Lee Jay's reviews

  • Canon EF 100mm f/2 USM

    9 out of 10 points and recommended
    Light, small, cheap, good optics, very fast focusing
    No IS

    A wonderful little lens with very few downfalls. I sold mine because I needed IS more than the extra stop in this range, but I'd still recommend the 100/2 to whomever needs this particuar capability.

    reviewed January 7th, 2007 (purchased for $370)
  • Canon EF 35mm f/2

    7 out of 10 points and recommended
    Small, light, cheap, fast
    Slow and noisy to focus

    Great optics, very small size and very low cost. The focusing is a bit slow and unreliable, not to mention noisy. But I think this makes a better beginner prime than the 50/1.8, especially on 1.6 crop cameras.

    reviewed January 7th, 2007 (purchased for $240)
  • Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

    5 out of 10 points and not recommended
    Fast, small, cheap
    So-so optics, horrible build quality

    The build quality on this lens is just horrible. But it's still useful if you need a fast lens in this range. The AF is pretty bad too.

    reviewed January 7th, 2007 (purchased for $80)
  • Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

    7 out of 10 points and recommended
    Relatively cheap, very fast, small
    So-so optics wide open, inconsistent focusing in low light

    Decent lens, but below f2 there's a wierd halo around everything. Focusing is sometimes great, and sometimes horrible.

    reviewed January 7th, 2007 (purchased for $350)
  • Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

    8 out of 10 points and recommended
    Great price, great optics, well built
    Soft corners on full-frame, too short to be a walkaround on 1.6 crop

    This lens is really better for what it was designed for - an ultrawide on full frame - than it is as a standard zoom on 1.6 crop. Stopping it down on full frame is usually no problem and it is outstanding in that regard. Very low price given the performance.

    reviewed January 7th, 2007 (purchased for $700)
  • Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

    8 out of 10 points and recommended
    Good optics, low price, IS, great range
    A little long as a walkaround on 1.6 crop, slow at the long end

    Pretty good lens. I only sold mine for the 24-105 for the extra stop on the long end and the extra 4mm on the short end.

    reviewed January 7th, 2007 (purchased for $330)
  • Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

    10 out of 10 points and recommended
    Great optics, great IS, great range, great flexibility
    Cost, size

    My most flexible lens. I use it with stacked 1.4x TCs on a 1.6 crop camera at airshows, and on full-frame at events and for portraits. I can't say anything bad about it, it's just a fantasic lens in every way.

    reviewed January 7th, 2007 (purchased for $1,700)
  • Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

    7 out of 10 points and not recommended
    Cheap, IS
    Slow focusing, rotating barrel, no FTM

    This lens doesn't have anywhere near as bad of image qualty as others might lead you to believe. That said, the new 70-300IS is better in every way.

    reviewed January 7th, 2007 (purchased for $400)
  • Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

    8 out of 10 points and recommended
    Ideal range on 1.6 crop, decent optics, great IS, low price
    Slow

    Pretty good walkaround lens on 1.6 crop. Optics are pretty good, focusing is fast and accurate. If you don't need a lot of speed, I'd get this lens over the other options in this range (17-55, 17-70, 24-70, 24-105, etc.).

    reviewed January 7th, 2007 (purchased for $450)
  • Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

    8 out of 10 points and recommended
    Good optics, excellent IS, good range, low price
    No FTM, rotating barrel and MF ring

    Good lens. If you don't need speed or ultra-fast focusing, I'd chose this over either of the f4Ls.

    reviewed January 7th, 2007 (purchased for $560)
  • Sigma 15mm f/2.8 EX DG Diagonal Fisheye

    9 out of 10 points and recommended
    Fast, excellent IQ
    None

    What can I say...just an outstanding lens in every way.

    reviewed January 7th, 2007 (purchased for $370)
  • Sigma 20mm f/1.8 EX DG Aspherical RF

    7 out of 10 points and recommended
    Pretty good optically, pretty nice FL on 1.6 crop or FF
    Slow focusing, wierd mechanism

    A little soft wide open, but certainly usable. I sold it because the focusing was just terrible in low light.

    reviewed January 7th, 2007 (purchased for $410)
  • Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM

    10 out of 10 points and recommended
    Everything
    Nothing

    This lens deserves its reputation. Fast focusing, fast optics, outstanding optically. Just a wonderful lens in every way.

    reviewed January 7th, 2007 (purchased for $1,140)
  • Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG Macro APO

    2 out of 10 points and not recommended
    Cheap, good range, usable macro
    Horrible optics, terrible build

    The only truely bad lens I've ever owned (and I owned two of them). Horrible at 300mm and f5.6 doesn't begin to describe just how bad it is. In fairness, it's good below 150mm and above f11 above that. Not very useful. I replaced mine with the 70-300IS which is so much better it's laughable.

    reviewed January 7th, 2007 (purchased for $210)
  • Tokina 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 AT-X 107 AF DX Fisheye

    8 out of 10 points and recommended
    Unique range, works on full-frame too
    Field curvature

    Good lens. Above 15mm it doesn't vignette on full-frame. The only trouble is the field curvature which takes a bit of getting used to. Basically, at 4 feet of focus distance, the corners are focused beyond infinity. At 3 feet focus distance, the corners are almost within the DOF wide open, but not quite. At 2 feet the corners are sharp but the center isn't within the DOF wide open.

    If you want a sharp image across the frame, you need to stop down to about f8 for DOF, and focus very carefully so everything is within the DOF.

    reviewed January 7th, 2007 (purchased for $560)
  • Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM

    9 out of 10 points and recommended
    Good optics, good range, good IS
    Costly, only f4

    This is the ideal walkaround lens on full-frame, and it's still fast enough to be usable in low light on full-frame cameras since those cameras are so fast. It makes a decent walkaround on 1.6 crop if you don't need a true wide. I really like mine. The only negative thing I can say is about the zoom mechanism. It started out really stiff, but gradually loosened up so much it now zoom creeps when pointed down.

    reviewed January 7th, 2007 (purchased for $1,095)