thomiz's reviews

  • Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM

    10 out of 10 points and recommended
    Sharp, fast, light, small
    Could have IS

    A wery fine lens indeed. My best in my current lineup of lenses. This is a "go everywhere" short telephoto, and on the 20D it turns into 320mm which is nice for telphoto shots of wildlife and some birds. The bokeh of this lens is exelent and it can be used for nearly anything from portrait to landscape. The lack of IS is sometimes missed as you need high speeds to handhold this lens.

    reviewed January 8th, 2007
  • Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

    9 out of 10 points and recommended
    Light, small, fast, inexpensive
    Not very sharp wide open, could have a better build

    Nice lense on the 20D the lens is a little long for being a normal lense, but for portraits it fits nicely. I find the lense wery sharp from f/2.8, and it is sharp at f/2.0, but wide open it is not sharp. I use it sometimes at this aperture anyway if the light is dim but I try to keep to f/2.0 most of the time. At f/1.4 the sharpness is adequate for a good looking letter size print, but at 2.8 you can go much bigger. The build quality is ok, but not great, much better than the 1.8 version however.

    reviewed January 8th, 2007 (purchased for $450)
  • Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

    10 out of 10 points and recommended
    Nice on cropped sensor, built like a tank, inexpensive, sharp, fast AF
    Slow, a little short?

    This is my most used lense. It can take anything, sharp wide open, but then again I do miss an extra stop of light.

    The lense is really well built, it is wide enough for most of my work, focuses fast, and everything is smooth. I sometimes miss an extra 10-15 mm on the long end of this lense if I bought today I would probably go with the 17-55 IS for the extra speed and IS. However a great lense at this price, and if you are not bothered with the f/4, just get it.

    reviewed January 8th, 2007
  • Nikon 180mm f/2.8D ED-IF AF Nikkor

    7 out of 10 points and recommended
    Lightweight, fast (aperture), good build, sharp
    Slow focus, not pin sharp at 2.8

    I loved this lense when I got it about 5 years ago. And I have used it a lot both on film and on the Nikon D1. But it is slow to focus even on the D1 body. And at 2.8 I do not find the result pin sharp, at f/4 it is everything you can ask for, and really outstanding bokeh. The lense shade is of questionable quality and utility in my opinion.

    My current combination of 20D and 200L is to be prefered in my opinion. Much faster AF, and the same outstanding IQ.

    reviewed January 11th, 2007
  • Nikon 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5D ED-IF AF Nikkor

    8 out of 10 points and recommended
    Compact, lightweight, good AF
    stop it down a little for optimum IQ

    It is a very versatile lense, ok build, and quite fast AF, at least on D1 class body. The Image Quality is really good for such an inexpensive wide angle zoom. But i do deserve to be stopped down a little.

    reviewed January 11th, 2007
  • Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor

    9 out of 10 points and recommended
    Lighweight, sharp, fast, bargain
    construction quality (but what do you expect at such a low price)

    This is a great little lense. The f/1.8 aperture makes low light shooting possible, and it is quite sharp at this aperture to. The AF action is adequate, and it is so small and light you can bring it anywhere. A real no-brainer except if you think you need the extra stop of light in the f/1.4.

    The only drawback of this lense is the construction quality. I finally managed to break my (used) copy, by dropping it on the floor from about 30cm, first the AF became really slow but the lense was still sharp. Later someone dropped it again (from about 1m), and the AF action was smooth again, but now the lense was no longer sharp at smaller aperture. (it must have been a bad year, I do not usually drop my equipment). But then again, its so inexpensive you can afford to buy another.

    I find this lense much better than its canon counterpart with its plastic mount and questionable IQ.

    reviewed January 11th, 2007
  • Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 SP AF

    8 out of 10 points and recommended
    Sharp, lightweight
    Not to sturdy

    Excellent lense. The IQ of this lense on a DX body is wery good. I does extend to an obsene amount. I owned the earlier version (before Di) and it did not have great build quality, it was totally acceptable, but not among the best.

    reviewed January 11th, 2007