Canon SLR Reviews

Canon EF 35mm f 1 4L USM Wide Angle Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

This lightweight, bright medium lens deserves a treasured spot in every serious CANON photographer’s gadget bag. This large diameter wide-angle lens with f/1.4 capability optimizes available light. Standard CANON EF mount 72mm filter size Super spectra coating Dimensions – 79mm diameter x 86mm length Weight – 580 grams

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Superb Lens
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….

5 Stars My favorite L Prime Lens
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

5 Stars Amazing Lens
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.

5 Stars delightful, especially for outdoor photos
I expect many people buy this as a “L” equivalent to a 50mm lens on a camera with an APS-C sensor. However, I use it with a full frame digital camera or with 35mm film, and for me, this is one of Canon’s essential primes. Together with their 135mm f2L, and a good 50mm lens, the 35mm f1.4L completes the kit. The angle is sometimes too wide for good coverage with a single flash, and I almost never use more elaborate lighting setups, so I am typically left using this lens in natural light. It is best in those cases where you can get relatively close to the subject (else the background becomes overwhelming). As with all L lenses, it feels solid and produces excellent results. The crispness of the image all the way to the corner of the frame allows me to compose an image however I like without worrying much about optical ’sweet spots’ in the lens.

I have also photographed urban settings with this lens — Times Square at night; the ruins of the Renaissance ballroom at dusk. Such photos don’t drive my photography but I take them sometimes for context or because an image strikes me, and this lens handles them beautifully.

5 Stars The 35 f/1.4L is simply…..amazing.
Initially I used a 50 f/1.4 on my 40D, but it was a bit too close for my taste, after tons of research, I found that the 35 f/1.4L received amazing reviews so I thought I would try it out. This lens just smokes the 50 f/1.4 in sharpness, bokeh, colors and build quality. I don’t even use my Speedlite indoors anymore because this lens is so fast. A lot of people say that the 24L would work better on a crop, but I think the 24 would be a bit wide for my taste…I’m really digging the normal focal length this produces (56mm on a crop camera). I’m not sure if I even want to upgrade to a FF now because the focal length is so great on a crop cam. All in all, if you want a well built, fast, contrasty prime, don’t hesitate…its worth every penny.

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