jajambo's reviews

  • Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM

    10 out of 10 points and recommended
    sharpness, clarity, weight, fast, accurate AF (fringe benefit of f/2), price
    no IS, makes you regret buying any zoom lenses

    My favourite lens, hands down.
    USM works so quickly and accurately, it puts my 24-70/f2.8L to shame.
    Great reach for street shots.
    Tack sharp at f/2.
    A tiny bit of fringing, but that would only be noticed by pixel-peepers.
    Great looking lens, if you ever saw it from the front.
    Light weight and robust.
    f/2! Beautiful portrait lens.

    Some real life images from my photoblog: http://hellabella.de

    reviewed August 12th, 2009 (purchased for $700)
  • Carl Zeiss 18mm f/3.5 Distagon T* 3.5/18

    10 out of 10 points and recommended
    Sharp, colour contrast, smooth focusing, reasonable price, build
    vignette, f/3.5

    Delivers exactly what it promises. Superb quality. Manual focus works very well with Canon 5D MkIII. Solid build - metal and glass, not a cheap plastic toy. Vignette can be a minor problem, but it adds to the taste of this lens. One pet peeve I have is that the shallow lens hood does not stop my finger from touching the front of the lens by accident... just my problem, I guess.

    If you are used to Canons (prime or otherwise), you will find that the colour contrast this lens delivers is another animal. Whether that is better or not, it is up to your taste.

    Highly recommended.

    reviewed March 9th, 2013
  • Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

    9 out of 10 points and recommended
    f/1.2, sharpness at f>1.4, practically no distortion
    size, expensive

    Look, you are buying this lens mainly for one thing: f/1.2

    Forget about the sharpness at f/1.2, because the rest of the picture will blow you away. Sharpness gives you high score on a spec sheet, but does not guarantee a good picture.

    If you do desire a tack-sharp picture, just stop it down to f/1.4 or f/1.6.

    Have used this on a 40D and 5D MkIII. Results on both are generally great. I would say the focusing on the MkIII is much more accurate, but that has to do with the camera.

    Recommended.

    reviewed March 9th, 2013