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

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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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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This lens is a real gem. I used to own the Canon 35L, and I can tell you that this lens is better in every way except for max aperture and build quality. The build quality isnt as good as the L, but at half the price you can buy another one if you manage to break it. The smaller size and weight relative to the L make it a much better choice for travel and street photography.

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