Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM Wide-Angle Lens

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Amazing lens for the money. This 35mm is the perfect compromise between being somewhat wide enough to get landscapes and shooting in tighter spaces indoors without having any of the distortion issues you get with a 24 or wider on a full frame camera. I honestly sometimes mistake my images that were shot with this lens from being shot with my 50mm. Get that fast shallow look with a wider angle without the distortion. The bokeh is right in line with the other lenses in this line. Its very nice but maybe not as natural and nice as the L series lenses. Its not bad at all, just looks a little different from the L line. It seems a little strange to have something as wide as a 35mm with IS but Ive found it to be incredibly nice. You can handhold this thing shooting super slow! If you were to handhold at 1/2 sec shutter speed and shoot a burst you would probably have several sharp images. Thats crazy! IS works very well and for shooting pics of my kid around the dark house or shooting landscape or something similar in the darkness of early morning or late sunset, this thing shines!! Youll appreciate IS more than you think on this lens. If anything even if you arent shooting in dark scenarios, your overall hit rate just going up with IS. Small, lightweight, fast, sharp, IS....whats not to love! Dont expect L series build but for the money, I would buy this lens over the 35L many times! Having the IS and not having the weight for the L may make this better than the L version for some people. Ive included a few shots Ive done with this lens for clients.

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Great little lens. Its my go-to hand-held lens due to the versatile length (35mm), light weight, small size and especially the image stabilization. Hand-held, youll get sharper shots from this lens than a 35mm L lens without IS. The construction is solid and the materials, though not L lens grade, feel heftier than other non-L lenses I have. Does not come with a hood or bag. You can get a nice aftermarket hood (non-Canon) on Amazon that works great. Also, an aperture of 2.0 is really great for a lens this price. The 2 other lenses I considered before buying this one are the -Canon 35mm f/1.4 L II- and the -Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM-. Both are amazing professional-grade lenses, sharper and more expensive. For me, it came down to the image stabilization of the -Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM-. The larger aperture of the "better" lenses does not make up for the lack of IS for hand-help shots.Sure, you can shoot them wide open and your shutter speed will be decent, but your depth of field will be so shallow that it will be hard to get good focus every time.

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This workhorse of a prime lens is almost always mounted on my camera. It focuses quickly, and the image quality is wonderful, though maybe a tad soft wide open at f/2. I picked up the 35mm f/2 IS to replace my old nifty fifty, which was too noisy for some events, focused poorly in low light, and was a bit tight indoors. It also made a suitable replacement for my 40mm pancake lens which, while great for discreet street photography, was a bit slow to focus in some situations. There is a bit of a trade off, though - the 35mm focal length gives you a bit more breathing room and lets in more of the environment into the scene than 50mm, but 50mm allows you to better isolate subjects by blurring out background elements more. Versus the 40mm pancake youll give up a bit of portability and take on more weight to your kit, but overall the trade offs were worth it (faster focus, and wider max aperture). Though not as solidly built as an L lens, the 35mm f/2 IS is still pretty rugged in its own right. I dont particularly enjoy using heavy lenses for long periods of time, and this lens strikes a nice balance between heft and build quality. You definitely wont be bogged down by its weight when shooting for long periods of time, which will help you concentrate on your photography. The one drawback of this lens is that a proper hood isnt included with purchase - its sold separately, and if you want the felt-lined Canon version, its PRICEY. Youll want to buy a hood eventually, because this lens does exhibit a bit of flare when used outdoors.

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Amazing lens! I have an EF 17-40mm f/4L which I used a lot for landscape shots. But if I want to shoot something closer, I pull out the 35mm f/2 IS (even though my 17-40 covers that focal length). It captures details and texture in a way that beats my pro, L-glass zooms at times. Also, my L-zooms are f/4 constant aperture, so this lens is faster and has a ridiculously shallow depth of field. Very nice background blur, which contrasts great with the tack sharp in-focus details. One qualification: I would only call this "wide-angle" on a full-frame dSLR. On a camera like the EOS T5i, 70D, or 7D, which have APS-C sized sensors and a crop factor, its more of a normal focal length (56mm equivalent). Soon after I got this lens, I sold my 7D and got a 6D. The difference is significant, and I had to change the way I think about which lenses to use to get certain angles. The IS works well, and I can get handheld shots at stupidly slow shutter speeds. Just keep in mind, IS only works for camera shake or an unsteady hand. If you subject is moving and youre shutter speed is too slow, it will be blurred. But being that this is a very sharp lens, if I want more in focus, its nice to be able to stop down to f/8 or more and shoot at the resulting 1/15th of a second shutter speed. That would be too slow with a non-IS lens. I have not tried, because Im mainly into still photography, but shooting video with IS on is supposed to help a lot. The construction seems solid, more so than my EF50mm f/1.8 II (which Ive used for 15 years with zero issues and some amazing shots). Exterior of the barrel is thin metal. There are some plastic parts, but that keeps the weight down, and the lens operates smoothly and feels high quality. I originally got this lens as a fast prime for indoor shots that were too tight with my 50mm on the 7D, but Ive since moved to the 6D and discovered its value in medium range and close-up photos outdoors. It can work as a portrait lens if your subject doesnt mind you getting fairly close, and for this use it works better on a crop-sensor body. Cant really think of a negative. I paid $599 for mine a year ago. Both my f/4 L-zooms were only $100 to $150 more, but they are slower and dont have IS, though they were much more complicated to manufacture. So I could feel this is a bit steep for a prime lens, but I dont feel ripped off when I see the photos Ive taken with it.

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I spent dozens of hours researching this lens vs. the 35L. Price was not a consideration. Image quality (sharpness, bokeh, IS) are first-rate. My only quibble is with the known heavy-vignetting present at f/2.0. But I dont mind vignetting in my 85 f/1.8 and sometimes add it to my images, so this was not a problem. My ultimate decision to not go with the 35L was because of the size, weight and obviously extremely-high cost. This 35 f/2.0 produces very nice bokeh, better than I had expected given the comparative (35L) images I had found online that had lowered my expectations. I was extremely lucky to get this lens in mint condition at half the original MSRP which makes this purchase a no-brainer. Im very much enjoying the macro versatility which is a wonderful bonus. This is now among my favorite lens. The other lens I have are: 24-70 f/2.8L II, 70-200 f/2.8L II IS, 85 f/1.8, 100mm 2.8L IS.

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This is my go to lens for food photography. I love the image stabilization. It really helps in bar locations that are very low lit. The wide 2.0 apperature comes in handy. Pairing this with my 6d Ive been shooting great shots.

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Get one. Its a nice, fast (both big aperture and focus speed), compact, lightweight lens. I took off a star for Canon making me buy the lens hood separately at an absurd markup. My only reticence about the purchase is that I rented the Tamron 35 1.8 VR before I bought this lens and really liked it. I probably liked the Tamron better than the Canon until I realized only the center focus point worked on my 7Dm2. Well, the outer points on the Tamron worked... but those just locked in very incorrect focus each and every time. I figured that was just a harbinger of bad things to come so I passed and went with the Canon instead. It will make close to the same pictures with some tweaking in post - they just render a scene a bit differently and I seemed to prefer the Tamron shots better straight out of the camera. Its a great lens to stick on your camera a force yourself to use a prime all day. I tend to zoom in too tightly if given a zoom. This lens forces me to break bad habits. I get an extra stop of light and get to carry less weight too.

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Amazing lens! It scratches that forever perfect photo itch of mine. I find composition much easier and more organic than with my old go-to 50 MM 1.4. I love it!

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This will not be a technical review. If you want that, I would suggest you go to http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/ That is a wonderful site with very honest reviews. Photography has been a passion for over 50 years and Ive been very happy for the last four with my equipment. I shoot a 5DIII and do mostly travel and landscape. I thought I had the perfect combo in a 24-105L IS and a 70-300 L IS. I also have a 100L Macro and a 17-40L that I usually dont take traveling. I had started to notice that the shots from my 24-105 werent as good as from the other lenses. Big difference in sharpness and color when compared to the 70-300, which is awesome. I toyed with the 24-70 II f2.8L, but the lack of IS was the deal breaker since I normally dont take a tripod. That took care of zooms, so started to look at Primes. I realized that the majority of my shooting was 35-50mm and 200-300mm. On vacation in Hawaii, I ordered this lens and upon trying it out, I was amazed! It should be labeled an "L", its that good. Here are the pros and cons: Pros. 1. Tack sharp with a great IS. 2. Slight vignetting goes away at f2.8 3. Two f stops faster than the 24-105. Nice indoors where flash cant be used. 3. Great color saturation and contrast. 4. Small, light and easy to carry. Doesnt stick out as far so your not bumping into things with it. 5. Makes an expensive camera not look so much like it, which is a plus when traveling. Thats also why I dont use the canon strap with 5DIII plastered all over it. 6. Same filter size (67mm) as my 70-300L and 100L Macro. Less filters to carry around. 7. Cost. Compared to most Ls, its a bargain. Cons. 1. Since its a Prime, Im changing lenses more often. 2. Some cropping needed to cover 35 to 70, which is where my telephoto starts. With the sharpness of the lens and the resolution of the 5DIII, not a big deal. If you have a 5DS, it REALLY doesnt matter. 3. If you shoot video, the zooms is better because you can frame your shots better. However, most DSLRs dont auto focus while recording video so using a DSLR for video is problematic at best. Tough to keep the kids in focus as theyre running around! Im seriously considering selling my 24-105L after using this one! Hope this has helped.

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Love it. I am a mom-tographer who photographs my own kids for my handmade boutique clothing line. I also take family pictures for a small amount of other people. I know how to use my camera in manual and I can get great shots with this 35. I had previously purchased the 50 mm which is also great, but this 35 with its wide-angle is unbeatable. Especially for the price. This stays on my camera 90% of the time. I sometimes forgot I even have the 50.

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