh.

Sharpness? Of course it is razor sharp. It better be for this price. I just expected that. If your's isn't then you need to return it for another one.

Low-light performance? The best I have experienced from any Canon lens, and I have owned several professional and/or low-light Canon lenses.

I sold my awesome 24-70mm lens to get this lens and I took a leap of faith in doing so. It looks as if I made a good decision. I do so because the 24-70 is too heavy and unwieldy and the f/2.8 of the lens is not good for indoors without a flash. Plus, 35mm was the focal length I was using most. Again I am very happy I did so. This lens was everything I hoped it would be and more. I don't see it coming off the 5D for a long while.

This is one of the best kept secrets in Canon "L" lenses. I can't understand why this lens gets so little attention. I guess it is because everyone favors the convenience of Zoom lenses. This is bar none the best Canon lens I have ever owned. I can't wait for it's first wedding which is in a few weeks.

I just bought this lens 2 months ago because I wanted to use it to take pictures of my newborn son and 2 year old daughter. Prior to this, my 28-135 lens lived on my camera and was most often used to take pictures of my daughter in the house. I like to take pictures without the flash when ever possible, so I found that I was most often using it zoomed all of the way and I was always having to take a bunch of pictures just hoping that I could catch 1 or 2 when she was not moving so they would not be blurry. I was initially looking for a faster zoom lens but since I was taking so many pictures zoomed out, I decided to give a fast prime lens a try. So I decided to buy the 35 f1.4 in hopes of getting better pictures of my kids. I have not been disappointed. This 35mm 1.4 lens is so fast that in good light it will completely stop their movement and it will take nice pictures in low light and still autofocus with no problems. I am just an amateur and still have a lot to learn about photograpy but this lens has turned out some outstanding pictures already that I never saw with my mid level lenses that I initially bought with my camera. This lens has made me such a fan of fast prime lenses that I just orderd the 135 f2. Now I wish that I would have just bought this lens from the start instead of the zooms that will probably just sit in my camera bag until I decide to sell them.

Due to all of the negative comments on lens packaging from Amazon, I decided to buy it through Adorama. I paid about $20 extra at the time to do this but the lens came packed well.

This EF 35mm f/1.4 L USM has one remarkable feature that is not widely reviewed.

Recently I had an opportunity to compare (thanks to Glazer's Camera in Seattle) this lens to other prime from Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM which is roughly thousand dollars cheaper than 35mm L lens.
Canon's 50mm f/1.4 is a 20+ year's old proven technology in new EF package. Let us set aside the difference of 35mm vs. 50mm.

Is there a reason to spend around $1,400 for EF 35mm f/1.4L USM?
You can have "non L" 35mm lens or EF 50mm f/1.4 USM for $400.
The short answer is. I do not have 50mm lens anymore.

The reasons are:

1. Both lenses are sharp. Just forget all the zooms. Zooms are convenient, but have much more glass elements in the path. Honestly, that 50mm prime was even sharper in a pristine way. It has fewer elements in the path. But for some reason sharpness was not as consistent. Maybe L lens has better autofocus motor. L lens is heavy as well, so "Ease of use" attribute has four stars.
2. The main reason I do not have 50mm lens and kept EF 35mm f/1.4 L USM is;
There is something about consistency in picture quality when working with
EF 35mm f/1.4 L USM lens. And this is not about sharpness alone.

Here are some problems with EF 50mm f/1.4 USM.
This lens has somewhat shallow light latitude. When the light is on the low side, colors of the faces tend to be more reddish. (Too much work on Photoshop to fix 200+ pictures).
When there was too much light, my highlights were blown really fast. (White, white spots on faces). With film that was not a problem; film could handle light overloads better, but digital sensors have less tolerance to those extremes.
To my surprise EF 35mm f/1.4 L USM did not have that problem. Colors of the faces were consistent throughout several stops. I am talking about using the same camera body and all settings auto. Go figure.

I have both a Canon 5D MarkII and a Canon 50D...so I wanted a high-quality prime lens that would be a good primary lens for both cameras (taking into consideration the magnification factor on the 50D). And this lens is perfect. When I put it on the 50D, it's more like a 50mm, and when I put it on my 5D, it give the perfect amount of extra angle. I love this lens! If I go somewhere and don't want to take all of my equipment, I will strap this baby on without hesitation. I notice that it's a little less sharp at f/1.4, so I mostly shoot with it at f/1.8 or f/2.0 and that gives me amazing bokeh and subject sharpness.
I am primarily a wedding portrait photographer and love to get different angles and styles...this lens provides me with the most creative power.

This lens is stupidly sharp. I believe that this is probably the sharpest lens that Canon does. I have not tried the 300mm or the 200mm lenses. Some people I have spoken to believe that the 135mm is the sharpest but I am not too sure. You have to remember that all of the lenses mentioned are ridiculously sharp at all stops. The 35mm lens however is such a joy to shoot with. It work great as a landscape lens as well as a great portrait lens (for a true portrait lens get the 85mm - that is also fantastic). It is fairly light to carry around and you simply cannot go wrong with this. You will not regret buying this lens. Every professional photographer has this in their arsenal and it works beautifully with the Canon 5D MarkII. Buy this lens....